This year’s edition turned out to be surprisingly successful for Polish short cinema. Two films produced at Polish National Film School in Łodź made their way to the Pardi di domani competition – “Without snow” by Magnus von Horn and “Frozen Stories” by Grzegorz Jaroszuk. Finally it was Jaroszuk’s film that was chosen by the jury and received the red envelope with the European Film Academy nomination.
EFA awards – by many considered as the European Oscars- are presented annually from 1988 in ten categories. For this year’s edition there were already 13 films nominated, among which there is also Polish documentary “Paparazzi” by Piotr Bernaś, who found himself in the group of nominees thanks to the screening at 51st Krakow Film Festival this May. In September the remaining two from 15 film festivals co-operating with EFA will announce their nominations – those will be presented on 10th September in Venice, and in the following two weeks at Drama ISFF.
“Frozen stories” is the grotesque tale about the young girl and boy who work at the same supermarket. As the worst employees of the supermarket they have been ordered to find a purpose of their lives and in just two days start a better, brand new life. All of the sudden a popular television show aims to help them to complete the task. The film is a perverse story, set at the background of the coolest supermarket’s corners, that shows the deep loneliness of two outsiders and their desperate struggles to escape from lives they used to live.
Grzegorz Jaroszuk born in Warsaw in 1983 is a this year’s graduate of the directing department at the Polish National Film School in Lodz. He made six short films so far that – just like his “A story of the missing car” – were screened at the festivals both in Poland and abroad.
The list of this year’s EFA nominees available here
More on festival’s laureates to be found at the festival’s website