“TRACES” WINS THE PANORAMA AUDIENCE AWARD AT BERLINALE
The documentary “Traces” by Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk has won the Panorama Audience Award in the Panorama Dokumente category at Berlinale. It is one of the festival’s most notable viewer-voted honours and marks another milestone in the film’s international journey, following its recent announcement in the CPH:DOX 2026 programme.
The Panorama Audience Award has been presented since 1999, and since 2011 it has honoured the best feature film and the best documentary separately. During Berlinale, audiences rate films in the Panorama programme using voting cards; this year, more than 26,500 votes were cast and counted.
“Traces” tells the story of Ukrainian women who survived sexual violence during Russia’s war and refuse to remain silent. Kovalenko – director and protagonist of last year’s “My Dear Theo” which documented her own frontline experience – now returns with a collective perspective, revealing sexual violence as a weapon of war. The film offers an empathetic portrait of six individuals and a story of survival, courage, and solidarity forged through community. Its central message is clear: we must not look away – an appeal voiced by both the protagonists and the filmmakers as they confront the stigma surrounding survivors. The title itself underscores the layered nature of such trauma, from visible traces of destruction to the less tangible wounds that persist in the psyche and social relationships.
The film’s Polish co-producer is Message Film (producers: Violetta Kamińska, Izabela Wójcik, Dariusz Jabłoński), and it was produced in collaboration with 2BraveProduction. The project was supported by the Polish Film Institute.
More information can be found here.