FIPRESCI CRITICS PROJECT - APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN FOR THE 19TH EDITION OF THE FESTIVAL'S FILM CRITICISM WORKSHOP

The Warsaw Film Festival is proud to launch the 19th edition of the FIPRESCI Warsaw Critics Project, which will take place during the 40th edition of the festival, October 11-20, 2024. The FIPRESCI Warsaw Critics Project is a programme for young critics and journalists from Central and Eastern Europe who are starting their professional career. The project is coordinated by the Warsaw Film Foundation and FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics. The group of selected participants will be invited to join one of the most prestigious film events in this part of Europe. They will meet filmmakers and industry representatives from all over the world and will take part in the deliberations of the FIPRESCI jury, which will choose the best Eastern European debut at WFF. They will also form a Young FIPRESCI Jury and award a prize to the film of their choice.

The workshop programme provides a practical approach to the work of a journalist at a film festival. Participants will be writing under the guidance of professionals, learning to face time pressures and improve their writing while meeting numerous representatives of the industry. They will also learn how to work in a competitive market, shape their work depending on the outlet and how to develop new ways of writing about cinema. Selected works will be published by websites related to cinema, including FIPRESCI.

The participants of previous editions of the workshop have cooperated with publications such as: Screen International, Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter, Cineuropa, Ioncinema, Film New Europe and Eye For Film. The Warsaw Critics Project is co-created and coordinated by film journalists Amber Wilkinson and Tommaso Tocci.

Amber Wilkinson is an Edinburgh-based journalist with more than 20 years of experience. She is the co-founder and editorial director of the British website Eye For Film. Her byline has appeared in Screen International, The Times, Sydney Morning Herald and Filmmaker Magazine. She also works as an independent film critic for BBC Radio Scotland. She has led a number of workshops for young FIPRESCI critics, including at WFF and Miskolc Film Festival in Hungary, and helped to redevelop and co-run the workshops for student critics at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2018 and 2019.

Tommaso Tocci is a freelance film journalist. In his native Italy he works as a critic for Mymovies.it. He's active on the international festival circuit and has been published in outlets around the world, among them Indiewire, Ioncinema, RogerEbert.com, CinemaScope, Filmmaker Magazine, Montages and Filmkrant. He has worked in various roles for festivals such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Berlinale Talents, Saas-Fee FilmFest, Giornate degli Autori in Venice and the Warsaw Film Festival, leading the FIPRESCI Critics Project since 2018.

The workshop is designed for critics aged 30 or under, fluent in English – both speaking and writing. All participants will be provided with accommodation for the duration of the festival, and their travel expenses will be covered. Those willing to take part in the workshop are encouraged to send their applications as soon as possible, including a resume/CV, a cover letter and two English-language samples of published work of between 400 and 1200 words in length - at least one of these should be a film review. In addition, candidates should submit a new short review (250 words) written in English specifically for the workshop, which we’ll use as a starting point of our work together in Warsaw. For the subject of this review, candidates may choose one of these recent films: Anatomy of a Fall, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest.

Please send your application to fipresci@wff.pl. Submission deadline: September 8. 

40th Warsaw International Film Festival opens for submissions - deadline - July 31

The 40th edition of Warsaw International Film Festival (WFF) is planned October11-20, this year. WFF is accredited by FIAPF as a non-specialised competitive film festival.

We are open for submissions of:
- fiction features
- documentary features
- shorts (of 40 min or less): live action, animation, documentaries.

Regular deadline: July 15
Late deadline: July 31

WFF has six competitive sections with international juries and cash awards, including a 100,000 PLN (over 20,000 euro) Warsaw Grand Prix, funded by the Mayor of Warsaw.

We are looking for brand new films, completed in 2024, preferably world, international, and European premieres. Before submitting, please kindly check if your film meets the eligibility criteria at https://wff.pl/en/filmmakers/submitting-a-film-40

We accept submissions via www.wff.pl, www.filmfreeway.com, and www.festhome.com.

Contact: films@wff.pl

Winners of the Audience Award at the 39th Warsaw Film Festival

Here are the films, which were liked the most by the audience of the 39th Warsaw International Film Festival, which came to an end yesterday.

