„We Have One Heart” with two awards at Aspen Shortfest

The film „We Have One Heart”, co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, won the Jury Prize in the Documentary Film category at the Aspen Shortsfest in the US state of Colorado. Katarzyna Warzecha, the director and author of the script of the animated documentary, received the Ellen Award – commemorating the founder of the festival, Ellen Hunt.

Aspen Shortsfest was established in 1979 and is one of the most prestigious short film festivals in the United States of America. The main prizes are a ticket to the Oscar competition. The 30th edition of the festival was held online, during which 80 short films were screened, selected from around 3,000 entries.

It is the second award in the US for „We Have One Heart”. In October 2020, Katarzyna Warzecha’s film won in the short documentary category at the Chicago International Film Festival. Earlier, it also won the Audience Award at the 13th CinEast Festival in Luxembourg, the award for Best Short Documentary at the 15th DocsMX in Mexico and a Special Mention at Flickerfest in Australia.

The plot of the film and creators

After the death of his mother, Adam finds some letters exchanged years ago between his Polish mother and his Kurdish father, living in Iraq. This is an opportunity for him to learn more about his father, whom he never knew. The juxtaposition of animated drawings and archiv material takes us back forty years into the past and allows us not only to feel the emotions that connect lovers living in different parts of the world, but also to discover an unusual family secret.

Katarzyna Warzecha is a graduate of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice and the Wajda School and Studio in Warsaw. Her graduation film, „It’s Really Awesome”, has been screened at many international festivals, winning a number of awards. She has collaborated with such directors as Filip Bajon and Marcin Wrona. The cinematographer for „We Have One Heart” is Grzegorz Hartfiel, Piotr Kremky was responsible for the editing, Adam Witkowski for the music, and Jakub Jerszyński for the sound. The producers of the film are Silver Frame and Munk Studio, and the co-producer is the West Pomeranian Film Fund.