The 27th Warsaw Film Festival ended on Sunday, 16 October 2011.

“There are very few film festivals in the world whose programmes have so many continental (in our case - European), international, and world premieres, where so many filmmakers from all over the world present their projects in person, and which are as open as the Warsaw Film Festival”, says Stefan Laudyn, the WFF’s director. “Our audiences can meet and talk to all the festival’s guests. Both sides are very happy about this. In addition, we keep expanding the industry part of the festival, the CentEast Market which has become a major meeting place for professionals interested in films from Poland and Eastern Europe”.

THE FESTIVAL IN FIGURES

The WFF comprised 370 screenings at Kinoteka (screens 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7) and Multikino Złote Tarasy (screens 1, 2, 3, 4). The programme included 127 feature length films and 93 shorts from 59 countries. For several dozen of the films the WFF was their European, international, or world premiere.

We issued 1008 accreditations.

152 filmmakers – directors, producers, actors, cinematographers – from 39 countries personally presented their projects at the 27th WFF.

Meetings between filmmakers and audiences after film screenings are a WFF tradition. The 27th WFF included 150 meetings with makers of the films showcased at the festival.

The festival screenings brought in an audience of more than 101,000 people.

PROGRAMME

1. International Competition – for feature films from all over the world.

2. 1-2 Competition – for first and second feature films by directors from all over the world.

3. Free Spirit Competition – for independent, innovative, rebellious films from all over the world.

4. Documentary Competition – for feature length (over 60 mins.) documentaries from all over the world.

5. Short Films Competition – for short films from all over the world (30 mins. or less).

6. Special Screenings – new films by established filmmakers (non-competitive section).

7. Discoveries – visions of the contemporary world (non-competitive section).

8. Discoveries – The World Today (non-competitive section).

9. Polish Short Films Panorama – the most interesting films of the season which have already had their Polish premieres.

10. Family Cinema Weekend – films for children and their parents (non-competitive section).

AWARD WINNERS

The awards in the five competitive sections of the 27th Warsaw Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Jury prize, the Ecumenical Jury prize, and the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) prize were presented to the winners on Saturday night (15 October).

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
The Jury: Christa Saredi, sales agent (Switzerland), Bogdan George Apetri, director (Romania/ USA), Alvaro Brechner, director (Uruguay), Milcho Manchevski, director (Macedonia), ArtemVassilev, producer (Russia) gave the following awards:

Warsaw Grand Prix, funded by the City of Warsaw:
ROSE / RÓŻA (Poland), directed by Wojciech Smarzowski, producer Włodzimierz Niderhaus

Best Director Award:
ANOTHER SILENCE / OTROS SILENCIOS (Argentina / Canada / Brazil / France), directed by Santiago Amigorena

Special Jury Award for Best Actor:
Robert Więckiewicz in COURAGE / WYMYK (Poland), directed by Greg Zgliński

Special Mention:
CRULIC – THE PATH TO BEYOND / CRULIC – DRUMUL SPRE DINCOLO (Romania / Poland), directed by Anca Damian

1-2 COMPETITION
The Jury: Sitora Alieva, festival director (Russia), Mira Staleva, market director (Bulgaria), Paweł Sala, director (Poland), gave the award to

TWILIGHT PORTRAIT / PORTRET V SUMERKAKH (Russia), directed by Angelina Nikonova

FREE SPIRIT COMPETITION
The Jury: Jane Schoettle, programmer of the Toronto International Film Festival (Canada), Paweł Borowski, director (Poland), Auraeus Solito, director (Philippines) gave the Free Spirit Award to:
POMPEYA (Argentina), directed by Tamae Garateguy

Special Mentions:
FAT, BALD, SHORT MAN / GORDO, CALVO Y BAJITO (Colombia), directed by Carlos Osuna
THE SOUL OF FLIES / EL ALMA DE LAS MOSCAS (Spain), directed by Jonathan Cenzual Burley

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES COMPETITION
The Jury: Liat Benhabib, director of the Visual Center at Yad Vashem (Israel), Christian Frei, director (Switzerland), Janusz Mrozowski, director (Poland / France) gave the Best Documentary Feature Award to:
A BITTER TASTE OF FREEDOM (Sweden / Russia / USA), directed by Marina Goldovskaya

