"THE ACTRESS" WINS THE EAGLE AWARD
On Monday evening, 7 March, there was the awards ceremony of Polish Film Awards Eagles. The Eagle statuette for the best documentary film went to the film "The Actress" by Kinga Dębska and Maria Konwicka.
On 7 March in Polish Theatre in Warsaw the awards ceremony of Polish Film Awards Eagles 2015 took place. It was the eighteenth time when the Eagle statuettes were awarded, but only the fourth time when documentary films could also compete for the award. The Eagle award for the Best Documentary Film the members of the Academy gave to "The Actress," directed by Kinga Dębska and Maria Konwicka. Other films, nominated in the same category, were "Joanna" by Aneta Kopacz, "Something better to come" by Hanna Polak, "Karski and the lords of humanity" by Sławomir Grünberg and "Piano" by Vita Maria Drygas.
"The Actress" is a feature-length biographical documentary film about Elżbieta Czyżewska (d. 2011), one of the greatest Polish actresses, the beauty icon of 1960s. The film does not concentrate on her stunning acting career in Poland; rather, it tells about her attempts at making herself known as an actress in America, after the sudden emigration to the United States together with her husband, an American journalist David Halberstam.
Friends and acquaintances of the actress talk, without embellishing the truth, about her unhappy marriage, her victory over alcoholism after years of struggle, and attempts at returning to Poland. This is an archetypical story about the fates of an actress at different stages of her career: on the top, at the bottom and in between. In the film feature, among others: Meryl Streep, Andrzej Wajda, Daniel Olbrychski, Michał Urbaniak, Adam Holender, Gay Talese, Nancy Weber, Hanna Hartowicz. The film's background is New York, shown in an emotional way, the city, which was considered by Czyżewska her second homeland.
Polish premiere of the film was held at the 55th Krakow Film Festival, and the film was distributed in cinemas on December 4, 2015.
It is worthwhile to remind that the films honoured with the Best Documentary Film award in last few years are: "Man At War" by Jacek Bławut, "Another World" by Dorota Kędzierzwska and "Warsaw Uprising" by Jan Komasa.
The full list of award-winners can be found on the website of Polish Film Academy.