"CARTE BLANCHE" WINS GRAND PRIZE AT SHANGHAI IFF

Carte Blanche, a film directed by Jacek Lusiński and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, received the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival.

Polish Film Wins Grand Prize

The Polish-made feature film Carte Blanche received the Grand Prize of the jury at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival, which closed on June 21, 2015. This year’s top prize of the festival, the Golden Goblet, went to Jamais de la vie (The Night Watchman), a film directed by Pierre Jolivet and made as a French-German co-production. The award winners were voted by an international jury led by director Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Produced and Promoted with Support from the Polish Film Institute

Carte Blanche is the second feature film by director Jacek Lusiński. The original script was inspired by actual events in the life of a schoolteacher who, to keep the job that he loves, hides the fact that he is slowly losing his eyesight from his superiors and the outside world. During its theatrical run in Poland, Carte Blanche had an audience of over 280,000.

Carte Blanche was produced by Aurum Film and co-produced by Orange Polska and Lightcraft. The film’s director of photography was Witold Płóciennik. Carte Blanche stars Andrzej Chyra, with supporting performances by Urszula Grabowska, Arkadiusz Jakubik and Eliza Rycembel.

Carte Blanche was co-financed by the Lublin Film Fund and by the Polish Film Institute, which also provided funding for the film’s international promotion at the 18th Shanghai IFF. 

Polish Films in Festival Lineup

This year’s Shanghai IFF audiences had an opportunity see several Polish productions. In addition to Carte Blanche, the festival lineup featured Bogowie (Gods) by Łukasz Palkowski (in the ‘Spectrum’ section of the festival), Ida by Paweł Pawlikowski, as well as two co-productions: Arizona w mojej głowie (They Chased Me Through Arizona) by Matthias Huser and Pod elektrycznymi chmurami (Under Electric Clouds) by Alexey German Jr.

About the Festival

The Shanghai International Film Festival is the only festival in China to be accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) as an international competitive feature film festival. It is also one of the three largest film events in Asia. The festival is divided into four sections: the Golden Goblet competition, film screenings, the film market, and the film forum. The mission of the event is to support the development of world cinema and discover new directing talent. Since 2004, one of the awards presented in Shanghai has been the annual Asian New Talent Award.

The 18th Shanghai International Film Festival ran from June 13 through June 21, 2015.

The festival website is available at: www.siff.com.

Translated by Karolina Kołtun