CRACOW AWARDS

At this year’s festival in Cracow, a film produced by the Andrzej Wajda Film School ‘The Sleepwalkers’ received an award for best cinematography. Grand Prix went to a film supported by the School – ‘Rabbit a la Berlin’ directed by Bartek Konopka. Some other awards were also granted to our graduates: to Tomasz Wolski and Marcin Bortkiewicz and to our lecturer, Marcel Łoziński. 

The jury of the Cracow Film Festival honoured Tomasz Madejski – the author of cinematography for ‘The Sleepwalkers’ directed by Maciek Sterło-Orlicki and produced by the Andrzej Wajda Film School. The film was produced within the ‘30 minutes’ programme initiated by Wojciech Marczewski and run by: the Andrzej Wajda Film School, the A.Munk ‘Young and Film’ Studio, part of the PFA, the Polish Public Television and the Polish Film Institute.

‘Rabbit a la Berlin’ - supported by the Andrzej Wajda School, directed by our graduate Bartek Konopka – won the Grand Prix – the Golden Lajkonik. The film tells a story of wild rabbits that inhabited the no-man’s-land within the death zone of the Berlin Wall. The film is an allegory that introduces the history of Eastern Europe to the viewers from ‘a rabbit’s perspective’. For director Bartek Konopka and cinematographer Piotr Rosołowski it has been a second attempt, after ‘Ballada o kozie’ [The Goat Walker], to tell human stories from the animal perspective. ‘Rabbit a la Berlin’ is an international project financed by German television broadcasters MDR, RBB and ARTE and by Polish Public Television Programme 1. The film was also financially supported by: Finish television YLE, Belgian Lichtpunt and Dutch VPRO. It was filmed within the confines of the European MEDIA programme and in cooperation with the Andrzej Wajda Film School and the Polish Film Institute. The film producers are: MS Films (Poland) and Majade Filmproduktion (Germany).  

‘Poste Restante’ by Marcel Łoziński – a lecturer of our Documentary Course – received the Silver Dragon and the FIPRESCI awards. The film tells us a story of a letter whose addressee cannot be found. It is addressed to God and just like many other letters and parcels, ends up in the Department for the Undeliverable Mail in Koluszki in central Poland.

Our graduates – Tomasz Wolski and Marcin Bortkiewicz – have also been awarded. Wolski’s film ‘Szczęściarze’ [‘Lucky Men’] received the Audience Award and Bortkiewicz’s ‘Nauczanie początkowe’ [‘Elementary Education’] received a special mention of the jury.

 

(June 2009)