Jurors of the 42nd Polish Film Festival

We already know the jurors who will decide on awards in three film competitions during this year’s Polish Film Festival in Gdynia: the Main Competition, the Visions Apart Competition and the Short Film Competition.

Jury of the Main Competition of the 42nd PFF: Jerzy Antczak (Chairman of the Jury), Robert Bolesto, Agnieszka Grochowska, Andrzej Jakimowski, Włodek Pawlik, Paweł Pawlikowski, Witold Stok, Beata Walentowska, Anna Wunderlich.

Jury of the Visions Apart Competition of the 42nd PFF: Bogdan Dziworski, Lech Majewski (Chairman of the Jury), Agnieszka Smoczyńska.

Jury of the Short Film Competition of the 42nd PFF: Kuba Czekaj, Joanna Krauze (Chairwoman of the Jury), Carla Simón

Biograms

Jury of the Main Competition

Jerzy Antczak, Chairman of the Jury

Actor, director, screenwriter, producer, lecturer. Born on 25th December 1929. He graduated from the Acting Department of the National School of Acting in Łódź. Distinguished and awarded many times as the creator of TV Theatre – between the years 1959–1975 he made about 130 TV Theatre plays. His films were appreciatied at festivals in Poland and abroad, incl. with Prix Italia for Maestro (1966) in Palermo, two awards for Epilogue at Nurnberg (1970) in Prague, the Bronze Ramses for The Shot (1965) in Cairo. Nights and Days (1975, which he wrote and directed) was nominated for the Academy Award. In 1980 he emigrated to the USA. At the beginning of the nineties, in Poland, he directed such films as The Lady of the Camellias (1994) and Chopin. Desire of Love (2002) (the Eagle award in the best leading actress category). Winner of audience polls, honoured with state decorations many times, incl. with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1976) and the Golden Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2008). In 2013, during the Film Festival in Gdynia he received the Special Platinum Lions Award for career achievement. Member of the Polish Filmmakers Association and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Co-founder and lecturer (1985–2010) of the Film School at the UCLA.

Robert Bolesto

Born 1977 in Kętrzyn. In 2001 he made his debut in Rzeczpospolita daily (“Plus-Minus” supplement) with his short story Gorący dzień. In 2002 he completed a two-year writing workshop at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw. Between the years 2003–2006 he collaborated with Laboratorium Dramatu. He made his stage debut in 2005 with a drama 147 dni directed by Krzysztof Rekowski in Zygmunt Hübner Powszechny Theater in Warsaw; in the 2006/2007 season he was its literary manager. Author of such dramas as: O matko i córko!, Zabić Bonda, Lovecraft, Ayrton Senna da Silva. He published his short stories in the Lampa monthly and his texts in the Machina magazine and on the dwutygodnik.com website. Co-writer of the feature film Hardkor Disko (2014) directed by Krzysztof Skonieczny. Writer of Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s The Lure (2015), Jan P. Matuszyński’s The Last Family (2016, Eagle 2017 in the best screenplay category) and Łukasz Ronduda’s A Heart of Love (2017).

Agnieszka Grochowska

Film, TV and theatre actress. In 2002 she graduated from the Acting Department of the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. On the stage of Teatr Studio she performed in such plays as The Seagull with Krystyna Janda or Amadeus with Zbigniew Zapasiewicz. She made her TV debut in a TV play Beatrice Cenci directed by Jan Englert and her big screen debut in Dariusz Gajewski’s AlaRm. In 2003 she played in a renowned film of the same director, Warsaw, from the Generation 2000 cycle. Since then she acted in such films as Magdalena Piekorz’s The Welts, Ryszard Zaorski’s Just Love Me, Marek Koterski’s We’re All Christs, Janusz Kamiński’s Hania, Jan Jakub Kolski’s Venice, Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness, Dariusz Gajewski’s Strange Heaven and Andrzej Wajda’s Walesa: Man of Hope. She took part in several foreign film productions, such as Upperdog, Beyond the Steppes, Child 44 and The Hope Rooms. She received the Golden Lions at the Film Festival in Gdynia three times: for a supporting role in Maciej Ślesicki’s film Three Minutes. 21:37 (2010) and for her leading roles in In Darkness (2012) and Strange Heaven (2015). In 2013 she was honoured with the Eagle Award for Best Leading Actress in Filip Marczewski’s Shameless. In 2014 she received the Zbyszek Cybulski Award, the Gold Cross of Merit and the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.

