This year’s jury for student film consisted of Caleb Deschanel, Tony Lawson, Lech Majewski, Sergey Trofimov, Phedon Papamichael, Daniel Pearl and Anastas Michos. Twenty-four films were shown in the competition, including three Polish titles, apart from the awarded “Such a Landscape” also “Killing Auntie” by Mateusz Głowacki (DOP. Kacper Sędzielewski) and “Magma” by Paweł Maślona (DOP. Cezary Stolecki). Among all the films presented in the competition, the jury picked three best titles. Zuzanna Pyda, the cinematographer of “Such a Landscape”, has received a Golden Tadpole – Laszlo Kovacs Student Award, as well as a cheque for 10 000 PLN, which is a Polish Filmmakers Association award for the winner of the student etudes competition.
This is how Zuzanna Pyda remembers her work on the film*: the work on “Such a Landscape” was a very interesting journey. The vital role that the camera plays in the film was already assumed in the script. Making a storyboard didn’t make any sense, we knew with Jagoda that the camera would be following the people, that it should describe the emotions, not the situations. A hand-held camera allowed us to tell such a story. In order to bring all the stories to a common ground, I decided to use one 35mm lens. However, that kind of work was only possible with the great understanding that we have with Jagoda and the countless hours of talking about the script.
The Belgian etude “Zinneke” (dir. Rémi Allier, DOP. Erika Medav) received the Silver Tadpole, while the Bronze Tadpole went to the Austrian “Funeral of Harald Kramer” (dir. Marc Schlegel, DOP. Anselm Hartmann). In the course of the international student etudes competition a Polish Film Institute and Mastershot Special Award for Best Cinematography was presented, which was given this year to a Nederlandse Filmacademie student Paul Özgür for the film “Magnesium” (dir. Sam De Jong).
The full list of this year’s winners can be found on the Camerimage official website
*the quote comes from a Łódź Film School newsletter (23.11.2013)