Founded by the Docudays UA team on December 17, 2025, on the birthday of Viktor Onysko, the award recognizes Ukrainian filmmakers for the best editing of a documentary film.
The distinction is intended to highlight the crucial role of film editors in shaping documentary cinema, as well as to remind us of the irreparable losses suffered by the Ukrainian film industry as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“The film is made in the editing room – that’s a phrase known to everyone. But the names of editors often remain within professional circles, where directors and producers compete for the chance to work with the best of them.
A film editor is the person who safeguards ethics, proportion, relevance, chronology, rhythm. The person in whose hands a film ‘comes alive.’ The person who first falls in love with the characters and passes that feeling on to the audience.
By establishing the Viktor Onysko Award – honoring our friend, collaborator, and festival colleague – we aim to bring more attention to the profession of editing, recognizing the most outstanding achievements in the field each year. And we also hope to encourage those just beginning their journey in cinema to better understand and master this craft,” commented filmmaker and Docudays UA art director Roman Bondarchuk.
Each year, the award will consider films from the Docudays UA competition program that have been edited by Ukrainian film editors.
The jury will include Docudays UA representatives as well as Ukrainian and international film-industry professionals.
Like many other cultural workers, Viktor Onysko volunteered to defend the country, believing that a creative profession granted no special privileges. This award therefore serves as a symbolic tribute to all filmmakers who gave their lives for the freedom of Ukrainians, and as an act of living memory for the bravest among us.
“Editing in documentary cinema is not only a thoughtful engagement with vast amounts of footage. It is also about memory. It is in the editing phase of film production that the fragments of reality to be preserved in the form of a film are finally chosen. That is why editors always bear a double responsibility – toward the truth of life and toward the director’s vision.
At the same time, my husband understood well that in a genocidal war the survival of Ukrainian cinema depends above all on a strong army, and that the integrity of our history depends on the victors. I want Viktor’s professionalism and sense of responsibility to carry on through this award. After all, we all must now live in a way that would make our Defenders proud of us,” said film curator and Viktor’s wife, Olga Birzul.
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Viktor Onysko was an experienced film editor. He worked on over 20 films, and also edited music videos and trailers, including for the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. His final projects were Roman Bondarchuk’s feature film The Editorial Office and Maria Stoianova’s documentary Fragments of Ice, both dedicated to his memory. In 2024, a commemorative nonfiction book for teens, Your Book About Cinema, written by Olga Birzul – Viktor’s wife and a film curator – was also published.
He joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine voluntarily in March 2022. Serving with the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade, he fought in the Kherson and Donetsk regions. With no prior military experience, he quickly became a commander with the call sign “Tarantino.” Viktor Onysko was killed on December 30, 2022 near Soledar. He was posthumously awarded the Order “For Merit” (3rd Class) and the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (3rd Class).