Andrzej Jakimowski

Director, screenwriter, producer. Born 1963 in Warsaw. He graduated in Philosophy from the University of Warsaw and in Directing from the Radio and Television Faculty of the University of Silesia. In the nineties he was making documentaries. His feature film debut Squint Your Eyes (2003) received awards at the festivals in Mannheim, San Francisco, Sochi, Gdynia and four Eagle Awards. His second feature Tricks (2007) won over thirty awards at international festivals, incl. in Venice for Best Film in the Giornate Degli Autori section and the Europa Cinemas Label for Best European Film, and also the Golden Lions in Gdynia and the Eagle Award for Best Director. In 2009 it became Poland’s Oscar candidate. His third feature Imagine (2012) had its premiere at the festival in Toronto. It won the Best Director award and the Audience Award at the Warsaw Film Festival 2012.

Włodek Pawlik

Pianist and composer. Born 1958. Graduate of prof. Barbara Hesse-Bukowska’s piano class from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. He also completed studies at the Jazz Department at Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg. In 2007 he did a PhD at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, where he currently lectures on improvisation. His artistic output comprises thirty original albums, many works in the field of film music – e.g. for Dorota Kędzierzawska’s The Crows and Time to Die, Borys Lankosz’s The Reverse (the Golden Lions for Best Music at the PFFF 2009 in Gdynia, the Eagle 2010 for Best Music) or for Marleen Gorris’s Within the Whirlwind – theatre music, orchestra compositions, ballet music, an opera, a cantata, two piano concerts, vocal music pieces.

For his album Night in Calisia he won a Grammy in 2014. It is the first and the only Grammy in history for Polish jazz. He also received awards, incl. the Grand Prix at the International Jazz Contest in Dunkirk (France 1984) and 2nd Prize at the International Jazz Composition Contest in Monaco. Among the artist’s countless awards and decorations it is worth mentioning: the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Coryphaeus of Polish Music in the Personality of the Year category 2014, the Fryderyk 2014 award in the Jazz Artist of the Year category, the Grand Prix Jazz Melomani (2013, 2014) and the Double Platinum Award for the Night in Calisia album.

Paweł Pawlikowski

He was born in Warsaw. At the age of fourteen he left for the UK with his mother. He studied Philosophy and French and German Studies. At Oxford he wrote a PhD thesis about the works of the Austrian poet Georg Trakl, one of the first expressionists. He made documentaries for the BBC, incl. From Moscow to Pietushki (1990), Dostoyevsky’s Travels (1991), Serbian Epics (1992), Tripping with Zhirinovsky (1995). For his film Last Resort (2000), which he also wrote, he received awards incl. the BAFTA Award for the Most Promising Newcomer in British Film and the Grand Prix at the Edinburgh IFF.

He became famous for My Summer of Love (2004). The film was showered with awards: it won the Edinburgh IFF (2004), it received a BAFTA Award for the outstanding British Film of the Year (2005), the Grand Prix at the Cabourg Film Festival (France, 2005) and at the Oslo Film Festival 2005, it also won the Eagle Award for Best European Film (2006).

For his film Ida he was awarded with the Golden Lions at the Gdynia Film Festival 2013 and the Eagle for Best Film and Best Director. In 2015 the film received the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. In addition, it won five awards of the European Academy and the Goya Award for European Film granted by the Spanish Film Academy. It was the first Polish film to win the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

He has just finished shooting his new film Zimna wojna which is to be premiered in 2018.

Witold Stok

He graduated from the Direction of Photography Department of the Łódź Film School. Director of photography of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s documentaries and his earlier feature film Personnel. Most frequently he worked on documentaries with Andrzej Titkow and Marcel Łoziński; on features – with Marek Piwowski (Foul Play), Tomasz Zygadło (The Puzzle) and Edward Żebrowski (In Broad Daylight). In the seventies he directed documentaries at the Documentary Film Production Company WFD.

In the early eighties he emigrated to the UK, where he’s been continuing his career. Since 1982 he’s lived in London. He’s worked on many feature films, including Stephen Poliakoff’s Close My Eyes and Century, Nicolas Roeg’s Two Deaths, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Stringer, Sam Miller’s Among Giants, Michael Davies’s The Match, Brian Grant’s Gladiatress.

