POLISH ANIMATED FILMS AWARDED IN HIROSHIMA
On Monday evening, the names of the award-winners of this year's, the 15th edition of the animated film festival in Hiroshima were announced. In the prestigious group of award-winners, there are two Polish films: “Baths" by Tomek Ducki and "Fugue For Cello, Trumpet and Landscape" by Jerzy Kucia.
This year, as many as six Polish films participated in the international competition. In addition to the award-winners, at the Japanese festival the following films were shown: "Toto" by Zbigniew Czapla, "Summer 2014" by Wojciech Sobczyk, "Hippos" by Piotr Dumała and "Darling" by Izabela Plucińska.
The first award-winner of the evening was Tomek Ducki and his film "Baths". The jury, consisting of five people, selected five films to which they gave the Jury's Special Awards - one of these films was "Baths" by Ducki. The jury justified their decision to award the film in the following way: "Baths" is a very impressive début film, with a mature graphic sense and strong cinematic structure. So far, “Baths" was given nine awards abroad. For several months the film has been the most popular Polish animation shown at the festivals abroad. The producer of "Baths" is Warsaw based Studio Miniatur Filmowych and the English studio Peek and Boo.
Special Award went to the latest film by Jerzy Kucia "Fugue For Cello, Trumpet and Landscape". The animation, made by Kucia thirteen years after "Tuning the Instruments," is a poetic impression dedicated to the memory of the place and discovering the landscape. Giving the award to the film, the jury justified their decision in the following way: The film has the poetic moments through ornaments of trees and cello music into the wonderful mysterious visual movements in the seasons, from darkness to light in landscapes and music.
This is the first award abroad for Jerzy Kucia's latest film, which had its première in May at 54th Krakow Film Festival, where the international jury gave the film the Golden Dragon award.
The international festival distribution of both films is handled by Krakow Film Foundation.
This year's edition commemorated the 30th anniversary of establishing the festival's programme office. Together with the festivals in Annecy, Ottawa and Zagreb, the festival in Hiroshima is one of the leading animated film festivals in the world. Its first edition was held in 1985, in the fortieth anniversary of atomic bombing. The festival, which is under the patronage of the Japanese ASIFA from the first edition, adopted the motto "Love and Peace," which is mirrored in its programme. Every year, the event gathers almost 35 thousand viewers
The full list of the award-winning films can be found on the festival's official website