Ukraine puts forward 'Traces' for 2027 Oscars international race

Ukraine has selected Traces, directed by Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk, as its submission for the international feature category at the 2027 Academy Awards, according to Variety. The report was published on 16 September 2026. The category honours feature films made outside the United States, largely in a language other than English. A submission is the formal step that places a film before Academy voters for consideration.

Traces portrays Ukrainian women who survived sexual assault during the war with Russia and refused to remain silent. The film stays close to their testimony. It names the violence directly. The emphasis is on the women's voices, and on their decision to speak in public rather than to stay hidden.

The central figure is Iryna Dovhan, a former captive who became an activist documenting the experiences of other women. Dovhan works in Ukraine's de-occupied territories, communities that were held by Russian forces and later retaken. She meets survivors, listens to their accounts and records them for the historical record. That patient work of documentation gives the film its through line.

Kovalenko and Nikitiuk share the directing credit on the film. Joint direction means shared responsibility for the shoot, the edit and the final cut. Their names were confirmed in the report on Ukraine's selection. The submission therefore carries both film-makers forward together into the awards season.

Traces launched at the Berlin Film Festival, the winter festival in the German capital that combines public screenings with a large industry market. There it won the Panorama Audience Award in the Panorama documentary section, a prize decided by audience ballot rather than by a jury, Variety reported. Such prizes reflect how ordinary festivalgoers responded during the event. The win gave the film an early point of recognition.

The 99th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for 14 March in Los Angeles, according to Variety. Each country may propose one film in the international feature race. The Academy then organises consideration of those entries through its own voting process.

What makes this stand out is the method. The camera follows documentation rather than reconstruction. For viewers new to this awards category, this means the film will now depend on screenings and discussion as voters work through entries from around the world.

For general audiences, the international race often provides a first introduction to films that do not yet have wide distribution in every territory. Subtitled work travels more slowly. An Oscar submission can bring wider press attention, even before nominations are decided.