Lecturer at the Arts University Bournemouth, Goldsmiths College University of London and at Wajda School. Member of the British Society of Cinematographers.

The latest films whose director of photography he was were Mall Girls (2009), Maiden Vows (2010), Lynch (2010) and Viva Belarus! (2012).

Beata Walentowska

Born 1980. Film editor. In 2014 she graduated in Film Editing from the Film and Television Department of the Łódź Film School. Editor of films directed by Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal, Piotr Dumała and Adam Sikora, among others. Nominated for the Polish Film Award (Eagle) in the best editing category in 2011 for Piotr Dumała’s The Forest and in 2017 for Tomasz Wasilewski’s United States of Love; for the latter she received the Best Editing award at the Film Festival in Gdynia 2016.

Anna Wunderlich

Production designer, set decorator, illustrator. She graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (diploma in prof. Janusz Stanny’s book design atelier in 1979). Since 1980 she has been dealing with film, TV and theatre art direction. She prepared production designs for many feature films, TV Theatre plays, series, theatre performances and operas. She has collaborated both with renowned directors and first-time directors – the filmmakers of the young generation.

Awarded for her designs for Filip Bajon’s films When They Were Lads and The Spring to Come (PFFF in Gdynia 1996 and 2001), Leszek Wosiewicz’s The Family Events (PFFF in Gdynia 1997). Nominated for the Eagle for The Spring to Come (2002) and Maiden Vows (2011) directed by Filip Bajon, winner of the Eagle for Feliks Falk’s The Collector (2006) and Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze’s Papusza (2014). For Papusza she was also awarded at the Waterloo Historical Film Festival 2014. Winner of awards for the production design of TV Theatre plays at the Two Theatres Festival in Sopot for Parasite (2004), Flaw (2006) and The Morality of Mrs. Dulska (2013) directed by Marcin Wrona, Najweselszy człowiek directed by Łukasz Wylężałek (2012). The play directed by Marcin Wrona (2016) won the festival’s Grand Prix and its production design received a Special Mention.

Member of the Polish Film Academy and the European Film Academy.

Jury of the Visions Apart Competition

Bogdan Dziworski

Director, cinematographer, photographer. He graduated from the Direction of Photography Department of the Łódź Film School. For many years he was associated with the Educational Film Studio in Łódź where he created many excellent documentaries, incl. The Cross and the Axe (1972), Modern Pentathlon (1975), Ice Hockey (1976), The Olympics (1978), Nordic Combination (1978), Skiing Scenes with Franz Klammer (1980), The Fencer (1980), A Few Stories About Man (1983), Szapito (1985). His works won a dozen or so awards and special mentions each at the most significant festivals in Europe. In 2014 he received the Dragon of Dragons award at 54th Krakow Film Festival for career achievement. His is the author of about forty short, medium- and feature-length films and also exhibitions and photo albums. He is currently finishing his film Andrew Warhola, My Factory in which he is dealing with the figure of Andy Warhol.

Lech Majewski, Chairman of the Jury

Painter, poet, prose writer, director. Born in Katowice in 1953, working mainly abroad since 1981. He studied Painting at the Katowice branch of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. He graduated from the Directing Department of the Łódź Film School. His films, e.g. The Knight, Wojaczek, Angelus, The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Mill and the Cross, Field of Dogs, were presented at international film festivals (incl. in Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, Rome, New York, Rio de Janeiro, London, Barcelona, Jerusalem and Montreal) and won numerous awards.

He is also the author of novels, such as Chestnut Epic (1981), The Pied Piper of New York (1993), Pilgrimage to the Grave of Brigitte Bardot Miraculous (1996), Metaphysics (2002), The Hypnotist (2003), Manhattan Babilon (2015) – volumes of verse – e.g. Tales of Thousand Nights and One City (1977), Paradise (1978), Home (1981), Museum of My Poverty (1997), St. Sebastian (1998) – and essays – Asa Nisi Masa – Magic in Fellini’s 8 1/2 (1994), Official Center of the World (1998).

