When asked what inspired her to become a producer she answered, “It wasn’t really an action or event for me. When I was very small I remembered falling in love with cinema after watching Gone with the Wind and reading how David O. Selznick pulled this whole production off and started shooting even before Vivien Leigh was cast. I also always loved getting things done, completing projects. Film production is a perfect fusion of these two things. I started in 2007 as a first-time production manager for my friend’s film. I used Google to get notes on the job. After that I decided I wanted to be the driving force behind a film project: a producer.”
“I don’t think there are ideal producers. I find that there are producers ideal for a particular project. A producer needs to be someone who is flexible but at the same time has inner integrity. He needs to be a sparring partner for the director, someone who will give them inspiration and constructive criticism; in short, someone who will help the director get to where they need to go,” Szymańska said.
She is a graduate of the Berlinale Talent Campus (2011), a participant of 2015 EAVE, and has completed a four-month internship with Ed Guiney (Element Pictures, Dublin), with whom she has been cooperating as an independent consultant since January 2015. In 2013 along with producer Dawid Janicki and writer/director Jędrzej Bączyk she founded her own company SHIPsBOY with the main goal of developing and producing quality genre films that can attract large international audiences while maintaining their high artistic value.
“I see filmmaking as a team endeavor and I am always most excited in bringing interesting and talented people together, facilitating their contact with one another. My ideal project would be the one where I can give of myself 100% and achieve everything that I planned. This is always the goal when I search out new themes and projects,” Szymańska said.
In 2014, she was awarded the Best Short and Documentary Film Producer award during the 54th Kraków Film Festival for Milky Brother.
“I really enjoyed working on all of my projects but they say you love your most recent baby the most. While working on Milky Brother I felt for the first time that I was a driving force within the project. I was given the most freedom and responsibility and along with the creative team made decisions on set that influenced the whole shape of the film,” she said.
Currently she is working on a short feature film, an intimate mother-daughter story entitled Camouflage directed by Aleksandra Świerk and is looking into developing an apocalyptic s-f feature project.
“As far as genre goes, I am torn between documentaries and fiction. The latter gives you freedom to express your creativity, you can be limitless in your ideas; but when you are making a documentary you’d be amazed what scenes life can bring you and what you can catch on tape or digitally,” Szymańska said.
When asked where she would like to see herself in five years she responded, “Hopefully I’ll have my first two feature films completed. I’d also like to be the Polish producer that foreign producers think about when they want to come to Poland -- of course after they get in touch with Ewa Puszczyńska.” - she ends laughing.
SHIPsBOY
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