Award for Kolski's "Venice"

Wenecja (Venice) by Jan Jakub Kolski received the Special Jury Prize for Best Artistic Contribution at the 34th Montreal World Film Festival, which closed last night. This award is a key award (second only to the Grand Prix) at North America’s only A-class international film festival.

The first festival screenings of Venice filled the house and were met with wide acclaim of the audience. Director Jan Jakub Kolski and director of photography Arthur Reinhart met with the elated Montreal audience, who expressed delight over the visual aspects and emotional strength of the film that depicts a Polish family escaping into an imaginary world to avoid the harshness and brutality of the Second World War. The film, based on a short story by Włodzimierz Odojewski, was seen as a universal metaphor of the internal struggle with a reality that is impossible to accept.

The Montreal World Film Festival ended on September 6, its last segment being Gerard Depardieu’s master class and the closing gala that welcomed many representatives of the world film industry at Theatre de Maisonneuve, the festival’s main venue.

The Montreal screenings of Venice inaugurated the promotional stage of the film’s international distribution efforts. In coming weeks, Venice will screen at other key international film festivals, such as Reykjavik, Haifa, and Hamburg.

Further details about the Montreal World Film Festival are available at www.ffm-montreal.org.

Press release

Translated by Karolina Kołtun