"Father and Son" Wins in Moscow

Ojciec i syn (Father and Son), directed by Paweł Łoziński and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, has won the Documentary Film Competition at the 35th Moscow International Film Festival.

Silver St. George for Paweł Łoziński

This year’s lineup of the ‘Free Thought’ International Documentary Film Competition featured seven films from around the world. The winner of the Best Documentary award at the 35th Moscow IFF was the Polish production Ojciec i syn (Father and Son), directed by Paweł Łoziński, who received the Silver St. George award and a cash prize of $5,000. Award winners were selected by an international jury. Jury members were Claas Danielsen, Coco Schrijber and Sergey Dvortsevoy.

Ojciec i syn (Father and Son)

They share a name, a profession that is also their passion, but also a complicated bond full of resentment and ambiguity. Two acclaimed documentary filmmakers, Marcel and Paweł Łoziński, set off on a road trip across Europe. For the father, the journey marks the return to the place of his birth. For the son, it is an attempt to come to terms with their joint past. Both men try to record this difficult dialogue on film.

A Film Supported by the Polish Film Institute

Ojciec i syn (Father and Son) was produced by Paweł Łoziński Produkcja Filmowa and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. The award in Moscow follows the film’s previous win of the Silver Horn Award for Best Feature Documentary Film at the 53rd Krakow Film Festival.

Awards for Films Co-Financed by the Polish Film Institute

Previous editions of the Moscow IFF also brought awards for several films co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. In 2011, Urszula Grabowska received the Silver St. George Award for Best Actress for her performance in Joanna, directed by Feliks Falk. Joanna also won the Award of Russian Journalists and the Award of Russian Film Clubs. In 2010, Jan Kidawa-Błoński received the award for Best Director for his feature Różyczka (Little Rose), while Rewers (Reverse) by Borys Lankosz was voted Best Film in the ‘Perspectives’ section of the festival. In 2009, Mała Moskwa (Little Moscow) by Waldemar Krzystek received the Audience Award.

Moscow IFF

The Moscow International Film Festival is considered to be one of the world’s top film events. Since its last edition, the festival has been headed by Russian actor-director Nikita Mikhalkov. Besides Father and Son, this year’s edition of the festival featured several Polish films: Drogówka (Traffic Department) by Wojciech Smarzowski (Main Competition), Ostatnie piętro (Last Floor) by Tadeusz Król (Around the World), and Fuck For Forest by Michał Marczak (Wild Nights).

Further details about the Moscow IFF are available at www.moscowfilmfestival.ru.

Paulina Bez

Translated by Karolina Kołtun