FIVE AWARDS FOR POLISH ANIMATORS
Apart from the awards for fiction films, last weekend also brought the honors for the authors of animated films. Polish animations have been acknowledged by the juries of the Portuguese Cinanima, the Dutch Klik!, the German interfilm and the Mexican CutOutFest.
Three Polish films were listed for the international competition of the 37th Cinanima festival, that is Tomek Ducki’s “Baths”, “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul and “Ex animo” by Wojciech Wojtkowski. The five-person jury awarded no less than ten films. Two Polish titles can be found among them. Presented for the first time in Portugal the film “Baths” by Tomek Ducki (prod. Studio Miniatur Filmowych) received the award for the Best Film Under 5 Minutes. It’s the second statuette for Ducki, whose film was awarded in September by the jury of the Swiss Fantoche festival. “Baths” is a story of two elderly female swimmers meeting for a ritual swimming, who are diving deeper than usual. The second award of the evening went to Tomek Popakul, the author of the previously awarded “Ziegenort” (prod. No Label). Popakul’s film has been announced the best animation within the 5-25 minutes length. The portrayal of an introvert fish-boy remains the most popular animated film this year. It’s the ninth international award for “Ziegenort”.Cinanima, which has been held in the Portuguese city of Espinho since 1976, has the accreditation of the Portugues ASIFA and the awarded films are later to be considered for the nominations for the Golden Cartoon award, presented every year by the Cartoon European Association of Animation Film. The festival also holds the Academy Awards accreditation, which means the Grand Prix winner can apply for the nomination in the Best Animated Short Film category. The Grand Prix this year went to Michael Frei for the film “Plug and Play”. What’s more, in one of the non-competitive screenings the audience was able to see Zbigniew Czapla’s latest animation called “Toto”.
The latter, as one of the four Polish films, took part in the competition of the 6th edition of the KLIK! International Animation Festival, which started last Tuesday in Amsterdam. The films competing for the prize were the already mentioned “Ziegenort” by Tomek Popakul and Marcin Wasilewski’s “Lost Senses”, while the film “Splat!” by Alicja Błaszczyńska was shown in the student films set. During this year’s edition two juries evaluated 152 films. Finally, the award for the Best Film went to “Toto” directed by Zbigniew Czapla. A story of a sensitive boy, raised by a single mother, gets deceitfully seduced by a shady “master” and a cynical collector of keys. As a result of the mystery and rather incomprehensible events, the world of his unconcerned childhood falls apart. The producer of Czapla’s latest animation, which has already won four international awards, is Warsztat Filmowy. Over 1300 films from 75 countries were submitted to this year’s edition of the KLIK! festival.
At the same dates the KLIK! in Amsterdam (12 to 17 November) the 29th edition of the interfilm! festival in Berlin took place. As always, the programme had a strong Polish touch. Two Polish films competed this year for honors, “Danse Macabre” by Małgorzata Rżanek and “Lost Senses” by Marcin Wasilewski, whereas the German competition featured the film “Darling” by Izabela Plucińska made in Polish co-production. The jury announced the winners during the closing ceremony of the festival. The title of the Best Film of the German competition went to the film “Darling”, produced by Clay Traces and Hauptproductions Film. It’s the first international award for Plucińska’s latest film, which has been included in the programmes of more than ten festivals so far. “Darling” is a captivating image of the feeling of being lost and alienated and an attempt at putting the pieces that fail to fit together into a whole.
The last film listed among the laureates of the past weekend was an animated “Ex animo” directed by Wojciech Wojtkowski that screened at the 5th CutOutFest in Mexico. A six minutes long animated impression produced by Fumi Studio is doing well at foreign film festivals so far being screened at 12 festivals. The jury of Mexican CutOutFest decided to award the film a Special Mention in the narrative category. This is the fourth award for “Ex animo”. Three other Polish films were screened as a part of the very same competition – “On/off” by Piotr Ludwik, “Toto” by Zbigniew Czapla and “Katachi” by Kijek/Adamski.
To learn more about the festivals and to find the full list of the awarded films, visit the official websites of Cinanima, Klik! and Interfilm and CutOutFest
The image above comes from the film “Baths” by Tomek Ducki.