Łukasz Żal will be awarded at Toronto International Film Festival
Polish cinematographer Łukasz Żal will be honoured during the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. Żal will be awarded a special TIFF Variety Artisan Award for his Cinematography in „The Zone of Interest” by Jonathan Glazer. The film which was interely shot in Poland is a British-Polish co-production co-finansed by the Polish Film Institute.
“We are thrilled that two-time Academy Award – nominated Polish cinematographer Łukasz Żal is to receive TIFF Variety Artisan Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2023. We are not surprised that once again international film industry has chosen to honour the remarkable talents and contributions in film steaming from Poland” – said Radosław Śmigulski, General Director of the Polish Film Institute.
Łukasz Żal will be awarded with the TIFF Variety Artisan Award during TIFF’s 5th annual awards gala fundraiser at Fairmont Royal York Hotel on September 10th. The recognition is given to a distinguished creative who has excelled at their craft and made an outstanding contribution to cinema and entertainment.
Previous recipients of the TIFF Variety Artisan Award include: cinematographer Roger Deakins, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir and musician Terence Blanchard. Jonathan Bailey, CEO of TIFF, said that “Żal’s cinematography continues to evoke emotion in The Zone of Interest” and brings this film to the next level.
Łukasz Żal Bio
Łukasz Żal is a cinematographer based out of Poland. He most recently shot Charlie Kaufman’s critically acclaimed I’m Thinking of Ending Things, as well as Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 2019. Previously, he was nominated for an Academy Award in 2016 for Pawlikowski’s Ida and was one of two cinematographers of the 2017 Oscar-nominated animated feature Loving Vincent (dir. DK Welchman, Hugo Welchman).
In addition, he received the Golden Frog Award at Camerimage twice for his work on Ida and Paparazzi (dir. Piotr Bernas), as well as the Silver Frog Award for Cold War. Zal also shot Dovlatov (dir. Aleksiej German Jr.), which premiered at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival, and The Here After (dir. Magnus von Horn), an official selection of the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. He is a Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, European Film Academy and Polish Society of Cinematographers.
„The Zone of Interest” – what’s it about?
The audience is presented with a story about the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig who strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp. TIFF state in their release that “Zal’s lens has a chilling effect — detached from the horrors of the prison camp, the camera captures the banality of the Höss family living their everyday life amongst the ashes in spitting distance from Auschwitz, contrasted by unforgettable reminders of resistance at night, and shot in monochrome by thermal-imaging cameras”.
The film was awarded Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI Award during this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Now the British-Polish co-production, co-financed by Polish Film Institute will be presented in the Special Presentations section of Toronto International Film Festival. Polish premiere of the film is set for the 9th of February 2024, thanks to polish distributor Gutek Film.