A skeletal figure in a black robe swings a scythe above the burned and collapsed buildings of Mariupol while a golden Oscar statuette stands upright in the foreground rubble. Signs reading MARIU and POL hang broken on poles to the left. Fighter jets streak across the sky and smoke rises from the ruins.

The image marks the Academy Award given to the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol on March 10 2024. That film records the first weeks of the Russian siege that began in February 2022. The cartoon places the award inside the same destroyed streets the movie captured.

Mariupol suffered months of bombardment and street fighting before Russian forces took full control. Thousands of civilians died and much of the city was leveled. The documentary brought international attention to those events through footage shot by local journalists.

The composition uses the Oscar as a small bright object against the dark mass of the reaper and the blackened wreckage. The contrast draws attention to the gap between the award ceremony and the continuing reality on the ground in Ukraine.