Lech Majewski’s videoart, photos and sculptures were presented by many museums and galleries in the world. In 2006 the New York Museum of Modern Art honoured his works by organising an individual retrospective and a year later his Blood of a Poet installation became part of 52nd Venice Biennale. His next videoart cycle entitled Bruegel Suite was exhibited in the Louvre, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the National Gallery in London, Prado in Madrid, the National Museum in Kraków and at 54th Venice Biennale. His latest cycle, Supermarket Dante, was part of the world modern art presentation in Fundição Progresso in Rio de Janeiro.

He also lectured at many universities and higher education schools around the world; from the Canterbury University in New Zealand, through Harvard and Berkeley in the USA to the University of Pisa and Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome.

Agnieszka Smoczyńska

She graduated in Culture Studies and in Directing from the Radio and Television Faculty of the University of Silesia in Katowice. She took part in master courses at Wajda School. She has made short documentary and feature films, awarded many times at Polish and international festivals, Aria Diva won three awards at the Krakow Film Festival 2008, among others. Holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship for outstanding artistic achievements.

In 2015 she made her feature-length debut The Lure, where she experiments with the genres of musical and horror. Awarded for Best Debut at the PFFF in Gdynia 2015; she was also hailed the Discovery of the Year of the Polish Film Awards. The film won her dozens of awards around the world, incl. in Fantasporto, Sofia, Montreal and Vilnius, and at the Sundance Film Festival where it received a Special Award for ‘a unique vision and design’.

Last year, invited by the Sydney Film Festival, Variety and the European Film Promotion, she took part in the European Cinema: Ten Women Filmmakers to Watch programme. Honoured with the Global Filmmaking Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Jury of the Short Film Competition

Kuba Czekaj

Director, screenwriter. He graduated in Directing from the Radio and Television Faculty of the University of Silesia in Katowice in 2010. Based on his own screenplays he directed short films Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark Room and Twist & Blood, both of which received many awards. His feature-length debut, Baby Bump, was awarded at the Venice IFF 2015. Moreover, he won many other awards and special mentions in Poland and abroad (incl. at the Outfest Los Angeles LGTB Film Festival 2016). His next film, The Erlprince, received the Youth Jury Award at the Film Festival in Gdynia 2016. The American premiere of the film took place at the Slamdance Film Festival 2017 in Park City and the European one – at the Berlin IFF 2017 where the screenplay of his next film, Sorry, Poland!, was honoured with the Baumi Script Development Award – an award commemorating the producer, Karl Baumgartner. That same screenplay received the Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award for Best Eastern and Central European Script at the Cannes IFF in 2017.

Joanna Krauze, Chairwoman of the Jury

Script doctor and academic teacher. Graduate of the Jagiellonian University. She worked in the directing department of films by Krzysztof Zanussi, Edward Żebrowski, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Antoni Krauze and others. She was the literature expert at the TVP Centre in Kraków and Dom Film Studio. Between the years 1999–2001, she was a lecturer of the Training and Programme Analysis Centre of the TVP SA Television Academy, she was preparing analyses of news programmes in TVP. Permanent collaborator of the Polish edition of the Hartley-Merrill screenwriting contest, later Script Pro. Between the years 1980–2008 she lectured at the Radio and Television Faculty of the University of Silesia in Katowice. Since 2004 she’s been lecturing at Wajda School.

Carla Simón

Film director. She graduated in Audiovisual Communication from the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona, in the meantime spending a year at a student exchange at the University of California. In 2011 she won the prestigious la Caixa Foundation scholarship and moved to the UK to study at the London Film School. There she directed short films: Born Positive, Lipstick and Las Pequeñas Cosas, all of which qualified to participate in international film festivals. Summer 1993 is her feature-length debut. The film was premiered at the Berlin IFF 2017, where it won Best First Feature and the Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for Best Film. It also received the Biznaga de Oro at the Málaga Spanish Film Festival 2017, Best Picture at the Odesa International Film Festival and Best Director at BAFICI. While preparing for her second feature-length film, Carla is teaching young filmmakers at the Cinema en Curs workshops.

Main sponsors of the 42nd Polish Film Festival are PKO Bank Polski and PKN Orlen. Organizers: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Polish Film Institute, Polish Filmmakers Association, Marshal of Pomorskie Voivodeship, Mayor of the City of Gdynia. Co-Organizers: Telewizja Polska SA, HBO Polska, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Ministry of Development.

The Festival will begin on 18^th September and it will last until 23^rd September. There is ongoing sale of tickets and passes to Festival screenings (https://system.festiwalgdynia.pl/en).