On Jan. 24,  Columbia Journalism School honored two FRONTLINE documentaries, 20 Days in Mariupol and Afghanistan Undercover, with 2024 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards. 

The prestigious awards, established in 1942, “uphold the highest standards in journalism” for audio and video reporting, according to the duPont-Columbia Awards website, with winners honored annually “for the strength of their reporting, storytelling and impact in the public interest.”

Made in partnership with The Associated Press, 20 Days in Mariupol is a haunting, first-person account of the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Afghanistan Undercover, made in association with ITV, investigates the Taliban’s crackdown on women in Afghanistan since the group’s August 2021 takeover of the country.

“Thank you to Columbia Journalism School for honoring 20 Days in Mariupol and Afghanistan Undercover with these duPont-Columbia Awards,” says FRONTLINE Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath. “These awards pay tribute to the dogged reporting from both film team’s’ on-the-ground journalists — Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko in Ukraine, as well as Ramita Navai and Karim Shah in Afghanistan. Their commitment to telling these difficult stories underscores the critical value of journalism to our community and broader world.”

“We share this great news with our partners at The Associated Press and ITV, as well as with GBH, PBS, CPB and our viewers who support our storytelling every day,” Aronson-Rath adds. 

20 Days in Mariupol is told through the perspective of Ukrainian filmmaker and AP video journalist Mstyslav Chernov. The acclaimed documentary, which was recognized with an Academy Award® nomination in January, follows Chernov as he and his Ukrainian AP colleagues, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and field producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, become trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol and struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. The last international reporters to remain in Mariupol as Russian troops attacked the city, they captured what would become some of the most defining images of the war in Ukraine, and would go on to win a 2023 Pulitzer Prize.

Produced and edited by Michelle Mizner, with producers Raney Aronson-Rath (FRONTLINE’s editor-in-chief and executive producer) and Derl McCrudden (AP’s vice president of news and head of global news production), the duPont-Columbia Award-winning documentary aired on PBS in November 2023 and is streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, YouTube, in the PBS App and on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel. 

In addition to an Academy Award® nomination in the Documentary Feature category, the documentary recently received two BAFTA Award nominations, had a decorated run on the 2023 film festival circuit and won awards including the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary and the Tim Hetherington Award at Sheffield International Documentary Festival. 

From a team including award-winning correspondent Ramita Navai and director and producer Karim Shah, FRONTLINE’s second 2024 duPont-winning documentary, Afghanistan Undercover, premiered in August 2022 on PBS.  In the film, Navai reveals the harsh realities of life for women under the Taliban’s rule. She meets a group of female lawyers forbidden from working, rides along with an underground network of female activists on a rescue mission, secretly films in a Taliban prison where women are being held without trial or charge — and confronts Taliban officials about what she’s found.

Earlier this year, Afghanistan Undercover was honored with a Gracie Award and a News Emmy Award in the “Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form” category. A Quicksilver Media production for GBH/FRONTLINE in association with ITV, the documentary aired on PBS in August 2022, and is now streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, YouTube, in the PBS App and on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel.

FRONTLINE, which is based at GBH in Boston and broadcast nationally on PBS, has earned 4 duPont Columbia Gold Batons and, including this year’s win, 35 Silver Batons. You can stream this year’s award-winning documentaries below:

20 Days in Mariupol (credits)

Afghanistan Undercover (credits)