Special Mention:
BUCK (USA), directed by Cindy Meehl

SHORT FILMS COMPETITION
The Jury: Anne Parent, co-ordinator of the film market in Clermont-Ferrand (France), Grzegorz Jaroszuk, director (Poland), Sergio Oksman, director (Spain) gave the following awards:
Short Grand Prix:
THE MAKING OF LONGBIRD (UK), directed by Will Anderson

Best Animated Short Film Award:
BRANDT RHAPSODIE (France), directed by Francois Avril

Best Live Action Short Film Award:
SILENT RIVER / APELE TAC, (Romania) directed by Anca Miruna Lazarescu

FIPRESCI AWARD
FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Jury: Carmen Gray (New Zealand / UK), Ola Salwa (Poland), Dean Kotiga (Croatia) gave the FIPRESCI Award for the best Eastern European debut to:

AVE (Bulgaria), directed by Konstantin Bojanov

ECUMENICAL JURY AWARD
The Ecumenical Jury: Guido Convents (Belgium), Hans Hodel (Switzerland), Marek Kotyński (Poland) gave the award to a film presented in the International Competition

Ecumenical Jury Award:
COURAGE / WYMYK (Poland), directed by Greg Zgliński

Two Special Mentions:
CRULIC – THE PATH TO BEYOND / CRULIC – DRUMUL SPRE DINCOLO (Romania / Poland), directed by Anca Damian
GREY MATTER / MATIERE GRISE (Australia / Rwanda), directed by Kivu Ruhorahoza

NETPAC AWARD
Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema. NETPAC Jury: Amaia Torrecilla Olasolo, film promoter (Spain), Jeffrey Jeturian, director (Philippines), Konrad Wągrowski, film critic and journalist (Poland) gave the award to the best Asian film in a competitive section of the WFF:

NETPAC Award:
NO. 89 SHIMEN ROAD (Hong Kong, China / Netherlands), directed Haolun Shu

RESULTS OF THE AUDIENCE POLL

After adding up the votes on Sunday night (16/17 October 2011), we can announce the results of the 27th WFF Audience Poll. The winners are:

Best Feature Film
Rose / Róża, dir. Wojciech Smarzowski

Best Documentary
Buck, dir. Cindy Meehl

Best Short
North Atlantic, dir. Bernardo Nascimento

Best Children’s Film
A Cat in Paris, dir. Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli

Followed by:

Feature films
2.    Rabat, dir. Jim Taihuttu, Victor D. Ponten
3.    Tyrannosaur, dir. Paddy Considine
4.    The Battle of Algiers, dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
5.    The Flowers of Kirkuk, dir. Fariborz Kamkari
6.    Superclásico, dir. Ole Christian Madsen
7.    Weekend, dir. Andrew Haigh
8.    Courage / Wymyk, dir. Greg Zgliński
9.    Crulic – The Path to Beyond, dir. Anca Damian
10.  Intimate Grammar, dir. Nir Bergman

Documentaries
2.    Michel Petrucciani - Body & Soul, dir. Michael Radford
3.    Journey from Zanskar, dir. Frederick Marx
4.    Splinters, dir. Adam Pesce
5.    POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, dir. Morgan Spurlock
6.    A Matter of Taste, dir. Sally Rowe
7.    Hit Me With Music, dir. Miquel Galofré
8.    Out of the Darkness, dir. Stefano Levi
9.    A Bitter Taste of Freedom, dir. Marina Goldovskaya
10.  100 Voices: A Journey Home, dir. Matthew Asner, Danny Gold

INDUSTRY EVENTS

For years now, the WFF has been expanding its professional dimension. This year the festival was accompanied by the following industry events:

- CentEast Market Warsaw – the seventh edition of this film market specializing in Eastern European film; 180 professionals were accredited, including 65 foreigners: producers, distributors, sales agents from major companies such as Wide Management, MK2, m-appeal, Memento Films, Films Boutique and Films Distribution, festival programmers from Budapest, Cannes, Hamburg, Kaunas, Minsk, Odessa, Prague, Rotterdam, San Sebastian, Sofia, Vilnius and Wrocław, representatives of film institutions.

