The first award of the evening – Vilko Filač award, named after the Slovenian cinematographer – went to Bartosz Świniarski – the author of the cinematography for the school etude by Martin Rath entitled "Arena.” The Jury that comprised of Janusz Kaminski and Goran Vlatević unanimously decided to award the prize to the Pole – “Arena” is a film which definitely stood out in terms of using the visual aspects in telling the story”.
"Arena" is a film made by Martin Rath – the student of the Lodz Film School. It is the story of a young hitchhiker, who is given shelter by the inhabitants of the Bieszczady mountains. Fascinated by charisma of the people and the wildness of the place, he decides to put himself to the test and in this way to establish his presence in the mountains. There remains only one question: to whom we should prove our strength?
15 short films made by young filmmakers were selected to this year’s main competitive section. The Jury, comprising of Bérénice Bejo (French actress known by her performance in the film “The Artist”), Guillermo Arriaga (Mexican screenwriter and director) and Srdjan Koljević (Serbian director and screenwriter) gave three main awards. The second award – the Silver Egg – went to Julia Kolberger – the author of 30-minute fiction film “The Easter Crumble”. It is the first foreign award for Kolberger’s film, which has been already awarded several times in Poland.
This Easter holiday is not going to be successful… Stefan and Ewelina come to Urszula and Marek for the Easter breakfast. At once, the hidden grudges and regrets about the common past come to the fore. The matters get seriously complicated when Ada, Urszula’s daughter, appears. She came from England with her new fiancée, who differs from her mother’s expectations to a large degree… Breakfast turns into supper, and Urszula has the worst day of her life. The film was made within the frames of “30 Minutes” programme and it was produced by the Munk Studio, working within the structures of the Polish Filmmakers Association.
Apart from the aforementioned Polish award-winners, the third Polish film was screened in the very same competition- the fiction etude by Grzegorz Zariczny entitled “Our Bad Winter” This year’s Küstendorf film festival was organised for the seventh time, from 18 to 23 January in a village built by Kusturica as a set of the film “Life is a Miracle” in 2000.
You can find the full list of winners on the festival’s official website