POLISH WINNERS OF THE 58TH KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL
On Saturday, June 2nd, in the full house of the Kijów.Centrum theatre, the winners of the 58th Krakow Film Festival were announced. The international jury awarded the best documentary, short and animated films, which during the whole festival week were trying to woo the experts and the audience in 6 cinemas in Krakow.
The event, hosted by the well-known in Krakow journalist and presenter Brain Scott, was attended by Radosław Śmigulski, General Director of the Polish Film Institute.
The outright winner of this year’s edition of the Krakow Film Festival is an acclaimed film “Over the Limit”, directed by Marta Prus, who was noticed by the Variety magazine. The film received the Silver Horn for the best feature film in the International Documentary Film Competition and the Silver Hobby-Horse for the director of the best documentary film in the National Competition. The film about the remarkable Russian gymnast Margarita Mamun and the emotional costs of professional sports, received also the award for the best producer of Polish short and documentary films funded by the Polish Audiovisual Producers Chamber of Commerce (KIPA) and the Best Cinematography Award under the patronage of The Polish Society of Cinematographers funded by Coloroffon Film.
Silver Dragons are the awards given to the best short films representing all three competition genres. The Silver Dragon for the best documentary film went to Michał Hytroś for his film “The Sisters” (Poland). The film received also the special mention in the National Competition.
The Golden Hobby-Horse in the National Competition went to “Unconditional Love” by Rafał Łysak (Poland). The Jury led by Tadeusz Sobolewski appreciated the film “for a story about an intimate reality of people from different generations, which escapes a stereotypical judgment. If we watch the world so closely it can actually be tolerant as love is unconditional”.
The best Polish animation is “III” by Marta Pajek (Poland). It is the second Silver Hobby-Horse in the artist’s career. After two years Pajek came back to the idea of an impossible figure, which this time in a sensual and full of eroticism way portrays relations between men and women.
The award for the best Polish short fiction was handed out “for an accurate, comedic attempt to encapsulate the madness of the contemporary world” to Maciej Kawalski for his film “Atlas” (Poland).
The special mention went to the last year’s winner Damian Kocur for his film “1410”.
The audience award went to the Polish director Marta Prus for her film “Over the limit”.
For the third time an important part of the Krakow Film Festival was DOC LAB POLAND section, which belonged to the KFF Industry – a programme of events devoted to the film industry. Awards for documentaries in development and in postproduction were handed out.
The detailed programme can be found on the website: www.krakowfilmfestival.pl
The 59th Krakow Film Festival will take place May 26th – June 2nd, 2019.