Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize

The Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Державну премію України імені Олександра Довженка, romanized: Derzhavnu premiyu Ukrayiny imeni Oleksandra Dovzhenka) is a state award for honoring individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the development of Ukrainian cinema. It is named after acclaimed Soviet Ukrainian film director and screenwriter Oleksandr Dovzhenko, who was among the world's top filmmakers and a leader of the Soviet film industry. The award was established by presidential decree on 10 September 1994 by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Dovzhenko's birth. Award decisions are made by the Committee for the Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize of Ukraine, a group of eleven leading figures in cinema selected for once-renewable four-year terms by the government of Ukraine to review prize submissions and identify the best works of Ukrainian cinema. The Committee's pick is then sent to the Ukrainian president, who officially grants the award through a presidential decree and designates the cash amount for that year's award. As a state award, the prize is the highest national recognition for cinema in Ukraine.

Any individual or creative team is eligible for the prize, with there being no nationality restrictions. For teams, the award submission cannot exceed five individuals and must comprise the group's most important contributors. The same individual is eligible to receive the prize more than once, provided that at least five years have passed since the first award and that they have made new outstanding achievements in cinematography since then. An individual also cannot have nominations for two or more works open at the same time. Submissions are made by various groups and organizations to the award's committee annually by June 1st, after which the committee votes on narrowing down the best works and ultimately selecting the final awardee(s) before August 15, when the committee sends its list of chosen winners to the president. Laureates of the prize receive three rewards: a diploma, medal, and cash prize.

Since the prize was first awarded in 1995, 37 individuals have been officially given the prize, including three who were awarded posthumously (actor Oleg Borisov, scriptwriter and director-producer Viktor Ivanov, and theater and film actor Bohdan Stupka). Two additional individuals, director Rollan Serhiyenko and cinematographer Eduard Timlin, were selected by the award committee for 2010's prize together with composer Volodymyr Huba for their film "Declaration of Love" but were not officially awarded the prize due to the required presidential decree not being signed. For Huba, he was later awarded as the sole laureate for 2014 in recognition of his overall career and contributions to Ukrainian cinema. No individual as of yet has officially received the prize more than once although Huba remains the sole person to have won the competition (i.e. be selected by the award committee) twice: in 2014 and in 2010's unawarded prize. In addition to 2010, there have been six years in which the prize was not awarded: 1997, 2000, 2013, 2018, 2020, and 2023.