2010 – POLISH DOCUMENTARY’S SUCCESSES ABROAD
The balance of 2010 is striking – more than 300 Polish documentary’s screenings abroad, about 160 screenings in the competitions. Polish documentary was present at above 140 international festivals – including the most important in documentary film industry: Hot Docs in Toronto, IDFA or DOK Leipzig. What is more, Polish documentary filmmakers were given about 50 awards in total. The record-holder is Paweł Łoziński and his “Chemo”, which in 2010 received 7 prizes, including Anasy Documentary Awards, DOXA Feature Documentary Award and Gold World Medal at New York Festival.
Among these numerous success of Polish documentary there are also Oscar nomination for Rabbit à la Berlin by Bartek Konopka, Golden Dove Award at DOK Leipzig for Piece of summer by Marta Minorowicz, directed by Igor Chojna Screening at the Tatry cinema’s nomination for the main prize in Student Film cathegory at IDFA, Grand Prix at Aye Aye Film Festival for Tomasz Wolski’s The Lucky Ones and his Award for the Best Short Documentary at Los Angeles Film Festival, Charcoal Burners by Piotr Złotorowicz as the best short film at Estonian film festival in Pärnu, Little Stamp at ZagrebDox for Chasm by Wojciech Kasperski, Grand Prix at FIDMarseille for The Work of Machines directed by Michał Mądracki, Maciej Mądracki and Gilles Lepore, Grand Prix for Mother by Jakub Piątek and Award for the Best Middle-Length Film for Chemo by Paweł Łoziński at Cinema Vérité International Documentary FF in Iran, two awards Silver Eye for At the Edge of Russia by Michał Marczak and That’s life… by Daniel Zieliński, Matej Bobrik’s Where the sun doesn’t rush and his Award for the Best Documentary at Italian Cortopotere and the same award for Jakub Stożek’s Out of reach at DOCSDF in Mexico, FIKE festival’s awards for Mother by Jakub Piątek (Best Short Film) and The Lucky Ones by Tomasz Wolski (Best Documentary Film), Silver Nanook for Chemo by Paweł Łoziński at Flahertiana International Documentary FF in Russia and Award for the Best Short Documentary for A Heart-Broken Circus by Marek Tomasz Pawłowski, Prix Italia for Lech Majewski. The World According to Bruegel directed by Dagmara Drzazga, Grand Prix for Jakub Piątek’s Mother at Batumi International Art-House FF in Georgia, Best Short Film Award for Six Weeks by Marcin Janos Krawczyk at Monterrey International FF in Mexico and Best Documentary Award for 10 years to Nashville directed by Katarzyna Trzaska at Bankok Indiefest in Thailand. It is worth to add the awards at festivals in Poland, however, in the international competitions – Golden Dragon Award at Krakow Film Festival for Out of Reach by Jakub Stożek and Golden Frog Award at Camerimage International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography for The Last day of Summer by Piotr Stasik, as well as Award of the Future of Media at the Art of Document Festival for ex equo: Themerson and Themerson by Wiktoria Szymańska and Fighting Cholita by Małgorzata Łupina. The whole list of awards for Polish Documentary is presented below.
Furthemore, we attempt to create the list of the most frequently screened at the foreign international festivals Polish documentary films. According to the data base from www.polishdocs.pl, Glass Trap by Paweł Ferdek, Six Weeks by Marcin Janos Krawczyk and Chemo by Paweł Łoziński are on the top. They are followed by Rabbit à la Berlin by Bartek Konopka, The Lucky Ones by Tomasz Wolski, Mother by Jakub Piątek and Where the Sun doesn’t rush by Matej Bobrik.
It is worth to mention about several Polish films retrospectives which present the recent achievments of Polish documentary cinema. There were about 20 Polish programmes of that kind, ex. In Helsinki, Tehran, Toronto, Zagreb, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Kiev, Nice, Belo Horizonte, Madrid or Neubrandenburg.
