POLES AWARDED AT THE BEGINNING FESTIVAL

Although the 12th edition of the International Festival of Debut and Student Films BEGINNING officially ended five days ago, it is only today that we learn about the awards it brought to Polish directors. Two films made their way into the winning group – “The Railway Watchman” by Piotr Szczepanowicz and “To War We Go!” by Krzysztof Kasior.

This year, audiences in Petersburg had a unique opportunity to see a selection of brand new short films from Poland, given that as many as twelve films by Polish filmmakers were admitted into the international section. This includes, among others, animations: “Rondo” (A. Kordas) and “Steven and the Beatle”  (P.L Hoang Ngoc), documentaries: “The Whistle” (G. Zariczny) and “Exit Point” (J. Szelc) or fiction films: “Olena” (E. Benkowska) and “Battleheart” (T. Matuszczak). This year's edition of the festival featured 143 films representing 49 countries. A total of 25 feature films, 13 documentaries and 19 animations got to contend for top prizes in their respective categories.

On Friday September 20 the international jury headed by American director Tim Sutton published the list of the films awarded in the festival. Among them were two Polish titles. For his “The Railway Watchman” (produced by the Polish Filmmakers Association – Munk Studio, NoLabel) Piotr Szczepanowicz received the prize for Best Production Designer. Produced within the framework of the “Young animation” programme operated by the Munk Studio, the film has been presented at thirteen festivals so far and it won the award for the Best 3D Animation at Banjaluka festival, Bosnia and Herzegovina.   

The other Polish filmmaker awarded on that night was Krzysztof Kasior with his feature film “To War We Go!”, produced by the Radio and Television Faculty at the University of Silesia in Katowice. This story of friendship between two young men embarking on a military mission in Afghanistan won Kasior the award for Best Script. It is the first award for the film, which has been screener at six international festivals to the date. It is also scheduled to participate in the competitive section for the Northern Wave festival held in Iceland in November.

The jury in St. Petersburg awarded a total number of 12 regular prizes and additionally four special jury mention awards.

The complete list of the winning films as well as detailed information concerning the festival may be found at its official website