The 51st Krakow film festival awards
Kraków, 29th May 2011 - "Tonia and Her Children" by Marcel Łoziński, "The Argentinian Lesson" by Wojciech Staroń, and "1994" by Haveh Tehrani chosen as the best films at the 51st Krakow Film Festival; "Phnom Penh " by Paweł Kloc awarded twice - with Silver Horn and Silver Hobby-Horse.
The winners of the National, Documentary, and Short Film Competitions were announced on May 29th, at the Award Ceremony at Kijów.Centrum. The host of the evening was Maciej Stuhr. The ceremony began with a concert of a famous jazz band, Marcin Wasilewski Trio, a group that for many years worked with Tomasz Stańko, our guest last year.
Altogether 87 films, selected from 2700 entries, entered the three competitions. From these the following received awards:
The jury of Documentary Competition, chaired by Tue Steen Müller, chose "The Argentinian Lesson" by Wojciech Staroń as the best film for maintaining its form and story from the beginning to end; a story not only about different cultures but rather about the beauty of a young boy and a young girl getting closer to each other, a story about a growing friendship. The jury found the film a true masterpiece. The film was also awarded with the Award of the Polish Association of Cinematographers PSC for its cinematography.
Silver Horn for the Director of the Best Medium-length Documentary went to Marcus Lindeen for his film "Regretters". Jury appreciated the author for finding a perfect solution to self-analysis performed by two human beings who have undergone sex changes in search of their identity. In the feature-film category, Silver Horn was awarded to Paweł Kloc for "Phnom Penh Lullaby" whose strong cinematic language was used to depict a very unconventional struggle for love and acceptance in a devastating family environment. Special mentions were awarded to Alejandra Sanchez for "Agnus Dei" and to Tomasz Wolski for "Doctors".
51KFF: THE 'FESTIVAL AWARDS WINNERS' AND 'SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE
THE 'FESTIVAL AWARDS WINNERS' AND 'SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE':
IN PRISON, IN A VODKA FACTORY, AND ON THE EUROPEAN SIDEWAYS
Krakow, 16th May 2011 - 51st Krakow Film Festival is due to begin next week. Besides the competing and premiere films, the audience will also have an opportunity to watch the films of "Festivals Laureates" and "Somewhere in Europe" sections, which have already gained viewers' love and jurors' acclaim.
Krakow Film Festival's category of "Festival Awards Winners" is being created on the basis of the cooperation with other festivals focusing on documentary and short films, such as IDFA in Amsterdam, HotDocs in Toronto, DocLisboa in Lisbon, Dok Leipzig and Uppsala Kortfilmfestival.
- Apart from exchanging experiences, the cooperation with foreign festivals is also a valuable source of reciprocal inspiration - says Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła, vice-president of the Krakow Film Foundation, the Festival's organiser. - We bring interesting films from abroad to Krakow, and, at the same time, by conducting projects such as Polish Docs and Polish Shorts we are perceived as the ambassadors of Polish cinema.
This year 8 thematically diverse films are included in the cycle which presents the laurels' winners. Among them is an ascetic, but metaphoric animation "Sleep", Jerzy Śladkowski's film about a female worker from a vodka factory, who dreams of a career in faraway Moscow, and a moving prison confession of an American persecuted for numerous rapes on his Filipino wives and mistresses. The cycle also includes a musical comedy about dying, namely a unique premortal performance of Carla Zilbersmith's, a sharp-tongued artist diagnosed with a terminal disease.
Two films take place in the emigrant milieu - Portugese "Li Ké Terra" depicts the dilemmas of the young emigrants from the Republic of Cape Verde, whose parents did not apply for the legalisation of their stay, thus jeopardising the boys' future; Israeli "Jeremiah" is a rather bitter story about the Tel Aviv-based emigrants from the former Soviet Union. Marta Minorowicz's "A Piece of Summer", on the other hand, is a repeatedly awarded story of making the attempt to rebuild the bond between a grandfather and a grandson in the harsh scenery of the Bieszczady mountains' nature.
Category "Somewhere in Europe" concentrates on more intimate themes, which are linked together by the place in which the action happens - small, often forgotten villages, far away from the neon lights and the noise of the modern European metropolias.
"The Revenge" and "My Father Evgeni" touch upon the relations between father and son. Whereas the first story revolves around the family secret, the second one describes family affairs against the backdrop of Communist Ukraine. The protagonists of Estonian-Ukrainian "Pit no. 8" and Russian "Miner's Day" are the victims of economic and social changes that swept through Europe over the last 20 years, which gradually dragged the mining industry down, often a source of income for whole regions. "Almost Married" and "Village Without Women" takes upon the issue of search for lifetime partners and marriage. Turkish woman from an orthodox family returns home, and introduces her individually chosen fiancé to her authoritarian father, and three Janković brothers - Dragan, Zoran, and Rodoljub are looking for Albanian women who will agree to marry them and settle in Serbian village Zabrdhe. The section closes with "The Whole World is a Narrow Bridge" - the intimate story of the Slovakian Jews community based upon the photographic memorabilia revolves around Ján Mozolák, who saved from Holocaust the lives of 14 Jews during the WWII.
