AWARDS of the 62nd Krakow Film Festival
DRAGON OF DRAGONS AWARD for the contribution into development of the world documentary film JARMO JÄÄSKELÄINEN (Finland)
KFF RECOMMENDATION to the European Film Award in a documentary category
BOYLESQUE, dir. Bogna Kowalczyk (Poland)
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Having watched all the competitive films the International Documentary Jury of the 62st Krakow Film Festival consisting of: Till Brockmann – chairman (Switzerland), Christine Camdessus (France), Ohad Milstein (Israel), Petrula Veljanovska (North Macedonia), Agnieszka Zwiefka (Poland) has decided to award the following prizes:
THE GOLDEN HORN for the director of the best film – Denis Dobrovoda for The Cathedral (Slovakia)
From deep faith, a simple man draws an almost inhuman energy that vacillates between genius, vision and obsession. The film elegantly combines the spiritual and the material and shows the power of the faith. Just as the house of worship built by an outed monk, the film finds its form intertwining brilliantly archive material, interviews, and self-shot scenes into a fascinating story of a contemporary Lazarus.
THE SILVER HORN for the director of the film with high artistic values – Shaunak Sen for All That Breathes (USA, United Kingdom, India)
The film takes us on a dreamlike cinematic journey from his very first shot. Challenging traditional ways of documentary filmmaking it offers a wide aesthetic breath echoing the beauty of the world under threat with a consistent style of great artistic elegance.
THE SILVER HORN for the director of the film on social issues – Laura Sistero for Tolyatti Adrift (Spain)
Finding the sparkle of life in a cold and forbidding place of economic decline, the director portrays a small act of liberation and not-so-silent rebellion. We are introduced to a lively band of youngsters drifting out of an hopeless world. The director is able to capture moments with an incisive, poetic and at the same time shrewdly symbolic film language, without falling into a glossing over of desolation.
SPECIAL MENTION for The Hamlet Syndrome directed by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski (Poland, Germany)
SPECIAL MENTION for Fragile Memory directed by Igor Ivanko (Ukraine, Slovakia)
The FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Jury consisting of: Nino Kovačić (Croatia), Yun-Hua Chen (Taiwan), Giuseppe Sedia (Italy) has decided to award the International Film Critics Prize to Hirotoshi Takeoka for Adamiani (Japan, The Netherlands)
In his debut documentary about the Kist people, an elegantly orchestrated multi-character tale, Hirotoshi Takeoka unfolds the road for redemption of an entire community, led by fierce and tolerant women who puts their hopes in tourism. In a society where men’s virility is often associated with the drive and ability to combat, they are the ones that make peace and embody awe-inspiring resilience. The Japanese director shows, in a deeply humane and serenely non-judgmental fashion, that welcoming the Other is the only way to settle with the past and get a better future in the wondrous Pankisi Gorge.
INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Having watched all the competition films, the International Short Film Jury consisting of: Juliusz Machulski – chairman (Poland), Olga Lucovnicova (Moldova), Andrea Martignoni (Italy), Anita Reher (Denmark) and Amer Salmeen Al Murry (United Arab Emirates), has decided to award the following prizes:
GOLDEN DRAGON for the director of the best film – Jay Rosenblatt for How Do You Measure A Year? (USA)
SILVER DRAGON for the director of the best documentary film – Raúl de la Fuente Calle and Amaia Ramirez for Maldita. A Love Song to Sarajevo (Spain)
SPECIAL MENTION for Hardcore directed by Adán Aliaga (Spain)
SILVER DRAGON for the director of the best animated film – Diana Cam Van Nguyen for Love, Dad (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
SPECIAL MENTION for A Goat’s Spell directed by Gerhard Funk (Germany)
SILVER DRAGON for the director of the best short fiction film – Karolina Porcari for Victoria (Poland)
SPECIAL MENTION for The Swarmers directed by Alison Kuhn (Germany)
Jury Award for the Best European Film (Krakow Candidate to the European Film Award 2022 in the short film category) – Diana Cam Van Nguyen for Love, Dad (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
The International Federation of Film Societies (FICC) Jury consisting of: Eugene Dugan-Brause (United Kingdom), Ritesh Basak (Indie), Karolina Nowacka (Polska) has decided to grant the Don Quixote Award to the film Parizad directed by Mehdi Imani Shahmiri (Iran) and the Special Mention to the film: Love, Dad directed by Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
INTERNATIONAL DOCFILMMUSIC COMPETITION
Having watched all the competition films, the International DocFilmMusic Competition Jury consisting of: Włodek Pawlik – chairman (Polska), Roman Gutek (Polska) and Robert Kirchhoff (Slovakia) has decided to award the following prizes:
GOLDEN HEYNAL for the director of the best film – Lucie Králová for Kapr Code (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
A non-obvious and innovative form developed to tell the story of a complex and controversial protagonist. A film about difficult choices and the clash of art with a totalitarian regime, with the history of Eastern Europe in the 20th century.
