2026 Award Recipient

Academy Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning documentarian, war correspondent, and novelist Mstylav Chernov has been named recipient of Writers Guild of America West’s 2026 Paul Selvin Award in recognition of his writing on the documentary 2,000 Meters to Andriivka. Chernov will accept the award at the Writers Guild Awards Los Angeles show on Sunday, March 8 at the JW Marriot Los Angeles L.A. LIVE.

Named for the late Paul Selvin, general counsel to WGAW for 25 years, the honorary award is given each year to the member or members whose script best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties that are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere.

“I mostly am seen as a documentary filmmaker, but in my heart I’m a writer. So, when it comes to the WGA, when it comes to the recognition of my writing, that’s incredibly precious, because that’s where it all started,” said Chernov. “I think sooner or later I’ll end up in a little cabin somewhere, just writing, writing, writing because that’s the most precious art there is for me.”

Filmed largely using body-cam footage recorded by Ukrainian soldiers, 2,000 Meters to Andriivka follows AP journalists Chernov and Alex Babenko as they accompany a Ukrainian platoon on a mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka. Over the course of three months in 2023, the group travels 2,000 meters through their war-torn homeland. Chernov is no stranger to the horrors of the Russo-Ukrainian War having won an Academy Award for his previous film, 20 Days in Mariupol, covering the first few weeks of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. 2,000 Meters to Andriivka paints a stark picture of the realities of modern warfare.

The film has received widespread critical acclaim with over 38 award nominations, including a Writers Guild Award nomination for Documentary Screenplay, Directors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Film; five Critics Choice Awards nominations, including Best Documentary Feature; a BAFTA nomination for Best Documentary; two Sundance Film Festival Award nominations, winning the Directing Award for World Cinema, Documentary; and it won three Docudays UA International Documentary Human Rights Film Festival Awards, including Best Film.

Previous recipients of the Paul Selvin Award include RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Cord Jefferson, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Barry Jenkins, Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas, Charles Randolph, Adam McKay, Dustin Lance Black, Alex Gibney, Susannah Grant, Eric Roth, Michael Mann, Gary Ross, Liz Hannah, Josh Singer, George Clooney and Tony Kushner.