Tour Courts festival, taking place in French Aix-en-Provence, celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. At present, the festival is one of the oldest French events dedicated exclusively to short films. After the success of Polish filmmakers at the festival last year, when "Glasgow" by Piotr Subbotko and "The Last Day of Summer" by Piotr Stasik got awarded, it was good news that as many as six Polish films qualified for this year’s edition of the festival. Apart from the aforementioned "Frozen Stories" by Grzegorz Jaroszuk, the following films met in the competition: "The Lake" by Jacek Piotr Bławut, "Drawn from memory" by Marcin Bortkiewicz, "Normal people" by Piotr Złotorowicz, documentary "Next" by Adam Janisch and animated "Noise" by Przemek Adamski.
After all, it was the film by Jaroszuk which got the festival’s Grand Prix, having bested 59 short films from around the world. The second award for the film was the audience’s award. Exactly a year ago, "Frozen stories" were given the same set of awards at another French festival – International Film Schools Festival – Rencontres Henri Langlois.
"Frozen stories" – bitter-sweet tale of two worst supermarket employees – is the diploma film by Grzegorz Jaroszuk, the graduate of the Polish National Film School in Łódź, made in co-production with EasyBusyProductions.
Grzegorz Jaroszuk was born in 1983 in Warsaw. In 2011, he graduated from Film and Television Directing Department of the Polish National Film School in Łódź. During his studies, he made six short films, some of which were shown at several international festivals in Europe. Currently, he is preparing to the full-length film début.
More information about the award-winning films can be found on the festival’s official website