PAWEŁ ŁOZIŃSKI'S FILM WINS ACADEMY QUALIFYING AWARD
It was a great weekend for The Balcony Movie. It turned out that the award at ZagrebDox was just a taste of what was to come at the It's All True festival.
It's All True – International Documentary Film Festival, also known as É Tudo Verdade, has been held annually since 1996 in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The festival was founded by Amir Labaki, who dreamed of creating a modern event that would present the most interesting documentary films from around the world. In addition to new releases, the program also features genre classics.
The documentary that stole the jury's heart this year was The Balcony Movie. The production by Paweł Łoziński won the competition for the best international feature or medium-length film of the festival. This award is Academy Qualifying Award what simply means that winning at the Brazilian festival qualifies the film to compete for an Oscar and be automatically on the long-list.
Sales agency KFF Sales&Promotion is in charge of the film's international promotion and festival distribution. Since its wolrd premiere at Locarno FF where it won Grand Prix of Semaine de la Critique, the film was in the official selection of more than 40 international festivals, including the major ones like IDFA, Hot Docs, DOK Leipzig and CPH:DOX, winning a few awards.
In the film Paweł Łoziński tries to answer to the questions: Can anyone be a film protagonist? Can you fit the entire world in a single frame? Director Paweł Łoziński watches people from his balcony. Both young and old, they walk by smiling, sad, thoughtful, staring at their phones. Residents of the neighbourhood, or casual visitors, ordinary passers-by. The author approaches them, asks questions, talks about their life and how they're doing. Standing there with his camera for over 2 years, he created a place for dialogue, a secular confessional where everyone can stop and tell others about themselves. Every person carries their own riddles and secrets. They can't be easily labelled. Life can't be imagined. The Balcony Movie is a radical return to the early days of cinema, when it was people who approached the camera. Perhaps one just needs to stop and stay a while to see more?
FIlm is prouced by Lozinski Production, IDFX and HBO Max.
A list of all winners can be found on the festival's website.