“Ukrainian Sheriffs” by Roman Bondarchuk will represent Ukraine at Oscar Academy Awards in Best Foreign Language Film category. This decision was made today by the National Oscar Committee.

Other films competing for the nomination were fiction films “The Nest of the Turtledove” by Taras Tkachenko and “Song of Songs” by Eva Neymann.

This documentary by Roman Bondarchuk has already become one of the viewer’s hits this summer. The film was screened during DOCU/HIT project in seven Ukrainan cities. “Ukrainian Sheriffs” has won one of the most prestigeous awards - IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary and Grand Prix at Docs Against Gravity international documentary film festival in Gdynia.

The story of two sheriffs is a film about self-organization of a community in difficult times. These two mates are rushing to help people on their yellow “Zhiguli”. Two sheriffs from Stara Zburiivka don’t wait for the police to come and help their fellow villagers solve their everyday problems. “I didn’t try to explore the life of Ukrainian village with the help of sheriffs, says Roman Bondarchuk, the director. - I was interested above all how processes in the country reflected in this village: army notices, pro-russian moods of some people, post-soviet rituals, the way these people think, myths they live by, and how they identify themselves”.

Now the American Academy will form a long list of national nominnees. The work of the jury will result in a short list of nine films. The winner for Best Foreign Language Film category will be selected from among the five final nominnees.

89th Academy Awards ceremony will take place on February 26, 2017.