A. Fiction features:

1. Anxiety, dir. Sławomir Fabicki, Poland/Switzerland/Germany
2. Goodbye Julia, dir. Mohamed Kordofani, Sudan/Egypt/France/Germany/Saudi Arabia/Sweden
3. The Clowns, dir. Gabriela Muskała, Poland
4. Diagnosis: Dissent, dir. Denys Tarasov, Ukraine
5. Riddle of Fire, reż./dir. Weston Razooli, USA

B. Documentary features:

1. Ani Choying Drolma: Mission Impossible, dir. F. Jennifer Lin, Shan Bai, Hong Kong SAR
2. The One I Love, dir. Paweł Hejbudzki, Poland/Mexico/Netherlands
3. The Crossing: Consequences of the Truth, dir. Andrew Didway, USA/Ukraine
4. Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story, dir. Nate Pommer, Eric Weinrib, USA
5. Danger Zone, dir. Vita Maria Drygas, Poland/UK/Belgium

C. Shorts:

1. Basia Three Short Stories / Trzy opowiadania o Basi, dir. Mateusz Pietrak, Poland
2. Don't Mess with Gienek / Nie z Gienkiem te numery, dir. Grzegorz Szczepaniak, Poland
3. On The Search For Love / Starsza pani szuka, dir. Maria Wider, Poland
4. Be Somebody / Być Kimś, dir. Michał Toczek, Poland
5. Echo / Echo, dir. Emi Buchwald, Poland

Awards of the 39th Warsaw International Film Festival

1. INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION Jury members Dorota Kędzierzawska (Poland), Nadejda Koseva (Bulgaria), Yurii Andrukhovych (Ukraine), Alejandro Torres Kennedy (Mexico)ł gave the following awards:

1.1. Warsaw Grand Prix went to THE SHADOW OF CATIRE / LA SOMBRA DEL CATIRE, dir. Jorge Hernandez Aldana (Venezuela/Mexico)
The Warsaw Grand Prix includes 100,000 zlotys cash award, funded by the Mayor of Warsaw.
The Jury justification: "touching and delicate, universal and personal cinematographic journey into the depths of human soul".

1.2. Award for the Best Director went to THE LAST MEN / LES DERNIERS HOMMES, dir. David Oelhoffen (France).
The Jury justification: "for the courage to delve in an extreme yet beautiful way into a much explored genre and successfully finding a way to portray important, vulnerable, and relevant aspects of the human condition".

1.3. Special Jury Award went to I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE / UŽ TĚ NEMÁM RÁD, dir. Zdeněk Jiráský (Czechia/ Romania/Slovakia).
The Jury justification: "for the emotional and poetic image of the inner world of two teenagers in the contemporary Eastern European reality".

2. CREME DE LA CREME COMPETITION Jury members Irena Strzałkowska, Natalia Koryncka-Gruz, Grzegorz Pacek - all from Poland, gave the following awards:

Crème de la Crème Award: THE SETTLERS / LOS COLONOS, dir. Felipe Gálvez (Chile/ Argentina/UK/Taiwan/France/Denmark/Sweden/Germany);
Jury justification: "For the moving image of man's cruelty towards others, which reveals various forms of violence and leads to racism, nationalism and genocide."

Special Mention: IO, dir. Jerzy Skolimowski (Poland/Italy).
Jury justification: "For an empathetic story about the fate of a donkey in the human world, which teaches us respect for other beings, our roommates on earth".

3. COMPETITION 1-2 Jury members Feliks Falk (Poland), Linda Olte (Latvia), Ran Li (China) decided that the Competition 1-2 Winner is WITHOUT AIR / ELFOGY A LEVEGŐ by Katalin Moldovai (Hungary)

Special Mention went to: DIAGNOSIS: DISSENT / БОЖЕВІЛЬНІ by Denys Tarasov (Ukraine)

4. FREE SPIRIT COMPETITION Jury members Samppa Batal (Finland), Olga Chajdas (Poland), Maciej Kawalski (Poland) gave the Free Spirit Award to: RIDDLE OF FIRE by Weston Razooli (USA).
The Jury justification: "For the filmmaker’s exquisite craft to harness the endearing world of adventure, friendship, and devil-may-care charm into a reminder of what a film can do. And for lifting young talents to a level of mature partners in crime."

5. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION Jury members Aniela Astrid Gabryel (Poland), Oleg Shcherbyna (Ukraine), Marko Škop (Slovakia) gave the following awards:

The Best Documentary Feature Award was won by: PHOTOPHOBIA by Pavol Pekarcik & Ivan Ostrochovsky (Slovakia/Czechia/ Ukraine).
The Jury justification: "To brave filmmakers for evocative, cinematic, visually poetic film language and tender human view on life of civilians and especially children in the time of war."

6. SHORT FILMS COMPETITION Jury members Masha Kondakova (Ukraine), Piotr Jasiński (Poland), Oliver Adam Kusio (Poland/Germany) gave the following awards:

6.1. Short Grand Prix: CORAL / WOLNA, dir. Sonia Oleniak, USA / Poland

6.2. Best Live Action Short: PICTURE DAY, dir. Kelly Pike, USA

6.3. Best Animated Short: CANARD, dir. Elie Chapuis, Switzerland

6.4. Best Documentary Short: EMPTY HOURS / LES HEURES CREUSES, dir. Judith Longuet-Marx, Belgium

6.5. Special Mention Documentary: ECHO, dir. Emi Buchwald, Poland

6.6. Special Mention Live Action: HEDGEHOG'S DILEMMA / MIASTO JEŻY, dir. Mateusz Rybiński, Poland

The winners of the four awards above can run for the Academy Awards, as the Short Films Competition at the Warsaw International Film Festival is on the Oscars eligibility lists at www.oscars.org.

7. FIPRESCI Jury members Dinu-Ioan Nicula (Romania), Hamed Soleimanzadeh (Iran/Germany), Mike Naafs (Netherlands) gave the award for best debut from Eastern Europe to the film WITHOUT AIR / ELFOGY A LEVEGŐ by Katalin Moldovai (Hungary).
Jury statement: "For the wise transfiguration of a real case concerning the education towards individual liberty and for the skillful use of sub-themes, meaningful mise-en-scène, eye-catching cinematography, and impressive acting."

8. Young FIPRESCI Jury members Dalesia Cozorici (Romania), Ani Kiladze (Georgia), Giorgi Javakhishvili (Georgia), Jan Tracz (Poland/UK), Marija Lukarevska (North Macedonia), Sergiu Inizian (Romania), who were also participants of FIPRESCI Warsaw Critics Project 2023, gave the Young FIPRESCI Award for best debut from Eastern Europe to the film: WITHOUT AIR / ELFOGY A LEVEGŐ by Katalin Moldovai (Hungary).
The Jury justification: "For its minimalist and vibrant visual, the subtle but powerful acting, its realistic representation of conservative absurdity and the emotional emphasis on the importance of speaking up."

9. ECUMENICAL Jury members Anna Karapetyan (Armenia); Thomas Kroll (Germany); Christine Ris (Switzerland) gave the Ecumenical Jury Award to: NOT A WORD / KEIN WORT by Hanna Slak (Germany/France /Slovenia).
The Jury motivation: "The movie is about mother love, difficulties of generations, of communication, mourning work and finding together in rough surroundings".

10. NETPAC Jury members Zhana Kalinova (Bulgaria); Łukasz Muszyński (Poland); Janusz Wróblewski (Poland) gave the NETPAC Award for the best Asian/Pacific film to:
ANI CHOYING DROLMA: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE by F. Jennifer Lin,  Shan Bai (Hong Kong SAR).

39th Warsaw International Film Festival, organized by the Warsaw Film Foundation, is supported by the City of Warsaw, Polish Film Institute, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the Mazovian Voivodeship Government. WFF Sponsors and Partners: Epson, Fabryka Wyobraźni, Max-Film, and Pardon To Tu. Festival Cinemas: Atlantic and Multikino Zlote Tarasy. Official cars are Mercedes Benz, provided by MB Motors. The festival hotel is the Marriott Warsaw. WFF Media Partners: AMC, Filmweb, Gazeta Wyborcza, Pani, RMF FM, RMF Classic, SundanceTV, Twój Styl, Viva!, and Wirtualna Polska.

contact: media@wff.pl