Zoya Laktionova’s Mariupol Doc Wins Top Prize at Visions du Réel 2025

Info in Movie News | Zoya Laktionova’s new documentary, Ashes Settling in Layers on the Surface, has taken home the Eurimages Co-production Development Award at Visions du Réel (VdR–Industry). The film offers a deeply personal lens into life during wartime in Mariupol, Ukraine, reconstructing family history amid chaos and recovery.

According to Variety, the €20,000 prize is the biggest award of the Swiss documentary festival which mainly targets internationa l co-producers at the very beginning of the project. Laktionova's film was picked for its approach which was artistically and emotionally as deep as an ocean by mixing convening hearts and minds, social documents, and current footage. The jury described the film as "a rich and powerful industrial fairytale," a film that was that of the people who had the experience and who were trying to keep their memory alive.

VdR–Industry was the main venue of the daring and powerful storytelling this year of I Eat With Two Hearts by Natyvel Pontalier, which was distinguished by the Vision du Réel Award for being a new look at immigration and classFrankness. One more Time Hunter by Daniel Chein and Mushiva, that was an award-winning hybrid doc exploring Mexico’s queer rodeo subculture.

Alice Burgin, the VdR Industry Manager, highlighted the necessity of backing up the documentary creators at their early stage of the project. She pointed out, "This initial backing is a great part of the story and is the critical stage of the film making process." "We're excited to be with these projects as they evolve—they are indeed the cinema of the future," she added.

Visions du Réel continues until April 13 in Nyon, Switzerland. The winners of the festival’s main competition will be revealed on April 11.

source: Variety