The international jury of the 59th Krakow Film Festival awarded prizes to the best documentary, short and animated films with “Advocate”, “Portrait of Suzanne”, “My Country So Beautiful” and “Once Aurora” winning the top awards.
The documentary film “Advocate,” directed by Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaiche, secured the win in the International documentary film competition, making the film now eligible for an Oscar nomination. Leah Tsemel, the protagonist of the film, has been defending cases deemed for failure for fifty years. Being an Israeli activist for human rights, she became famous mainly as a judicial defender of the Palestinians, including those accused of terrorism. The film also received the Krakow Film Festival recommendation for the European Film Award.
The Silver Horn for the medium-length documentary was given to David Ofek and Tal Michael for the film “Around the Bed of a Dying Collaborator” (Israel), while the second Silver Horn, for the best full-length documentary, went to Adán Aliagi and Àlex Lora for “The Fourth Kingdom” (Spain, USA) , Mexico). The documentary has also received the award of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI).
The winner of the oldest festival competition – International Short Film Competition – was Izabela Plucińska for the film “Portrait of Suzanne” (Poland, Germany, France). The jury, led by Polish director Xawery Żuławski, awarded the director with the Golden Dragon award for mastery in shaping matter and a brilliant balancing between surrealistic vision and reality.
Silver Dragons are prizes awarded to the best short films representing all film genres of the competition. The Silver Dragon for the best documentary was awarded to Aleksandra Maciejczyk for the production of “Connected” (Poland). The best animated film has been recognized as the French-Belgian “Under The Rib Cage” (directed by Bruno Tondeur), and the Silver Dragon for best short feature film went to Dekel Berenson for the film “Ashmina” (Great Britain, Nepal). The Macedonian animation “One of Many” directed by Vuk Mitevski has been chosen the Krakow Film Festival candidate for the European Film Award in the short film category.
The Norwegian documentary “Once Aurora” (directed by Stian Servoss, Benjamin Langeland) was chosen by the Jury chaired by Brett Morgen as the best documentary musical film and at the same time the laureate Golden Heynal.
The main character of the film Aurora Aksens is called the wonderful child of Björk and is one of the most charismatic singers of the young generation. In the film, the artist opens the door to her magical world . The jury awarded the film for raising the genre, which is a musical documentary, to a higher level. The film also received the student jury award.
The Golden Hobby-Horse in the Polish Competition was awarded to Grzegorz Paprzycki’s “My Country So Beautiful”. The best Polish animated film was “Acid Rain” by Tomasz Popakul. This is the second Silver Hobby-Horse in the artist’s career – the first one he received for the film “Ziegenort” in 2013.
The Silver Hobby-Horse for the director of the best documentary film went to Andrea Kutsila for the film “Summa“, which according to the jury has a humanistic message, expressed in a mature, harmonious form.
The third Silver Hobby-Horse, for the best feature film, went to Helena Oborska for the film “Bitten” for a different approach to interpersonal relationships and for the search for the original language in film.
The Norwegian documentary “The Men’s Room” directed by Petter Sommer and Jo Vemud Svendsen was recognized by the festival audience as the best film of the festival.
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