POLISH FILM ETUDES AWARDED IN NORTH AMERICA
Last weekend was lucky for Polish film school students, who won three awards at the festivals in North America. Polish films were awarded at the Lonestar Film Festival and Berkeley Video Film Fest in US as well as at Canadian Hamilton Film Festival.
On Saturday, 8 November, this year’s edition of the Berkeley Video Film Festival ended. The student film competition featured the latest film by Martin Rath, "Arena". The festival jury decided to award the film by Rath with the Student Visionary Award statuette. “Arena” enjoys great popularity in the United States. So far, the film was included in the programme of 9 American festivals, but this is not the end, since it will participate in other festivals in December. The film tells the story of a young hitchhiker (played by Marcin Kowalczyk) who joins the people inhabiting Bieszczady Mountains. Martin Rath is a graduate of Lodz Film School.
Last weekend brought awards also for another film produced by Lodz Film School. “Such A Landscape” by Jagoda Szelc won the best student film award at the Lonestar Film Festival in Texas. 27 films were shown in the short film competition, and “Such A Landscape” was the only Polish film. It is the second award for the film by Jagoda Szelc since November 2013, when “Such A Landscape” was given the Golden Tadpole at the Camerimage festival in Bydgoszcz. Miracle, atonement, contrition, prayer, forgivance - so as not to be afraid. “Such A Landscape” tells a story about five stages which every one of us should experience before death.
The third award this weekend went to Bartosz Warwas - the author of the short fiction film “The Cheater Day”. The film was shown in the short film competition of the Canadian festival in Hamilton. The film, produced by the Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia in Katowice, was given the Best Student Film Award by the jury. “The Cheater Day” is based on the book by Ireneusz Iredyński with the same title.
It is worth mentioning that four awards went to the diploma film by Bartosz Warwas, which was shown at the same festival, “Swallow.” The feature-length debut by Warwas is at the same time the diploma film made in Lodz Film School.
You can read more about Lonestar Film Festival, Hamilton Film Festival and Berkeley Video Film Fest on their websites.