This year's winner brings audiences to the frontlines of Ukraine with shattering urgency. Director Evgeny Afineevsky accepted the award alongside Roman Oleksiv, the 11-year-old boy featured in the film - injured in a Russian missile strike on a hospital that also killed his mother, and who was subsequently operated on in Germany. His presence on the stage transformed the abstract horror of war into something unbearably, humanly real.

Children in the Fire - Mill Valley Festival (October 11, 2025)

When the lights go out in a large movie theater, a girl appears on the screen, looking up at the sky. There are no explosions or shelling sounds — yet in her gaze lies the weight of loss, a destroyed home, and shattered dreams. From the very first moments, you begin to understand: this is no longer someone else’s war. This is what it looks like when a fragile child’s life is thrown into the grinder of history.

It’s estimated nearly 20,000 children in Ukraine have been abducted during the war and sent by Russia for ‘re-education’. A new documentary film reveals the horrors they face.

Children in the Fire - Odesa International Film Festival (October 2, 2025 - Ukraine)

On September 9, 2025, children who have been stolen and injured as a result of Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine addressed Members of UK Parliament and the House of Lords at a special screening of the movie "Children in the Fire", Evgeny Afineevsky’s critically acclaimed documentary, hosted by Johanna Baxter MP.

As part of the Children in the Fire Impact Campaign, we proudly supported War Child in the launch of the Return Every Child initiative, which took place on September 7, 2025, at London’s Outernet. The campaign amplifies the urgent call to bring every abducted Ukrainian child home.

Creators of the Award-winning feature documentary “Children in the Fire” and Emile Foundation are proud to join forces in an international campaign to raise global awareness about one of the most painful and urgent humanitarian crises of our time: the systematic deportation, indoctrination, and abuse of Ukrainian children by Russia.

We are proud to share that Children in the Fire received a Jury Honorable Mention for Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Raindance Film Festival in London.

We are honored to announce that Children in the Fire has received two major recognitions at the Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo 2025: the AMADE Human Rights Award and the Jury Special Prize.

Politicians were moved a the private screening of “Children in the Fire” in February 2025 at the Munich Security Conference.