Awards for Polish Filmmakers

Two international film festivals wrapped on December 12, both bringing awards to Polish filmmakers. Paweł Sala and his feature Matka Teresa od kotów (Mother Teresa of Cats) won an award at the 11th Tbilisi International Film Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia. Meanwhile at the 51st Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Thessaloniki, Greece, Dorota Kędzierzawska received a Lifetime Achievement award, and Marek Lechki received the Best Screenplay award for his feature Erratum.

Paweł Sala, director of Mother Teresa of Cats, received the Sergei Parajanov Award for an innovative approach to filmmaking. Since its international premiere and award in Karlovy Vary, Mother Teresa of Cats screened at a number of international film festivals, including Haifa, Paris, Bergen, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cottbus, Brisbane, Tallinn, and Cairo.

The 51st Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which closed on December 12, held a retrospective of films by Dorota Kędzierzawska, screening six of her projects. At the December 9 gala, the director of Wrony (Crows, 1994), Pora umierać (Time to Die, 2007), and Nic (Nothing, 1998) received the Golden Alexander Lifetime Achievement Award. “Dorota Kędzierzawska holds a place as one of the most original Polish filmmakers to emerge after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe,” reads the festival info describing the works of the Polish director.

On a side note, Dorota Kędzierzawska’s latest feature Jutro będzie lepiej (Tomorrow Will Be Better) is set to screen at the Dubai International Film Festival.

The Thessaloniki festival jury members Michel Demopoulos, Mohamed Al-Daradji, Scandar Copti, Behrooz Hashemian, and Martin Schweighofer, granted the Best Screenplay award to Marek Lechki for his feature Erratum. The film had previously received awards in Gdynia (Best Directing Debut), Pusan, Chicago, Koszalin, and Warsaw.

The 11th Tbilisi IFF jury verdict is available at: www.tbilisifilmfestival.ge.

The 51st Thessaloniki IFF jury verdict is available at: www.tiff.filmfestival.gr.

Further details about Dorota Kędzierzawska’s film retrospective in Thessaloniki: www.tiff.filmfestival.gr.

Translated by Karolina Kołtun