FOURTEEN POLISH FILMS NOMINATED FOR SILVER EYE AWARDS
Silver Eye prizes are dedicated for producers of best creative documentaries participating in the East Silver Market. This year, documentaries from Poland took East Silver Market by storm, getting a record number of fourteen nominations!
East Silver Market is a film market aimed at promoting and distributing documentary films from 27 countries in Central Eastern Europe, including Poland. This year, the market will accompany the International Documentary Film Festival in Jihlava for the tenth time. Since 2009, Silver Eye prizes for best documentary films have been awarded at the East Silver Market. What makes them stand out from other film awards is the fact that they are handed out to producers, rather than directors of the winning films. The money prize is meant to support promotion and international distribution of the film.
The participating films are grouped into three classes – short, medium length and feature length films. About ten films are nominated in each of the categories. Apart from the statuette, the winners also receive a prize of 1500 euro, along with a one-year long participation in the East Silver Caravan, which translates into promoting the film at more than hundred of the world's most important festivals.
Documentary films from Poland have gained appreciation at the East Silver Market repeatedly in the past, with many being nominated and winning the Silver Eye. This year, however, is very special indeed – as many as fourteen Polish films have been nominated to the Silver Eye awards, which makes just under half of all the nominations. Polish documentaries improved the last year's impressive result of nine nominations. It is worth pointing out that in the category of medium length documentaries, eight out of eleven nominees come from Poland. The nominated documentary films areL
a) In the short film category (up to 30 minutes long):
- 'The Governance of Love' – dir. Adela Kaczmarek, prod. Dorota Borodaj, Association of Creative Initiatives „ę”;
- 'Our Curse' – dir. Tomasz Śliwiński, prod. Maciej Ślesicki, Warsaw Film School;
- 'Previous Scenes' – dir. Aleksandra Maciuszek, prod. Kuba, Polska, Aleksandra Maciuszek, Kenia Salas Laborde, EICTV;
- 'Small Instruments' dir. Edyta Wróblewska, prod. Edyta Wróblewska, Wymiatacze.pl, Simpled Story Production;
- 'The Whistle' – dir. Grzegorz Zariczny, prod. Ewa Jastrzębska, Polish Filmmakers’ Association Munk Studio:
b) in the medium length film category (between 30 and 60 minutes):
- 'The Art of Disappearing' – dir. Bartek Konopka, Piotr Rosołowski, prod. Paweł Potoroczyn, Adam Mickiewicz Institute; Anna Wydra, Otter Films
- 'A Diary of a Journey' –dir. Piotr Stasik, prod. Anna Gawlita, Kijora
- 'A Dream in the Making’ – dir. Bartosz M. Kowalski, prod. Jerzy Dzięgielewski, HBO Poland
- 'Father and Son' – dir. Paweł Łoziński, prod. Paweł Łoziński, Łoziński Production
- ‘Fire-followers’ – dir. Karolina Breguła, prod. Aleksandra Wojtaszek, touchFILMS
- 'Joanna' – dir. Aneta Kopacz, prod. Adam Ślesicki, Wajda Studio
- 'The Lust Killer' – dir. Marcin Koszałka, prod. Natalia Bartkowicz-Koszałka, Darklight Film Studio
- 'Sometimes I dream I'm flying’ – dir. Aneta Popiel-Machnicka, prod. Aneta Popiel-Machnicka, Michał Popiel-Machnicki, Pigment Production;
c) in the category of feature length films (over 60 minutes)
- 'You're gonna be a legend, man', dir. Marcin Koszałka, prod. Natalia Bartkowicz-Koszałka, Darklight Film Studio
Most of the nominated films are represented by the Krakow Film Foundation. Additionally, another eleven Polish documentaries will participate in the East Silver Market, all represented by the KFF within the framework of the Polish Docs program: 'Broken Dream' by Grzegorz Milko, 'El Sueño' by Jakub Łubaniewski and Mikołaj Molenda, 'God's Lake' by Diana Aszyk, 'I Love a Hooligan' by Kamil Król, 'I want (no) reality / Needcompany on Life and Art' by Ana Brzezińska, 'Man at War' by Jacek Bławut, 'Mother 24/7' by Marcin Janos Krawczyk, 'Survey About Women' by Mateusz Głowacki, 'Father and Son on a Journey' by Marcel Łoziński and 'Madame Tyson' by Edward Porembny.
Over the last few years, Polish presence at the East Silver Market was strong as well, and many films got to win a Silver Eye. In 2009, Marcin Janos Krawczyk's ‘Six weeks’ won in the short film category and ‘Rabbit à la Berlin’ by Bartosz Konopka – in the medium length film category. Anna Kazejak's 'Side-track' received a Special Mention in the category of feature length films. In the followig year, Daniel Zieliński's 'That's Life' was deemed best short film, while 'At the Edge of Russia' by Michał Marczak won in the feature length category. Special mentions were handed out to 'The Work of Machines' by Michał Mądracki, Maciej Mądracki and Gilles Lepore as well as to 'Plain Landscape with a Craddle' by Arkadiusz Biedrzycki. Last year, among the winning films were 'Cut-Paste' by Rafał Samusik for best short documentary and 'We Will Be Happy One Day' by Paweł Wysoczański for best medium length documentary.
The full list of the films nominated for Silver Eye awards may be found at East Silver's official website.