The Overseas Press Club of America announced today that two FRONTLINE documentaries — Afghanistan Undercover and Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes — have been recognized with 2023 OPC Awards. 

Afghanistan Undercover was honored with the David A. Andelman and Pamela Title Award for best international TV, video, radio, audio or podcast reporting showing a concern for the human condition.

From award-winning correspondent Ramita Navai, director and producer Karim Shah, and senior producer Eamonn Matthews, the August 2022 documentary investigates the Taliban’s crackdown on women in Afghanistan — finding and speaking with women who are being punished by the regime and confronting Taliban officials. In the documentary, Navai reveals the harsh realities of life for women under the Taliban’s rule — meeting a group of female lawyers forbidden from working, riding along with an underground network of female activists who go on dangerous rescue missions and secretly filming in a jail where women are being held by the Taliban without trial or charge.

In the OPC’s official release, the awards’ judges remarked that “while much of the world’s attention has moved on from [this] story, Afghanistan Undercover documents the very real ongoing crisis for women inside one of the world’s cruelest totalitarian theocracies.”

Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes was honored with the Roy Rowan Award for best investigative reporting in any medium on an international story. This is the first time FRONTLINE has been honored with the Roy Rowan Award. 

The FRONTLINE and Associated Press joint investigation — which included the 2022 documentary from directors/producers Tom Jennings and Annie Wong and producer/correspondent Erika Kinetz, along with text stories from AP staff and a collaboration with SITU Research — went inside Russia’s war on Ukraine, tracing a pattern of atrocities committed by Russian troops with a focus on the Kyiv suburbs, such as Bucha, where some of the most shocking carnage was found. Together, FRONTLINE and AP’s multiplatform investigation uncovered exclusive and harrowing evidence that links possible war crimes in Bucha through the chain of command to one of Russia’s top generals — evidence that prosecutors hope might help build a case against Russian President Vladimir Putin in court. The OPC-winning joint investigation also explored the challenges of trying to hold Putin and other Russian leaders to account.

The awards’ judges praised FRONTLINE and AP’s teams for their use of “cutting-edge open-source techniques — satellite and drone imagery, hours of CCTV footage and intercepted phone calls — to reveal the brutality of the Russian occupation.”

The OPCs also acknowledged FRONTLINE’s November 2022 documentary Putin’s War at Home with a citation for the OPC’s Peter Jennings Award, which honors the best TV, video or documentary about international affairs.

Directed and produced by Gesbeen Mohammad and produced by Vasiliy Kolotilov, Sasha Odynova, Maria Merkulova and Ian Bendelow, Putin’s War at Home offers an inside look at some of the defiant Russian citizens pushing back against Putin’s crackdown on critics of the war in Ukraine — telling the stories of activists and journalists who risk arrest and imprisonment to protest and speak out about the Kremlin’s war effort. 

“It’s such an honor to see our international investigative journalism be recognized by the Overseas Press Club, and we hope that these reports shed light on injustices happening around the world,” says Raney Aronson-Rath, FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer. “We’re proud to bring critical stories like these to our PBS audiences. We share these awards with our Afghanistan Undercover production partner at ITV, and with The Associated Press for Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes.”

“We also congratulate the Putin’s War at Home team for their OPC citation,” Aronson-Rath added. “And, as always, we thank PBS, CPB and GBH for championing FRONTLINE’s journalism.”

Founded in 1939, the OPC describes itself as America’s oldest, largest association of journalists engaged in international news. Its annual awards recognize excellence in international news coverage.

The OPC Awards will be presented on April 27 in New York City. To date, FRONTLINE has won 18 OPC Awards. You can find a full list of the 2023 Overseas Press club winners here, and watch our recognized documentaries below:

Putin’s Attack on Ukraine (credits):

Afghanistan Undercover (credits):

Putin’s War at Home (credits):

 

FRONTLINE PRESS CONTACT: Anne Husted, Manager, PR & Communications | frontlinemedia@wgbh.org | 617.300.5312