This year nine Polish shorts were in the competitions: five documentaries, one feature and three animations.
The award for the best documentary short in the international competition was given to ”Close Ties” by Zofia Kowalewska. The film tells the story of a forty five years long marriage. Barbara and Zdzisław could be proud of themselves if not for the fact that in the meantime the husband left the wife for his lover for eight years. But now they are together again, although Barbara claims that if it were not for his infirm legs, Zdzisław would still be chasing skirts around Kraków. Despite the past resentment, everyday problems with paying bills, waiting for the bathroom and rearranging furniture, they have a bond that is hard to define.
Santa Lucia for the best animated film went to ”Foreign Body” by Marta Magnuska. It is a story about something that's considered to be strange at first but turns out to be the dearest thing to us. About the inside and outside transformation. A foreign body in the animation lives its own life. You're not able to get rid of it, it's always with you, you need it. Caress that odd part of yours, don't try to shave its long tousled fur.
Apart from the films competing for the festival awards, the audience in Bogota had a chance to see over twenty Polish documentaries in the Focus on Polish Docs programme. This section presented not only Polish documentary classics but also new films from the younger generation of directors, which had already gained recognition at international festivals.
More information available at the festival website.