{mosimage}Unusual and innovative films dominated Polish production this year. Another big winner was Jan Komasa's cutting-edge debut feature Suicide Room which mixes computer animation with live drama and addresses contemporary issues about the internet and its impact on the lives of young people. Suicide Room had its debut in Berlin IFF earlier this year as the opening film in the Panorama section and has already racked up over 500 000 admissions on its Polish release. The film won the Silver Lion as the runner-up prize as well as best sound and best costumes.
The Special Jury Prize went to visual artist and film director Lech Majewski's The Mill and the Cross, a unique project based on Peter Brueghel's painting The Passion of Christ. Majewski meticulously recreated the painting in real life with its characters and history coming to life.
{mosimage}The overall level of the competition was very high this year with only 12 films in competition after a pre-selection from the 40 to 50 feature films a year that Poland now produces. This was the first year at the helm for the festival's new artistic director Michal Chacinski who introduced a number of innovations including audience discussions with leading directors. The one disappointment was that Roman Polanski who received a lifetime achievement award in absentia and was scheduled to present a master class on filmmaking did not make the journey to the festival.
Main Competition: Prize
Winners:
Grand Prize Golden
Lion for best film Essential Killing directed by Jerzy
Skolimowski
Coproduction: Skopia Film (www.skopiafilm.com) Poland, Cylinder Productions (www.cylinder.no) Norway, Element Pictures (www.elementpictures.ie) Ireland,
Mythberg Films (www.mythbergfilms.hu) Hungary in association with Canal + Poland (www.canalplus.pl) and Syrena Films (www.syrenafilms.com). Supported by the Polish Film Institute
(www.pisf.pl)
{mosimage}Grand Prize Golden Lion for producer of the
best film Essential Killing Ewa Piaskowska and Jerzy Skolimowski
Silver Lion for best film Suicide Room
directed by Jan Komasa
Producer: Studio Filmowe KADR (www.sfkadr.com) Supported by the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl). International Sales LevelK (www.levelk.dk
Silver Lion for
the producers of Suicide Room for Jerzy Kapuscinski
Special Jury Prize for Mill and The Cross
directed by Lech
Majewski
Produced by Angelus Silesius Society, Financed by Polish TV (www.tvp.pl) and the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl)
Coproducers: Silesia Film, Arkana Studio (www.arkanastudio.pl), Supra Film (www.suprafilm.com), Odeon (www.odeon.com.pl, 24 Media (www.24media.pl) , Bokomotiv (www.bokomotiv.se) Sweden, and Piramida (www.piramidafilm.pl).
Best Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Essential Killing
Best Screenplay: Janusz Marganski, Greg Zglinski for
Courage
Best directing debut or second film: ex aequo Bartosz Konopka for Fear of Falling and Greg
Zgliński for Courage
Best
Actress: Roma Gąsiorowska for My Name is Ki
Best Actor: Marcin Dorocinski for
Rose
Best Acting Debut: Katarzyna Zawadzka for In The Name of The
Devil
Best Cinematography: Adam Sikora for Essential Killing
Best Music:
Paweł Mykietyn for Essential Killing
Best Art Director: Katarzyna Sobańska
for The Mill and The Cross
Best Supporting Actress: Gabriela Muskała for
Courage
Best Supporting Actor: Marian Dziedziel for The Mole
Best Sound:
ex aequo Bartosz Putkiewicz for Suicide Room and Lech Majewski and Zbigniew
Malecki for The Mill and the Cross
Best Editing: Reka Lemehenyi and Maciej
Pawlinski for Essential Killing
Best Costumes: Dorota Roqueplo for
Suicide Room and The Mill and The Cross
Best Makeup: Janusz Kaleja for Fear
of Falling
SPECIAL MENTION for Antoni Krauze for Black Thursday for his unique and passionate contribution to national awareness and for creating faithful and uncompromising record of an important historic event.
Young Cinema Competition Award Winner
Director Magnus von Horn for Without Snow a tragic story of a backyard shooting
