Yet another Film Festival has come to its end: the 29th Warsaw Film Festival that ran from 11 to 20 October, concluded with Venus in Fur, Roman Polanski’s new film. Indeed, the Polish audience was happy to greet its fellow countryman who was supposed to present his new work on the last day of the festival, which was also the Polish premiere of the film. But, he never came. Instead, he sent his wife and leading lady, Emmanuelle Seigner.
The festival offered numerous premieres from Eastern Europe as well as the CentEast Film Market with a new initiative, the European-China Promotion Project whose aim is to channel Chinese films into international festivals and distribution and introduce at the same time European cinema both to the Chinese audience and distribution.
The Festival’s director, Stefan Laudyn, announced the winners and this year, to no surprise, Warsaw’s Grand Prix was snatched by Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida that had also won that same night in London! According to the jury, “From the superb combination of script, directing, cinematography, acting and music comes a beautiful and delicate film that portrays the post-war Polish society, trying to get past its demons”.
Other winners include Zaza Urushadze (Best Director for Mandarins); Uljana Kim and Roberts Vinovskis, the producers of the film The Gambler by Ignas Jonynas; Tudor Cristian Jurgiu (Best Film in the 1-2 Competition for The Japanese Dog); Milko Lazarov (Best Film in the 1-2 Competition for Alienation); Ché Sandoval (Best Film for Much Better Than You in the Free Spirit Competition); Richars Rowley (Best Documentary Film for Dirty Wars) and the International Critics’ Award (FIPRESCI Award) went to Yozgat Blues by Mahmut Fazil Coskun.
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