THE LIST OF AWARDS FOR POLISH DOCUMENTARY FILMS IN 2010:
10 years to Nashville, dir. Katarzyna Trzaska
- Best Short Documentary (Bankok Indiefest, Thailand)
- Special Jury Menion (Internaional Short FF – Film Palace Fest, Bulgaria)
52 percent, dir. Rafał Skalski
- DOXA Short Documentary Award (DOXA, Canada)
Actors, dir. Tomasz Wolski
- the Best Documentary Film (FIKE — International Short Film Festival, Portugal)
An American in the Communist Poland, dir. Piotr Morawski i Ryszard Kaczyński
- Gold World Medal (New York Festivals — International Television & Film Awards, USA)
- Hugo Television Award — Certificate of Merit (Chicago International FF, USA)
Chemo, dir. Paweł Łoziński
- DOXA Feature Documentary Award (DOXA, Canada)
- Best Director (Anasy Documentary Awards, United Arab Emirates)
- Grand Prix (FIDADOC, Morocco)
- First Prize of International Mid-Length Documentary Competition (“Cinema Verite” Tehran International Documentary Film Festival, Iran)
- Best Director Award (One World – People in Need International Human Rights Documentary FF, Czech Republic)
- “Silver Nanook” for the best short film (Flahertiana International Documentary FF, Russia)
- Gold World Medal (New York Festivals — International Television & Film Awards, USA)
A Heart-Broken Circus, dir. Marek Tomasz Pawłowski
- Hugo Television Award — Certificate of Merit (Chicago International FF, USA)
- Best Short Documentary (Ismailia International Short and Documentary FF, Egypt)
- Nagroda Telewizji Słowackiej (International FF of Documentaries on Ethnology and Anthorpology ETNOFILM Cadca, Slovakia)
Football Father, dir. Michał Jóźwiak
- Nagroda Publiczności (Docudays Ua, Ukraine)
Piece of Summer, dir. Marta Minorowicz
- the Golden Dove /Short-length Documentary competition (DOK Leipzig, Germany)
The Last Day of Summer, dir. Piotr Stasik
- Grand Prix — Złota Żaba (Camerimage, Poland)
At the Edge of Russia, dir. Michał Marczak
- Special Jury Mention (Flahertiana International Documentary FF, Russia)
- Silver Eye Award for the best Feature-lenght Film (East Silver, Czech Republic)
Plain Landscape with a Crandle, dir. Arek Biedrzycki
- Silver Eye Special Mention (East Silver, Czech republic)
Rabbit à la Berlin, dir. Bartek Konopka
- Oskar nomination
- Jury Special Prize — Main International Competition Section (Batumi International Art-House Film Festival — BIAFF, Georgia)
- 2nd Award for the Short Film (Dokumenta Madrid, Spain)
Kites, dir. Beata Dzianowicz
- the Silver Award (Anasy Documentary Awards, United Arab Emirates)
Mother, dir. Jakub Piątek
- Grand Prize of the International Short Film Competition (“Cinema Vérité” Tehran International Documentary Film Festival, Iran)
- the Best Europeen Short Film (FIKE — International Short Film Festival, Portugal)
- Grand Prix — Young Filmmakers Competition Section (Batumi International Art-House Film Festival — BIAFF, Georgia)
Honeymoon, dir. Grzegorz Krawiec
- Special Mention (Los Angeles Movie Awards, USA)
North from Calabria, dir. Marcin Sauter
- Trade Union ver.di award (DOK Leipzig, Germany)
- the Ecumenical Jury Award (DOK Leipzig, Germany)
- Special Jury Mention (Flahertiana International Documentary FF, Russia)
Chasm, dir. Wojciech Kasperski
- Little Stamp Award (Zagreb DOX, Croatia)
Out of reach, dir. Jakub Stożek
- Złoty Smok – (Krakow Film Festival, Poland)
- Best Short Documentary (DOCSDF, Mexico)
The Work of the Machines, dir. Michał Mądracki, Maciej Mądracki, Gilles Lepore
- Grand Prix (FIDMarseille, France)
- Silver Eye Special Mention (East Silver, Czech Republic)
Little Bride, dir. Lesław Dobrucki
– Honorable Mention (Expresión En Corto International Film Festival — Speak Out Against Domestic Violence, Mexico)
- Second Prize (Vilnius Film Shorts, Lithuania)
Flightless Birds, dir. Michał Dawidowicz
- Best Documentary Film (International Student Film Festival Early Melons, Slovakia)
- Nagroda Findling Regionalnego Stowarzyszenia Komunikacji Filmowej Meklemburgii-Pomorza Przedniego (dokumentART — European Documentary Film Festival, Germany /Poland)
Rolls of Identity, dir. Jakub Pączek
- Second Prize (Festival AZYL, Slovakia)
Screening at the Tatry cinema, dir. Igor Chojna
- Nomination for IDFA Student Award (IDFA, Amsterdam)
Charcoal burners, dir. Piotr Złotorowicz
- Grand Prix (Short Film Festival of Dijon — “Fenêtres sur courts”, France)
- Best Documentary Film (IX Open St.Petersburg Student Film Festival Beginning, Russia)
- Best Short Film (XXIV Pärnu International Film Festival, Estonia)
The Lucky Ones, dir. Tomasz Wolski
- Grand Prix (Aye Aye Film Festival, France)
- Jury Special Mention (Palm Springs International ShortFest, USA)
- Honorary Mention (Kasseler Dok Fest, Germany)
- Best Documentary Short Film (Los Angeles FF, USA)
Six weeks, dir. Marcin Janos Krawczyk
- Nagroda Miasta Neubrandenburg (dokumentART — European Documentary Film Festival, Germany /Poland)
- Best Short Documentary Film Award (Monterrey International Film Festival, Mexico)
Lech Majewski. The World According to Breugel, dir. Dagmara Drzazga
- Prix Italia (62nd International Competition for Radio, Television and Web – PRIX ITALIA, Italy)
That’s life, dir. Daniel Zieliński
- Silver Eye Award for the Best Short Film (East Silver, Czech Republic)
Where the sun doesn’t rush, dir. Matej Bobrik
- Best Documentary Film (Cortopotere ShortFilmFestival, Italy)
- Award for NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTION (Brazilian Student Film Festival, Brasilia)
Warsaw available, dir. Julia Ruszkiewicz, Karolina Bielawska
- Special Jury Mention (World Film Fest Houston, USA)
Burnt, dir. Anna Więckowska
- Special Jury Mention (Golden Knight International FF, Russia)
Goldfish, dir. Tomasz Wolski
- Prize for the Best Director (International Documentary Film Festival CRONOGRAF, Moldavia)
Fighting Cholita, dir. Małgorzata Łupina
- Award of the Future of Media (The Art of Document Festival, Poland)
Themerson and Themerson, dir. Wiktoria Szymańska
- Award of the Future of Media (The Art of Document Festival, Poland)
(In the picture above: still from the Paweł Łoziński’s documentary Chemo)