SPECIAL MENTION for Cesária Évora directed by Ana Sofia Fonseca (Portugal)
The unknown story of the life of a brilliant Cape Verdean singer captures the power of music to break all boundaries – of language, countries, and systems. A film about music rooted in the difficult context of slavery and lack of freedom.
NATIONAL COMPETITION
Having watched all the competition films, the National Competition Jury consisting of: Piotr Stasik – chairman, Daria Kopiec, Kuba Mikurda, Anna Sienkiewicz-Rogowska, Małgorzata Szyła has decided to award the following prizes:
GOLDEN HOBBY-HORSE for the director of the best film funded by the President of the Polish Filmmakers Association – Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski for The Hamlet Syndrome (Poland, Germany)
The directors met the protagonists of their film before the war in Ukraine took a turn for the worse. This provides us, the viewers, a chance for a deeper analysis, to understand and empathise with what is happening now, but also with what awaits our neighbours in the future – and perhaps even us. This is especially important at a time when we learn about the war mainly from brief mentions on social media channels, when we’re slowly getting used to the topic of war. It’s important because a lot of people still think that this war is far away and doesn’t concern them. It is important because many politicians have adopted a strategy of baby steps – short-sighted and dictated by fear of losing profits.
Their film, however, is more just an alarm or a cry of desperation. It is also an extraordinary story about the power of words and conversation. About the fact that words can stand tall against our problems and even against tanks. And they can win.
SILVER HOBBY-HORSE for the director of the best documentary film over 30 minutes – Bogna Kowalczyk for Boylesque (Poland)
Boylesque is a complete film – with a wonderful, charismatic protagonist who charms us with his class, language, and imagination; with superb cinematography, editing, and music; a film in which reality itself seems to cheer on the filmmakers and offer them moments that seem impossible to stage; finally, a film about love and mourning, about the hunger for life and coming to terms with inevitability.
SILVER HOBBY-HORSE for the director of the best documentary film under 30 minutes – Marcin Lesisz for The Rocking Horses (Poland)
We were captivated by the world of the main character, her inventiveness in art, sculpture, and language. The prudent form of the documentary emphasises Ewa Werfel’s extraordinary, exuberant imagination all the more.
SILVER HOBBY-HORSE for the director of the best animated film – Marta Pajek for Impossible Figures and Other Stories I (Poland, Canada)
For its sensual and ambiguous story about transience, the power of love, and the briefness of our existence manifesting itself in a terrifying emptiness, where the sense of closeness is a tender, flickering memory that we long for.
SILVER HOBBY-HORSE for the director of the best short fiction film – Michał Toczek for A Dead Marriage (Poland)
We awarded a romantic film that has found a bold figure to express the state of the main character and his emotional transformation. It has a distinct concept and subtle character portrayals.
The Award of the President of the Polish Filmmakers Association for the best film editing – Milenia Fiedler for The Voice (Poland)
The editor is a film’s hidden director. Hidden also because the best editing is one that goes by unnoticed. The more talented they are, the better they work, the more invisible their work becomes. We are glad that this award can remind people of their role.
Maciej Szumowski Award for remarkable social awareness patronized by ZAIKS– Bartłomiej Żmuda for God and Lunaparks’ Warriors (Poland)
Heated discussions on the Internet or in the media about the divide between Poles are often counterproductive. Instead of uniting, they divide even more; instead of clarifying, they are skimming the surface and perpetuating stereotypes. We run away from real confrontation, especially if these divisions arise among the people closest to us. The protagonists of this film did it for us – a father and his son got in the same car and dared ride a sometimes funny, sometimes scary, often touching, psychological rollercoaster.
The Award for the best short and documentary films producer in Poland funded by the Polish Producers Alliance (KIPA) and FDR Studio – Magdalena Kamińska and Agata Szymańska (Balapolis) for the film The Hamlet Syndrome (Poland, Germany)
An award for – what we want to emphasise – double production (the film and the theatrical performance included in it). For a film created in difficult conditions that required special care for the protagonists, gentleness, but also freedom and trust in the creators.
