"Object" Awarded at Sundance

Obiekt (Object), a film directed by Paulina Skibińska and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, received the Special Jury Award in the Short Film Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

Special Jury Award for Visual Poetry

The awards in the Sundance Short Film Competition were presented on January 27 at the Sundance Film Festival. One of the winners was the Polish film Obiekt (Object) by Paulina Skibińska. The film received the Short Film Special Jury Award for Visual Poetry. The Short Film Grand Jury Prize went to World of Tomorrow, a US production directed by Dan Hertzfeldt.

Obiekt (Object): World Premiere

The Sundance screening of Obiekt (Object) marked the film’s world premiere. This was the first festival to screen the latest documentary produced by Munk Studio – Polish Filmmakers Association. The director never expected her film would be selected for screening in competition. “I was surprised. I thought Sundance preferred social issues and more dialogue-based or commentary-based documentaries. Our film is more formal in nature; there is not a single word spoken on screen.”

A Search Party in the Dimensions of Two Worlds

The film shows an underwater search in the dimensions of two worlds – ice desert and under water. The story is told from the point of view of the rescue team, of the diver entering the underwater world, and of the ordinary people waiting on the shore.

A Munk Studio Production Supported by the Polish Film Institute

Obiekt (Object) is one of the latest productions by the Polish Filmmakers Association’s Munk Studio. This documentary was produced within the framework of the ‘First Documentary’ programme, in co-production with Studio PUK. The film was lensed by Jakub Stolecki, with underwater photography by Adam Wasiak, Grzegorz Zubowicz, Krzysztof Wiszniewski, Piotr Czechowski, and Arkadiusz Ostrowski. The film was edited by Katarzyna Boniecka, with sound by Katarzyna Szczerba. Jacek Bławut served as artistic supervisor. Obiekt (Object) was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.
Polish Documentaries Selected for Screening

This year’s Sundance Short Film Competition marked 8,061 submissions from around the world. Michał Szcześniak’s Punkt wyjścia (Starting Point) and Paulina Skibińska’s Obiekt (Object), both produced by Munk Studio, were among the 18 films selected for screening in the festival’s Short Documentary Competition.

Other Awards for Polish Filmmakers at Sundance

The award for Paulina Skibińska’s Obiekt (Object) is one of several wins by Polish films at Sundance in recent years. In 2013, Grzegorz Zariczny’s Gwizdek (The Whistle), a film co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, won the top prize in the Sundance Short Film Competition, while the award for best cinematography in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition went to Michał Englert for his work on Jacek Borcuch’s Nieulotne (Lasting). In 2011, Jakub Stożek received honorable mention for his film Poza zasięgiem (Out of Reach).

Further details are available on the festival’s official website: www.sundance.org.

Translated by Karolina Kołtun

28.01.2015