Polish Films at the 72nd Venice IFF

Several Polish films are in official selection at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival, which runs from September 2 through September 12. Jerzy Skolimowski’s latest film 11 minut (11 Minutes) will screen in Main Competition. The Venice Days competition lineup features Klezmer, a film by Piotr Chrzan. The Biennale College Cinema section features Kuba Czekaj’s Baby Bump.

Jerzy Skolimowski’s Latest Feature in Venice Main Competition

photo by Robert Jaworski, Skopia Film

One of the films selected for screening in the festival’s Main Competition is 11 minut (11 Minutes), the new feature by director Jerzy Skolimowski. The screening of the film at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival will be its world premiere. The complete lineup of the Main Competition.

11 minut (11 Minutes)

The same eleven minutes in the lives of various protagonists are shown through parallel storylines. Before the last second of the eleventh minute is up, their fates are brought together by an event that will have a huge impact on their lives. The film was written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, lensed by Mikołaj Łebkowski, and features performances by Andrzej Chyra, Dawid Ogrodnik, Wojciech Mecwaldowski, Agata Buzek, Jan Nowicki, Piotr Głowacki, Richard Dormer, and Ifi Ude.

International Co-Production Supported by the Polish Film Institute

11 minut (11 Minutes) was made as a co-production between Poland and Ireland. The film was produced by Skopia Film, co-produced by Element Pictures, Telewizja Polska, Orange, HBO and Tumult Foundation. The film was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, Eurimages, and the Irish Film Board.

Awards for Essential Killing in 2010

At the 67th Venice International Film Festival in 2010, the Special Jury Prize went to Jerzy Skolimowski’s Essential Killing, a film also co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. The Coppa Volpi Best Actor Award went to Vincent Gallo, who played the lead in Skolimowski’s feature. The film also received the 2010 CinemAvvenire Award of the CinemAvvenire association, which selected Essential Killing as the best film of the 2010 edition of the Venice Film Festival.

Polish Films and Co-Productions in Main Competition

In recent years, the Venice Main Competition lineup has featured several other Polish productions and co-productions, including Peter Greenaway’s 2007 film Nightwatching, co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, Krzysztof Zanussi’s Persona non grata (2005), Pornografia (Pornography) by Jan Jakub Kolski (2003), Historie miłosne (Love Stories) by Jerzy Stuhr (1997), Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Trzy kolory: Niebieski (Three Colors: Blue) (1993 – Golden Lion winner), Jeszcze tylko ten las (Just Beyond This Forest) by Jan Łomnicki (1991), Pożegnanie jesieni (Farewell to Autumn) by Mariusz Treliński (1990), Niezwykła podróż Baltazara Kobera (The Tribulations of Balthazar Kober) by Wojciech Jerzy Has (1989), and Rok spokojnego słońca (A Year of the Quiet Sun) by Krzysztof Zanussi (1984 – Golden Lion winner).

Klezmer in Venice Days Official Selection

photo courtesy of Human Power

The film is set on a summer day in 1943 in the countryside of Poland under Nazi occupation. A group of young people sets off to the forest to collect pinecones and brushwood. They talk, they laugh, they flirt, they make plans for the future. But this day will not go as they expect. A certain event will impact their lives in unexpected and dramatic ways. The complete 2015 Venice Days competition lineup is available at: www.venice-days.com.

The Feature Debut from Director Piotr Chrzan

Produced by Human Power, Klezmer was written and directed by Piotr Chrzan, lensed by Sylwester Kaźmierczak, and features performances by Lesław Żurek, Szymon Nowak, Weronika Lewoń, Dorota Kuduk, Kamil Przystał, Filip Kosior, Ewa Jakubowicz, Rafał Maćkowiak, Marek Kasprzyk, Bartosz Turzyński, and Jacek Kwiecień.

Venice Days

Venice Days – Giornate degli Autori is a section of the Venice International Film Festival dedicated to showcasing films from around the world, along with press conferences and Q&A sessions with filmmakers. Film screening in the Venice Days competition (eleven titles in this year’s edition) are in the running for the Venice Days Award (20,000 euros), the Europa Cinemas Label, which ensures distribution support for the winning film, and the Audience Award. Films by first-time directors compete for the Lion of the Future — Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film, which comes with a cash prize of 100,000 euros.

At past editions of the Venice IFF, the Venice Days lineup has featured three films co-financed by the Polish Film Institute: Sztuczki (Tricks) by Andrzej Jakimowski in 2007 (winner of the Europa Cinemas Label for Best European Film), Rysa (Scratch) by Michał Rosa in 2008, and Ki (My Name Is Ki) by Leszek Dawid in 2010.

One of Venice Days Jury Members Selected by Poznań’s “Muza” Cinema

This year’s Venice Days competition will be judged by a jury that has among its members Łukasz Raszewski, who was selected by “Muza” cinema in Poznań. The “28 Times Cinema” project is open to cinephiles from across Europe, selected through the cinemas in their respective cities. The chairman of the jury in the Venice Days competition will be French director Laurent Cantet, winner of the first edition of the Venice Days Award.

Kuba Czekaj’s Baby Bump in Biennale College Cinema Section

Baby Bump, the latest film by director Kuba Czekaj, will also have its world premiere at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. The film won the third edition of Biennale College Cinema, a series of workshops for development and production of low-budget film projects.

Baby Bump

photo courtesy of Balapolis

11-year-old Mickey House is no longer a child. He doesn’t know who he is. He has no friends. His mother is an enigma to him. He hates what’s happening to his body. Reality and imagination blend together in a toxic mix. Events escalate at home and at school, everything becomes the extreme. Mickey has to find the strength within him to finish what he started. Where will his encounter with his own maturing body take him? Growing up is not for kids.

Baby Bump was written and directed by Kuba Czekaj, produced by Magdalena Kamińska and Agata Szymańska (Balapolis), and lensed by Adam Palenta. The film features performances by Kacper Olszewski, Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Caryl Swift, Sebastian Łach, and Weronika Wachowska.

The official website of Baby Bump is available at: babybumpthemovie.com.

Paweł Pawlikowski in the Jury

Members of this year’s Main Competition jury, headed by Alfonso Cuarón, include Emmanuel Carrère, Paweł Pawlikowski, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Francesco Munzi, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Diane Kruger, Lynne Ramsay, and Elizabeth Banks.