"III" and "Inny" in Cannes





The production by Animoon Studio entitled “III”, directed by Marta Pajek, has qualified for the Short Film Competition at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, where it has the chance to win a Palme d’Or! The animation “The Other”, by Marta Magnuska, produced by the Film School in Łódź, will be shown in the Cinéfondation section.

Polish animation with a chance for a Palme d’Or

This year, 3,943 films were submitted to the Cannes festival selection, of which only 8 were for the short film competition. These short films will compete for a Palme d’Or, which will be awarded by the festival jury on 19th May.

About the film

The twelve-minute animation by Marta Pajek is a suggestive story about the relationship between two lovers. A middle-aged woman and a man meet in a waiting room and immediately get close to one another. He helps her take off her heavy black fur coat, under which she is completely naked. This is how their mutual game begins, based on alternately seducing and exposing each other, which becomes more and more brutal over time. “III” is a portrait of a woman in an exhausting relationship with a man, which both attracts and repels them in equal measure. This Animoon production is the third part of the trilogy “Impossible Figures and Other Stories”.

“The concept of the film, just like the concept of the remaining parts of the triptych, is based on the notion of an impossible figure – one that can be drawn in accordance with all the principles of perspective, but it cannot be constructed in reality. The meeting of the main characters occurs in a similar fashion – as they approach each other, the space around and within them reveals surprising properties” – explains Marta Pajek.

Marta Pajek was born in Kielce in 1982. She is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where she specialised in animated film under Professor Jerzy Kucia. She also received a scholarship to study in the Turku Arts Academy in Finland under Priit Pärn. She has made the short animated films “After Apples”, “Behind the Wall” and the award-winning “Sleepincord”. Her last film, “Impossible Figures and Other Stories II”, was screened worldwide and won many international awards, including the Grand Prix of the ITFS festival in Stuttgart. She lives and works in Warsaw.

The producer of the film “III” is Animoon Studio in Warsaw and the film was made with the financial support of the Polish Film Institute. The promotion of the film at foreign festivals is supported by KFF Sales & Promotion, operating within the Kraków Film Foundation.

This Polish film is the only animation to be included in the short film competition in Cannes, where it will compete against the seven feature films from Australia, China, France, the USA, Iran, Japan and the Philippines which have also qualified for the competition. Last year, “Time To Go” by Grzegorz Mołda, a Gdynia Film School production, also qualified for the short film competition.

Inny (The Other) in Cinéfondation section

In the Cinéfondation section, which features films made at film schools, there will be 17 films (14 feature films and 3 animations), selected from 2,426 applications. The section will feature films from 14 countries over 4 continents. Poland will be represented by the film “The Other” by Marta Magnuska from the Film School in Łódź. Half of the films were made by women. The jury will award three prizes, to be presented on 17 May.

In anticipation of a mysterious visitor, those gathered wonder what he might look like and who he might be. The stranger materialises in their imagination and his presence becomes almost tangible. The initial enthusiasm of the crowd gives way to anxiety.

Marta Magnuska was responsible for the direction and making of the film. The screenplay was written by Marta Magnuska and Paulina Lewicka, editing was done by Ewa Golis, and Anna Nowak was responsible for the music and sound. The producer is the Film School in Łódź and it was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. The artistic supervisors for the film were Mariusz Wilczyński and Joanna Jasińska-Koronkiewicz.

“Dots”

A second Polish connection in the Cinéfondation section is the film “Dots” by Eryk Lenartowicz, a graduate of the Gdynia Film School. The film was produced in Australia.  

“Dots” (23′) by Eryk Lenartowicz is a black comedy, tackling the themes of obsession, morality and death. The director lists “Plague” by Albert Camus as one of his literary inspirations and his cinematic ones include the aesthetics of such artists as David Lynch and Roy Andersson.

The film was made as a diploma work at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney, where Eryk Lenartowicz studied after graduating from the Gdynia Film School in 2015.

Eryk Lenartowicz’s graduation film for the Gdynia Film School, entitled “Fastfood” (2015), can be seen on the GFS channel on YouTube.

More information: www.festival-cannes.com/fr/infos-communiques/communique/articles/les-selections-de-courts-metrages-au-71e-festival-de-cannes.

Adapted from the press releases prepared by Animoon Studio, the Film School in Łódź and the Gdynia Film School.

Based on the press release


12.04.2018