“THE BALCONY MOVIE” ON THE CINEMA EYE HONORS AUDIENCE CHOICE PRIZE LONGLIST
The list of sixteen titles on the longlist for the Cinema Eye Honors in the new Audience Choice Prize category has just been announced. Paweł Łoziński's The Balcony Movie is among the selected documentaries.
The Cinema Eye Honors awards have been presented to the best documentaries since 2008. For a film to be nominated, it must have been screened at any of the following festivals: Sundance, Berlin, True/False, SXSW, Full Frame, Tribeca, Hot Docs, Cannes, Silverdocs, Los Angeles, Toronto, Sheffield, or IDFA. Candidates for the Cinema Eye Honours are selected by representatives of major documentary film festivals, and the winners are picked each year by approx. 200 documentary industry representatives invited to vote by Cinema Eye.
This year, Paweł Łoziński's latest film has a good chance of winning the Audience Award, which will be presented for the first time. As soon as the longlist was announced on 25 October, international audience can vote on the film they believe should win the Audience Choice Prize.
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?