THE FILM BY TOMASZ ŚLIWIŃSKI AWARDED IN LISBON
Yesterday evening, at a festive closing ceremony of the 11th edition of the Portuguese festival indielisboa, Tomasz Śliwiński was given the Audience Award for his student film, "Our Curse." The film was the only Polish short documentary in the competition of the festival.
This year's edition of the Portuguese festival started on 24 April. The competition films were evaluated by as many as three jury teams - the feature film jury, the short film jury and the jury of the "World Pulse" competition. On the last day of the festival, a total of 19 regular awards was given, which went to the films shown within the frames of the 11th edition of the festival. "Our Curse" by Tomasz Śliwiński competed for the laurels of the short film competition with the Polish-Chilean film "The Island" by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz and Dominga Sotomayor. Finally, the film by Śliwiński won the Audience Award.
The film is a personal confession of the director, who, together with his wife, has to face a very rare, incurable disease of their new-born child - Ondine's Curse (congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, CCHS). People afflicted with this disease stop breathing during sleep and require life-long use of respirator to support their respiratory functions. The director documents the first months of his family's life after the birth of the child. At the beginning, the boy is still in hospital, but soon he comes home with the entire medical equipment, necessary for his life. The film shows the process of getting accustomed to the fear related to this disease and the gradual adaptation to this new situation.
The Portuguese award is the second, after the Best Documentary Award at Aspen ShortFest, foreign award for Śliwiński's graduation film, which so far has been shown at seven festivals abroad. Last month, in Poland, the film was given the Grand Prix of the Short Waves festival. The film's producer is Warsaw Film School.
Within the frames of the annual festival Indielisboa, which is held continuously from 2004, the latest and most interesting independent short and feature-length films are shown. The festival is one of the most important international film festivals in Portugal.
The full list of award-winning films can be found here