ACADEMY AWARD WINNER FROM KRAKOW?
American Film Academy extended the circle of Krakow Film Festival winners, entitled to apply for Academy Awards nominations for the second time in the last half year. As many as four short film competition winners are in a priviledged situation.
The echos of the Academy Award gala, which took place in Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, can still be heard. The news from Krakow Film Festival ideally matches the reports about winners and losers, serious analyses of the Academy's verdict, entertaining conversations about the roles. Last year, in autumn, Academy expanded the circle of people entitled to direct application for Academy Awards nomination - the Golden Dragon, which had this privilege before, was joined by the winners of Silver Dragons in the short film and animation category. Now the winner of Silver Dragon for the best short documentary joins the stage. This means that starting from this year's 53rd edition of Krakow Film Festival, all four winners of the international short film competition, that is, the winner of the Grand Prix - the Golden Dragon and the winners of Silver Dragons in the following categories: animation, documentary and fiction film will automatically join the list of films which have a chance to be nominated for the prestigious Academy Award. The award-winning film in the short documentary category also has to meet the Academy's condition concerning the manner and time of its distribution in the United States during the Academy Award campaign.
"We received the news about extending the list of awards whose winners can apply for Academy Awards, literally the day before this year's gala," says Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła, the Director of the Office of Festival Programming. "What we are particularly glad about is the fact that Krakow Film Festival can open the doors to success for film makers even wider.
"This is also a real chance for Polish film makers. Who knows, maybe this time next year we will be celebrating the Academy Award for Polish film maker?" adds Krzysztof Gierat, Director of the Festival, with a smile.
American Film Academy's recognition for the oldest Polish film festival is the direct result of the visit by the director of Academy Award's Office, Torene Svitil at the 52nd edition of the event, during which she took part in the work of the jury and had an opportunity to get acquainted with the specific character of the Krakow event. In the e-mail she sent, Svitil gives the regards of the Academy members for Krakow Film Festival.
The next edition of the festival takes place at the turn of May and June. At the beginning of April one can expect the results of the selection to all four festival competition and numerous non-competing sections.