At the 61st Krakow Film Festival, on the June 1st, the Dragon of Dragon award will be given to Piotr Dumała, “the international master of animated film and the creator of original film techniques.” The 61st Krakow Film Festival will take place from May 30th to June 6th, 2021.
Piotr Dumała is an outstanding Polish author: scriptwriter, animator, director, art director, drafter, poster designer, writer, actor and educator. A graduate of the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1982), where he also studied at the Studio of Photography and Animated Film of Professor Daniel Szczechura, the co-founder of the Polish school of animation, and also the winner of the Dragon of Dragons award.
“Since it was in Krakow where my film career started, it remained in my imagination as the place of hope, dreams and meetings with directors – experiences which excited a young film-maker. Probably, the Krakow Festival is primarily the festival of my youth. So, this award now gives me some strange sense of looking at it from the opposite perspective, recalls Piotr Dumała. I have always perceived the Dragon of Dragons as the award for someone, to sum up their great works, long years of incessant achievements in the field of film art, particularly short film. My first professional animated film, “Lykantropia,” was actually made a long time ago, in 1981, which is exactly 40 years ago, but the property of time is its relativity. Back then, the directors who were awarded the Dragon of Dragons seemed to be some kind of saints to me. And I was like a deckhand who did not even dream of becoming the captain one day. So indeed, I am getting the rank of captain now, and maybe it is a good moment to close the chapter in this way. But at the same time, I am still feeling halfway there, even if it were to turn out that what I am doing now is not the middle of the road at all, but rather its finale.”
Traditionally, the award ceremony of the Dragon of Dragons will be accompanied by the retrospective of the laureate’s work. In the programme, there are several works by Piotr Dumała, both his first award-winning films as well as the latest ones. As every year, the award-winner will give a master class, opened not only to film-makers, but to all fans of the animated film.
The Dragon of Dragons award, given for the 24th time this year, is the highest distinction granted by the Krakow Film Foundation Program Council, the organizer of the Krakow Film Festival, in recognition of the contribution to the development of international cinema in documentary and animated film genre.