Julia Orlik’s film once again won the hearts of a festival jury. This time, the production has been named the best short animation at the Slamdance festival.

The Slamdance Film Festival is one of the world's largest independent film festivals. It has been organised in Park City, Utah since 1995. The first edition was put together by a group of rebellious filmmakers whose films did not get into Sundance's program. Feeling the need to show their own films, they organised their own festival with the motto “by filmmakers, for filmmakers”

The winning animation I'm Here tells the story an elderly man who is looking after his paralysed wife. Despite his old age and own health issues, he tries his best to alleviate her suffering, which is getting more severe every day. He is aided by his daughter, who tries to reconcile the care given to her mother with her own work at the hospital and her personal life. Each of them has different views on how the woman should be looked after, which leads to many arguments.

The jury wasn't the only group to be enchanted by the Polish production. Earlier, it was Slamdance's selectors who fell in love with Polish films. A total of seven films were included in the program. In addition to Julia Orlik's film, the audience could watch Krzysztof Kasior's feature-length documentary Fury, which also left the festival with an award (you can read more about it here), Damian Kocur's short fiction Beyond is the Day, Katarzyna Miechowicz's animated film Crumbs of Life and Tomasz Ducki's Plantarium, Dawid Nickel's feature film, and Tomasz Stankiewicz's interactive Brave Bunch in India.

A list of all awarded films can be found here.

FEBRUARY 2022