It is worth mentioning that 5 out of 7 films of the cycle were co-produced not only by the Western European countries such as France and Italy, but also by the U.S. and Israel. The intimate, seemingly hermetical stories from Eastern and Central-Eastern Europe easily cross the borders and find audiences in various corners of the world.
The detailed descriptions of the films from the two categories, and the screenings timetable can be found on the website: http://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/
Krakow Film Festival begins on 23rd May, the festival passes and the tickets for individual screenings are available in the box-offices of the festival cinemas from today. The passes which allows to see all the films costs 120 PLN (70 PLN concession), the season ticket for one cycle is 40 PLN, one-day ticket - 40 PLN, the single ticket for the screenings before 5 p.m. - 5 PLN, after 5 p.m. - 10 PLN.
Contact for media:
Anna E. Dziedzic
PR Manager
Krakow Film Festival
Tel: +48 12 294 69 45, Mobile: +48 696 448 795
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
51st Krakow Film Festival - films selected for short film competition announced
Krakow, 31st March 2011 - There are 39 films competing in the International Short Film Competition at the 51st Krakow Film Festival, which is held from May 23rd to May 29th. The short film category is one of the festival's three competitions of equal rank, and its winner is awarded the Golden Dragon prize.
This year there are three hundred representatives of the documentary, fiction, and animation genre taking part in the oldest competition of Krakow Film Festival. The accepted films must have been no longer than thirty minutes. Although statistically the documentary film is the most frequent winner, this year the battle within the fiction film category will be particularly fierce. Daniel Mulloy, the winner of the Golden Dragon in 2007 whose shocking "Dad" divided the festival audience, is now back in the competition with his new film "Baby". There is also an American comedy with Anthony Hopkins. On the other side of the emotional pole is the Lithuanian depiction of the tragedy that took place in a small Austrian town, where a monster-father imprisoned his daughter and their five consecutively born children ("Our Father").
The 6th Pitching of the International Academy of the Document Dragon Forum opens in nearly a week!
The last session will be held at the 51. Krakow Film Festival between the 25th and the 29th of May in the MANGGHA Centre of Japanese Art and Technology, in Krakow.
Project selection was especially difficult this year, dues to large amount of applications. After long consultations the selection committee chose 15 projects to take part in this year's Dragon Forum Pitching. Additionally, 5 projects were selected conditionally. Our congratulations to Pitching Participants, best of luck!
List of projects qualified to participate in the Pitching can be found at: http://www.dragonforum.pl/index1.php?sec=news&lang=pl&id=655
Following commissioning editors confirmed their participation in this year's Pitching:
Margje de Koning - IKON, (Netherlands)
Jerzy Dzięgielewski - HBO, (Poland)
Adam Gee - Channel 4, (United Kingdom)
Hanneke Hagen - VPRO, (Netherlands)
Marje Jurtshenko - ERR, (Estonia)
Cynthia Kane - ITVS, (USA)
Katarzyna Malinowska - TVP Kultura, (Poland)
Philippe Muller - ARTE, (France)
Rafał Orlicki - KFC, (Poland)
Barbara Paciorkowska - TVP 2, (Poland)
Barbara Pawłowska - TVP 1, (Poland)
Emelie Persson - SVT, (Sweden)
Martin Pieper - ARTE/ZDF, (Germany)
Daniel Saltzwedel - MBB, (Germany)
Heribert Schneiders - MDR (Germany)
Nathalie Windhorst - NPS, (Netherlands)
Applications for Pitching Observers are still being accepted. Observers are welcomed to approach all Dragon Forum commissioners and investors to talk about their projects. We have also prepared a special pitching offer for film schools students. Please send filled application forms as well as questions and suggestions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Three Dragon Forum films qualified for the competition at the 51st Krakow Film Festival!
Films selected for the National Competition:
„Pomorskie iluzje"
Directors: Jacob Dammas, Helge Renner
Producers: Jacob Dammas
Production company: Graniza Jacob Dammas
Poland, 2011, 70'
„Odyseja złomowa"
Director: Łukasz Gutt, Paweł Ferdek
Producer: Wojciech Szczudło, Witold Będkowski
Production company: SF Kalejdoskop, TVP S.A.
Poland, 2010, 48'
International documentary film competition:
Invisible Strings - The Talented Pusker Sister
Director: Ágnes Sós
Producer: Marc Lorber
Production company: HBO Cetral Europe
Hungary, 2010, 80'
Congratulations!
