Polish 2014 Silver Eye Winners
October 27 marked the closing ceremony of the 18th edition of the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in the Czech Republic. Two Polish films, both co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, are among winners of this year’s Silver Eye Awards.
Award for Odwiedziny (The Visit)
The winner in the Short Film Competition was Odwiedziny (The Visit), a film directed by Matej Bobrik. Produced within the framework of Munk Studio’s ‘First Documentary’ programme, this film tells the story of the residents of a welfare nursing home near the border between Poland and Belarus. Awards in the Short Film category were presented by jury members Emilie Bujès (Visions du Réel), Xavier Henry-Rashid (Film Republic), and Robert Zuber (HRT).
Special Mention for Gottland
Special mention in the Feature Film category went to Gottland, a co-production between Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, based on Mariusz Szczygieł’s collection of non-fiction essays, also entitled Gottland. The film consists of five documentary segments: Dzień ma 86400 sekund (There are 86,400 seconds in a Day), Dziedzictwo Lidy Baarovej (The Heritage of Lida Baarova), Latający koń (The Flying Horse), Miasto Stalina (Stalin’s City), and Zdenek. The films were directed by Viera Čákanyová, Petr Hátle, Rozálie Kohoutová, Lukáš Kokeš, and Klára Tasovská. Awards in this section were presented by jury members Ben Bassauer (Monoduo Films), Rebecca De Pas (FIDMarseille), Ivana Pauerová Miloševičová (Czech Television), and Anne Grolleron (ARTE).
Both awarded films were co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.
Silver Eye Awards
This year marked the sixth edition of the Silver Eye Awards. These awards are presented by the Documentary Film Institute to the best films screening at the East Silver Market. The event is aimed at drawing attention to exceptional documentary works from Central and Eastern Europe, and supporting these films in their search for sales agents and distributors. The awards are funded by the International Visegrad Fund and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
Awards for Polish Films
In previous years, the Silver Eye Awards and special mentions have gone to a number of Polish films, including Joanna by Aneta Kopacz, Sztuka znikania (The Art of Disappearing) by Bartosz Konopka and Piotr Rosołowski, Wytnij wklej (Cut/Paste) by Rafał Samusik, Kiedyś będziemy szcześliwi (We Will Be Happy One Day) by Paweł Wysoczański, Takie życie (That’s Life) by Daniel Zieliński, Praca maszyn (The Work of the Machines) by Michał Madracki, Giles Lepore and Maciej Madracki, Krajobraz nizinny z kołyską (Plain Landscape with a Cradle) by Arkadiusz Biedrzycki, Koniec Rosji (At the Edge of Russia) by Michał Marczak, Królik po berlińsku (Rabbit a la Berlin) by Bartosz Konopka, Sześć tygodni (Six Weeks) by Marcin Janos Krawczyk, and Bocznica (The Sidetrack) by Anna Kazejak.
Further details are available at: www.eastsilver.net.
Paulina Bez
Translated by Karolina Kołtun