Winners of the 61st Krakow Film Festival
„Far Easters Golgotha”, „The Hangman at Home” and „Walk with Angels” – these are the films that won the main competitions at the 61st Krakow Film Festival, which is co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. The International jury awarded the best documentaries, shorts and animated films – the verdict was announced during the final gala on Saturday at the Kijów cinema.
The Golden Hobby-Horse received an image by Tomasz Wysokiński „Walk with Angels” for „for being an honest guide through the heart of darkness, professionalism in storytelling, conscious narration through a ruthless, distant world and a film that is hard to stop thinking about”. The documentary was also recognised for its music by Paweł Mykietyn, for its production – the Polish Producers Alliance Award for Piotr Kobus and Agnieszka Drewno (Mañana) – and received the Krakow Film Festival’s recommendation for the European Film Award.
The jury chaired by Jan P. Matuszyński awarded the Silver Hobby-Horses in the national competition to Tomasz Wolski for the feature-length documentary „1970”, Andrzej Cichocki for the short documentary „A Little Bit of Paradise” (also winning the Polish Society of Cinematographers award for best cinematography), Michalina Musialik, author of the animated film „Dog’s Field”, and Nastazja Gonera for the short film „First Last Summer”.
Documents and short films
The award of the President of the Polish Filmmakers Association for best film editing went to Zbigniew Czapla for „On Time”. The documentary film „Far Eastern Golgotha” (dir. Yulia Sergina) won the International Documentary Competition, thus receiving the opportunity to compete for an Oscar nomination. The Silver Horn for the director of the best film on social issues went to Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh for „Writing with Fire”. The Silver Horn for the director of the film with high artistic values was awarded to Oan Kim and Brigitte Bouillot for „The Man Who Paints Water Drops.
On the other hand, the winners of the oldest festival competition – the International Short Film Competition – were Michelle and Uri Kranot for the film „The Hangman at Home” (Denmark, France, Canada). Silver Dragons are prizes awarded to the best short films representing all film genres of the competition. The Silver Dragon for the best documentary went to Raluca Lupascu for „God Was Here!” (Romania). The Italian „Bad Mood” (dir. Loris Giuseppe Nese) was named best animated film, and the Silver Dragon for the best short live action film went to Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson for „Rough” (Ireland). The International Federation of Film Critics Award went to Gorki Glaser-Müller for the film „Children of the Enemy” (Sweden, Denmark), and the audience award from the „SFP Film Magazine” went to the film by Anna Kokoszka-Romer and Mateusz Kudła, „Polański, Horowitz. Hometown”. Krakow’s candidate for the European Film Award in the short film category is „Hide” by Daniel Gray (Hungary, France, Canada).
The 61st edition of the Krakow Film Festival was held from May 30 to June 6, 2021.