This article provides a mixed-methods analysis of Docudays UA programming from 2014 to 2024, based on a dataset of 399 films. Our findings show remarkable institutional resilience and curatorial evolution, with a stable annual program that shifted decisively toward longer formats after 2021. Thematically, war and conflict form the corpus’s gravitational center, yet are balanced by enduring concerns of family, migration, and identity. Post-2022, the salience of terms like ‘testimony’ and ‘justice’ marks a clear evidentiary turn. Drawing from 73 countries, with co-productions at 29%, the festival serves as a key transnational hub. Its cultural-diplomatic role is further sharpened by a nuanced wartime policy on Russian cinema. Critically, we identify a successful institutional commitment to gender parity, with female directors reaching over 50% representation in a peak year (2021). We conclude that Docudays UA has become a vital institution for shaping Ukraine’s cultural memory and cinematic identity through a decade of conflict and national struggle.
Katerynych et al. (Tue,) studied this question.