The film was very favourably received, both by the audience and the critics. In the prestigious ranking, published in the Festival Newspaper, recognised film critics: Tue Steen Müller (Filmkommentaren.dk), Will Tizard ("Variety"), Truls Lie ("NY TID"), Paweł T. Felis ("Gazeta Wyborcza"), Krzysztof Kwiatkowski ("Wprost") and Janusz Wróblewski ("Polityka") unanimously awarded the film the highest score possible, which unquestionably gave it the first place among feature-length documentary films, shown within the frames of the Festival. In one of his feature articles, Tue Steen Müller wrote specially for the Festival Newspaper: "This film is for the author an international break-through, which gives him a place in the first league of European documentary film directors."
The documentary film by Piotr Stasik is an intimate portrait of the city and its inhabitants. We get acquainted with the protagonists in the New York City subway, and we follow them to the surface in order to learn more about their lives, desires, passions, hopes and dreams – sometimes squandered, and sometimes still waiting for fulfilment. The collection of stories forms an emotional tale about loneliness which accompanies human beings living in the Western society of the 21st century.
The European Film Award, given since 1988, is one of the most prestigious awards granted to European films. Its first laureate was Krzysztof Kieślowski for his "A Short Film About Killing." Krakow Film Festival is one of the 10 European film festivals, recommending films to the Award in the category Documentary Film and one of 15 recommending films in the category Short Film. This year, the official recommendation was given to the film "21 x New York" by Piotr Stasik that opened the 56th edition of the Festival. Among other recommending festivals, there are, among others, the festivals in Locarno, Venice, San Sebastian, Berlin, Amsterdam and Lisbon.
The full list of nominees for European Doc Award:
21 x New York, dir. Piotr Stasik
A Family Affair, dir. Tom Fassaert
Fire at Sea, dir. Gianfranco Rosi
Mr Gaga, reż. Tomer Heymann
S is for Stanley, dir. Alex Infascelli
The Land of the Enlightened, dirż. Pieter-Jan De Pue
The award ceremony will be held on December 10 in Wroclaw, this year's Capital of Culture.