Chilean film "La Nana" wins top award at the Off Plus Camera Festival

Chilean director Sebastián Silva won the Kraków Film Award and a USD 100,000 prize for his film La Nana at the Off Plus Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema. The director will also receive PLN 1 million from the Polish Film Institute (PISF) to produce his next film in Poland.

The winner of the grand prize at the second edition of the international event was announced during a gala closing ceremony April 26 in Kraków’s Kijów cinema by composer Zbigniew Preisner, president of the jury; Agnieszka Odorowicz, General Director of PISF, and Jacek Majchrowski, President of Kraków. The prize was awarded by an international jury of directors, including Allison Anders, Max Färberböck, Fernando Tureba and Andriej Zwiagincew, as well as Trevor Groth, the Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming.

Part of the award for Silva is a guaranteed donation from PISF on condition his next film is produced in Poland. The director has assured that he will make the most of this prize, and says he plans to make a film about sirens and naked people.

The Audience Award went to Snow White and Russian Red (Wojna polsko-ruska), directed by Xawery Żuławski, based on Dorota Masłowska’s celebrated cult novel “Snow White and Russian Red”. The journalists’ award, the Polish Film Noble of USD 10,000 funded by Noble Bank, went to The Messenger by Oren Moverman.

In the competition “Take It and Make It” (“Bierzcie i kręćcie”) for the best film made using a mobile phone, the Grand Prix Plus and USD 3,000 was awarded for the film Bike Life by Jana Kuhna. The special Cinemax Award went to Michał Wieliszewski for Five Minutes (Pięć minut).

The “Contact TVN24” prize for films sent to the TVN24 television station was awarded to Sławomir Danielski for his film Tornado (Trąba powietrzna), while RMF FM Radio’s “Fakty” presented its award to Adam Walenda for GrinPiss.

 

Translated by Monika Miziniak | Edited by Patricia Koza

27.04.2009