Film Award 2014

  • Film Award 2014

    Agnieszka Polska, still frame from \"Hurra Wciąż Żyjemy\", Production: Wajda School, 2014

The Polish Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw in cooperation with the Wajda School proudly announce the fourth edition of the Film Award of 500,000 PLN for the production of a feature film by an artist working between visual arts and cinematography.

The purpose of the award is to promote experimental, artistic cinema, which radically rejects conventional narrative solutions and common methods of constructing a cinematic form. The intention is to promote formal innovation which harmonises with radical artistic imagination and intelligence. Through supporting the production of radically new artistic forms of expression in film, the Polish cinema stands a chance to undergo an important aesthetic revival and make an original landmark in the global cinematography.

The Film Award of the Polish Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art, in cooperation with the Wajda School, aims to support the production of films that continue the most interesting formal experiments in the Polish cinema, such as the achievements of Jerzy Skolimowski, Grzegorz Królikiewicz, Wojciech Wiszniewski and Stefan Themerson. The award will champion projects which, just like the films by the above mentioned directors, constantly confront aesthetics, know-how and formal solutions offered by contemporary art and cinematography.

The Film Award has been created in reply to a highly topical and original phenomenon in culture, i.e. the interest of visual artists in the creation of films for theatrical release. A manifest shift away from the production exclusively for galleries and museums and the ever stronger dialogue between contemporary artists and film professionals triggered a phenomemon in Poland referred to as KinoSztuka (cinema-art), first represented by films by Piotr Uklański and Wilhelm Sasnal.

The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw will co-produce the awarded projects and include them in its contemporary art collection.

The deadline for submissions is 30th July 2014. The results will be announced during a special event within the 39th Gdynia Film Festival between 15th and 20th September 2014.

The first winner of the Film Award was Zbigniew Libera in 2011, whose film “Walser”, depicting a postapocalyptic future, is currently in the final stages of editing and is due out in autumn this year. Premiered around the same time will be the feature film “Performer” about Oskar Dawicki, directed by Łukasz Ronduda and Maciej Sobieszczański, which is a pilot project of the entire programme.

In 2012, the second Award was awarded to Anna Molska with her project “Mutants”, a story of a community of elderly women forced to confront reality. During the screen tests, the artist gathered the crew of her film, selected the locations (Oskar Hansen’s architecture), and is currently concentrating on completing the cast and polishing the scenario. Shooting is planned for next year’s spring. Within her work on the feature film, Molska carried out her “Film Sculpture”, currently on display at the exhibition “As You Can See”, visualising the structure of the plot of the film.

In 2013, the third winner was Agnieszka Polska, who is currently developing the script of “Hooray! We’re still Alive”, which tells the story of the artistic commune gathered around Fassbinder. Artistic supervision of the project is held by Paweł Pawlikowski, creator of “Ida”. Polska has already finished the first scene, which has largely defined the formal shape of the future film. Shooting is planned for mid-2015.

Project run by Łukasz Ronduda (Museum of Modern Art. In Warsaw) and Wojciech Hoflik (Polish Film Institute).

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