“THE WHISTLE” ANNOUNCED THE BEST DOCUMENTARY OF THE ZINEBI FESTIVAL

Tonight, at the Arriaga theatre, ends the 55th edition of the Basque ZINEBI festival. The names of this year’s winners have already been revealed. Among them stands Grzegorz Zariczny and his documentary “The Whistle”.

The ZINEBI festival in Bilbao is, along with Alcine, one of the oldest Spanish festivals presenting short and documentary films. This year it’s been the 55th time that the organizers of ZINEBI presented a variety of the best short films from all over the world, most of them shown for the first time in Spain. Out of over 3 300 entries, 67 films have been chosen for the competition – among them three Polish ones - apart from the winning "The Whistle" also two animations: "Rondo" by Artur Kordas and "Ex animo" by Wojciech Wojtkowski.

This year, no less than 16 awards were presented in Bilbao. The films in the main - international competitive section – were evaluated by a five-person jury, who chose the Grand Prix laureate and the winners in each of the genre categories. Grzegorz Zariczny’s “The Whistle” has received the Golden Mikeldi for the Best Documentary of the festival. The film was made in the course of the “First Documentary” programme at the Munk Studio, operating within the frames of Polish Filmmakers Association. The executive producer is the Full Film Service.

"The Whistle" is a story of a young man who decides to become a football referee. However, it’s not that easy. The reality of football at grassroots level where the referee’s work begins, turns out to be very brutal. Being a good referee, following the principles of football, isn’t working. One needs to be as ruthless as the players, the fans and activists. At a certain point the protagonist will have to decide whether to stick to his ideals or to change his values and adapt to the football rules. Both the ones on the field, as well as outside of it.

It’s worth reminding, that during the last year’s edition of the festival the Grand Prix went to Magnus von Horn, the author of the fiction etude “Without Snow”.

The full list of winners, as well as further information about the festival can be found on its official website