Best Cinematography Award under the patronage of The Polish Society of Cinematographers funded by Black Photon – Wojciech Staroń for the film The Voice (Poland)
For his unobtrusive and warm observation, simplicity of form and closeness to the protagonists.
THE AUDIENCE AWARD
Boylesque directed by Bogna Kowalczyk (Poland)
THE AWARD OF THE STUDENT JURY
Having watched all the competitive films, the Student Jury consisting of Monika Babińska, Aleksandra Brzuzy, Katarzyna Burdek, Paulina Gandor, Arkadiusz Hulbój, Przemysław Kania, Weronika Kapusta, Jędrzej Kościński, Mateusz Leśniak, Krzysztof Strumiński has decided to award film The Hamlet Syndrome (Poland, Germany) directed by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski
KFF INDUSTRY – ANIMATED IN POLAND I DOC LAB POLAND AWARDS 2022
ANIMATED IN POLAND AWARDS
SOUND MIND STUDIO AWARD – a coupon for 10 days of sound postproduction in Sound Mind studio run by Michał Fojcik for the project Magda, dir. Adela Kaczmarek – Siwińska, prod. Letko
FIXAFILM AWARD – a coupon for image post-production services worth PLN 10 000 founded by Fixafilm for the project The Miracle, dir. Ewa Borysewicz, prod. Letko
CREW UNITED SPECIAL MENTION – a 5-years’ Premium membership to Crew United platform for the director and producer of the awarded project for the project Conjunction, dir. Marta Magnuska, prod. Animoon
DOC LAB POLAND AWARDS
AWARDS FOR THE BEST PROJECTS PRESENTED AT DOCS TO START
HBO Max Award– 10 000 PLN in cash for the project Insurance Against Meteorites, dir. and prod. Natalia Śliwowska and Jorik Amit Galama
ORKA Award – image postproduction services worth of 20 000 PLN for the project The Perfect Date, dir. Małgorzata Goliszewska, prod. Agnieszka Skalska / ZPR MEDIA / KOI STUDIO
FIXAFILM Award – image postproduction services worth of 15 000 PLN for the project Tenderness of Transience, dir Mateusz Mularski, prod. Joanna Zielińska / BIG WAVE FILMS
MX35 Award – film equipment rental services worth of 10 000 PLN for the project A Hole in the Wall, dir. Arjun Talwar, prod. Karolina Śmigiel / UNI-SOLO STUDIO
DOK Leipzig Special Mention – invitation to Co‐pro Meetings in Leipzig for the project A Hole in the Wall, dir. Arjun Talwar, prod. Karolina Śmigiel / UNI-SOLO STUDIO
Institute of Documentary Film Special Mention – invitation to East Doc Platform for the project Towards the Sun, dir. Agnieszka Kokowska, prod. Justyna Ziemkiewicz, Sławomir Richert / WARSAW PRODUCTION TEAM
Polish Docs Pro Special Mention – support of international promotion and invitation to one of the key world documentary industry event for the project GO&SEE, dir. Julia Kuzka, prod. Małgorzata Małysa / FURIA FILM
AWARDS FOR THE BEST PROJECTS PRESENTED AT DOCS TO GO
SMAKJAM Award – image postproduction services worth of 25 000 PLN for the project The Coal Daughter, dir. Aneta Nowicka, prod. Jacek Kucharski / TRAFIK
ORKA Award – image postproduction services worth of 20 000 PLN for the project Sings of Mr. Plum, dir. Urszula Morga, Bartosz Mikołajczyk, prod. Stanisław Zaborowski, Jan Borowiec / SILVER FRAME
ORKA Award – image postproduction services worth of 20 000 PLN for the project Fear Out Of Head, dir. Grzegorz Brzozowski, prod. Natalia Grzegorzek / KOSKINO
CAFE OLE Award – sound postproduction services worth of 10 000 PLN for the project Hasan’s Joy, dir. Natalia Pietsch, Grzegorz Piekarski prod Katarzyna Kostecka / LARMO
Institute of Documentary Film Special Mention – invitation to East Doc Platform for the Hasan’s Joy, dir. Natalia Pietsch, Grzegorz Piekarski prod Katarzyna Kostecka / LARMO
The Władysław Ślesicki Film Foundation Special Mention – invitation Co‐pro Meetings in Leipzig for the project Faces of Agata, dir. Małgorzata Kozera, prod. Maria Krauss / PLESNAR & KRAUSS FILMS