The market comprises two parts:

- CentEast Warsaw-Moscow – a presentation of selected works-in-progress from Eastern Europe, on 14 October in Warsaw and on 22 October in Moscow at the 2MORROW Film Festival. This year we presented 11 projects:
1.   BABY BLUES, dir. Katarzyna Rosłaniec, Poland
2.   DELHI DANCE / TANETS DELI, dir. Ivan Vyrypaev, Russia
3.   FAITH, LOVE AND WHISKEY / VIARA, LJUBOV I WHISKEY, dir. Kristina Nikolova, Bulgaria
4.   FOUR SUNS / CTURI SLUNCE, dir. Bohdan Slama, Czech Republic
5.   THE GAMBLER, dir. Szabolcs Hajdu, Hungary / USA
6.   A NEW FILM BY ANDRZEJ JAKIMOWSKI, Poland / France / Portugal
7.   PUZZLE FOR A BLIND MAN / PUZZLE FOR UN ORB, dir. Andrei Zinca, Romania
8.   RITA’S LAST FAIRY TALE / POSLEDNAYA SKAZKA RITY, dir. Renata Litvinova, Russia
9.   SOULLESS / DUHLESS, dir. Roman Prygunov, Russia
10. TILL NIGHT DO US PART / POKA NOCH NE RAZLUCHIT, dir. Boris Khlebnikov, Russia
11. WOMEN’S DAY / DZIEŃ KOBIET, dir. Maria Sadowska, Poland

- Warsaw Screenings – screenings of the latest Polish films, for professionals specially invited to Warsaw. This year we presented:
1. COURAGE / WYMYK, dir. Greg Zgliński
2. DAAS, dir. Adrian Panek
3. ENTANGLEMENT / UWIKŁANIE, dir. Jacek Bromski
4. FEAR OF FALLING / LĘK WYSOKOŚCI, dir. Bartek Konopka
5. ROSE / RÓŻA, dir. Wojciech Smarzowski;

- FIPRESCI Warsaw Project / Talent Press – six participants – young journalists from Slovenia, Hungary and Poland could try their skills in various fields of film journalism (interviews, reviews, reports from the festival and the CentEast Market) under the expert eye of excellent tutors: Carmen Gray, Martin Blaney PhD, and Jorn Rossing Jensen.

- The Art of Editing – this year’s workshop was taught by leading Polish editors Bartosz Pietras and Adam Torczyński, who both worked on Jan Komasa’s Suicide Room. Bartosz Pietras - editor of Suicide Room, Adam Torczyński - 3D animation (animation director, VFX/3D supervisor, lighting/rendering, composition) for Suicide Room.

- Shorts Warszawa – workshops for makers of short films. During the two-day course Polish and foreign experts taught participants about finding one’s way around the international film market; where to submit shorts and why; how to plan promotional and festival strategies for one’s films; the importance of festivals in career development. Classes were taught by: Izabela Kiszka (Polish Film Institute), Anna Wydra (Otter Films), Alessandro Marcioni (Locarno Film Festival), Anne Parent (Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market) and sales agent Christa Saredi.

PATRONS, PARTNERS, SPONSORS

The Warsaw International Film Festival is organised under the honorary patronage of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the Mayor of Warsaw.
Strategic Partner: ID Marketing
Sponsors and Partners: Empik, Epson, Multikino, Twins s.c., Złote Tarasy
Technological Partner: Plus Mobile Network
Official Car: Chevrolet
Festival Hotel: Marriott
Official Shipper: DHL
Media Partners: Bluszcz, Comedy Central, Filmweb, Gazeta Wyborcza, Przekrój, Trójka, Telewizja Polska S.A., Wirtualna Polska, Withoutabox
The WFF is subsidised by: The Capital City of Warsaw, the Polish Film Institute, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the Local Government of Mazovia Voivodeship

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR

The 28^th Warsaw Film Festival will be held 12-21 October 2012
Deadline for submission of feature-length films: 15 June  2012
Deadline for submission of short films: 31 July 2012