"Joanna" and "Our Curse" Shortlisted for the Oscars

On October 20, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its short list of contenders for the Academy Award in the Documentary Short Subject category. This selection of eight films includes two films co-financed by the Polish Film Institute – Joanna, a film by Aneta Kopacz (Wajda Studio), and Nasza klątwa (Our Curse), a film by Tomasz Śliwiński (Warsaw Film School).

This year marked a total of 58 submissions in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Academy Awards. Three to five of the eight selected films will earn nominations, depending on the vote of Academy members. Two of the competing films are Polish productions: Joanna by Aneta Kopacz (Wajda Studio) and Nasza klątwa (Our Curse) by Tomasz Śliwiński. Both films were co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

Nasza klątwa (Our Curse)

Nasza klątwa (Our Curse) is a personal statement by the director who, along with his wife, is forced to face a rare and incurable disease of their newborn child – congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS), also known as Ondine’s Curse. The film portrays the process of coming to terms with the fear that accompanies this disease, and slowly adapting to the new circumstances. This student film by Tomasz Śliwiński, produced at the Warsaw Film School and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, has enjoyed great acclaim at international film festivals, winning films at festivals in Lisbon, Sheffield, Aspen, Monterrey, Olten, and London.

Joanna

To date, this documentary portrait of Joanna Sałyga, a young mother and blogger fighting a deadly disease, has received awards at a number of international film festivals, including the Jihlava IDFF, DOK.Leipzig, the 2014 Los Angeles Movie Awards, the DocsBarcelona IDFF, the Palm Springs International Shortfest, and the ‘Young and Cinema’ Koszalin Festival of Film Debuts. Joanna was produced by Wajda Studio within the framework of the Dok Pro programme, co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

Academy Award nominations will be announced on January 15, 2015. The 87th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on February 22, 2015.

Further details are available at: www.oscars.org.

Marta Sikorska

Translated by Karolina Kołtun