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Similarly to the past editions, the most important part of the festival will be the NEW HORIZONS International Competition covering 16 films that have not yet been presented in Poland, and which are carefully selected from among hundreds of titles shown at international festivals and film fairs. One of the films will receive a GRAND PRIX – the festival’s main prize awarded by the public. This year among the films selected for the competition are a German documentary Jesus Christ Saviour (Jesus Christus Erlöser) by Peter Geyer – a recording of a performance by the legendary Klaus Kinski, a Spanish film En la ciudad de Sylvia - a subtle reflection on time by José Luis Guerín, Eat, for This is My Body (Mange, ceci est mon corps)- a revelation of Toronto and Rotterdam festivals directed by the Haitian Michelange Quay and My Winnipeg, directed by Canadian, Guy Maddin, well-known to the festival audience. The third edition of the NEW POLISH FILM Competition presents premieres of full-length Polish feature as well as documentary films. An international jury will give the winner the Wrocław Film Award funded by the President of the city of Wrocław worth PLN 100,000 (60,000 for the director, 40,000 for the producer). POLISH SHORT FILM Competition allows the festival audience to follow the latest Polish productions of short and medium-lenght films. Short feature films will join the documentary and animated film section in this edition of the competition. Similarly to the past, this project is being organised in co-operation with the Association of Polish Filmmakers. Panorama of Contemporary Cinema: Masters and Discoveries is a selection of films awarded during the most important international film festivals. The Panorama is divided into two parts. The masters part is devoted to films produced by renowned filmmakers. In the discoveries part you can find new talents. Special Screenings - the most interesting phenomena of this season - will be an important element of this section. Among the masters we will show numerous and various films, including: The Song of Sparrows - Avaze gonjeshk – ha) directed by the Iranian master, Majid Majidi; the French Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet)– winner of several César awards (including best film), the latest work by Abdellatif Kechiche, author of Blame It on Voltaire, well-known to Polish audiences, and the latest piece from the French master, New Wave precursor, Eric Rohmer - Les amours d'Astrée et de Celadon. Organized for the second time Screenings in the Town Square- give the participants as well as the people of Wrocław an opportunity to admire film art in a picturesque scenery of the old town.
The New Zealand cinema is known only due to the two famous directors who grew up there – Peter Jackson and Jane Campion – but it is still hardly known to the Polish audience. And films made there give one of the most interesting and intriguing images of a far-away and exotic country, showing a picture of New Zealanders’ mass imagination and its Maori origins. The Green Islands’ cinema will be presented in a broad perspective – from the earliest achievements to contemporary works. A special role in this review will be played by the pieces made in the golden era of the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, when international festivals were dominated by works by Roger Donaldson and Geoff Murphy. Another interesting accent will be the retrospective of New Zealand’s independent filmmaker Vincent Ward. The curator of this section is Ian Conrich, Director of the Centre for New Zealand Studies of the University of London and author, who cooperates with BBC, monthly Sight & Sound and other institutions. The review will be complemented by meetings with New Zealand directors and critics, who will visit Wrocław. The publishing house słowo / obraz terytoria is preparing a book on New Zealand cinema, edited by the British critic Ian Conrich. Related events will include: a screening of silent move in Opera, The Te Kooti Trail (1927), directed by Rudall Harward, with live music performed by the New Zealand pianist Chris Hainsworth; a concert of the band Moana & the Tribe (18.07, festival club) combining original Maori music with modern rhythms and displays of traditional Maori dance by the group Manaia; Ma-uri festival (massage, workshops); multi-media performance and films by the artist and choreographer Shona McCullagh and an exhibition (in the Market place and in the Helios cinema) of photos by landscape photographer and environmentalist, Craig Potton. The review of the latest Brazilian cinema will aim to show the variety of film production of this country and its latest development trends. Brazilian cinema electrified international critics as early as in the 1960s in the times of the cinema novo movement. The combination of moral authenticity, magical realism and references to folk traditions makes it even now an exceptional and unique phenomenon. In the mid-1990s, such works as Carlota Joaquina - Princess of Brazil by Carla Camurati (1995), O Quatrilho by Fábio Barreto (1995) or Central Station / Central do Brasil by Walter Selles(1998) brought the so-called retomada to the Brazilian cinema – a real renaissance. Its effects can be seen at international film festivals even now. The most distinguished films of the retomada and signs of new trends of the Brazilian cinema in the 21 st century will be complemented by the most interesting short films made in this country in recent years. Retrospectives Theo Angelopoulos (born in 1936), Greek director, indisputably one of the generation of the cinema masters. His style refers to the great absentees – Fellini or Tarkowski – and yet it is recognisable and unique. The international critics’ favourite and collector of festival awards has consistently for many years realised his own vision of cinema – solemn, symbolic and full of cultural quotations. Angelopoulos makes a bitter account of the fate of his own country and spiritual condition of his countrymen and all the time he remains deeply rooted in the European cultural tradition, making the stories he tells universal. The Wrocław retrospective of the Greek master will be accompanied by several events, including a concert of music by Eleni Karaindrou (25.07, Wrocław Philharmonic), composed for the films of Theo Angelopoulos; and an exhibition of work by the photographer Dimitris Sofikitis, documenting the film Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (Trilogia I:To Livadi pou dakryzei, 2004) Terence Davies (born in 1945), British director, who has made only three short films and four full-length films and yet created one of the most consistent and exceptional images in the history of cinema. He is called the Proust of the cinema – his entire work is obsessively autobiographical, immersed in memories and focused on reconstructing the faint, hardly remembered moments from the past. Above all, Davies is fascinated with the phenomenon of memory. It is in the cinema where he finds a language allowing him to get to his own past. Vincent Ward (born in 1956), New Zealand director, whose visionary films, such as Vigil (1984) and The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey (1984) showed Kiwi cinema to the entire world. Andrzej Żuławski (born in 1940) is one of the most controversial Polish directors. For years, he has been a creator of emotional, passionate, obsessive cinema on the edge of image hysteria. Even in his debut, the visionary Third Part of the Night / Trzecia część nocy (Poland 1971), Żuławski was visibly different from the communist Poland’s film style, which he never actually got adapted to. After the censors blocked his eccentric projects he resolved to move to France and to chain his artistic way to the European cinema. Witold Leszczyński (born in 1933, died in 2007) director and cinematographer, representing the golden generation of the first graduates of the Łódź film school, impressed the audience and the critics with his feature-length debut. Even now, The Life of Matthew / Żywot Mateusza (1968) is exceptional as compared to Polish film production. In this film, Leszczyński proved his unique directorial sensitivity, distinctiveness of style and extraordinary precision of every frame he created. His artistic credo was a sentence of the Danish classic, Carl Theodore Dreyer – I'm not interested in the image of action, I’m interested in the action of image. Alexander Sroczyński (born in 1953) is an eccentric artist, animator, illustrator and author of satirical drawings. Since 1981 he has made animated films, , which received many awards in Poland and abroad. His works combine the black humour, macabre and pastiche of various film conventions. He cooperates regularly with many magazines - the legendary Szpilki and Playboy in Poland, The New York Times and many others in the USA, where he has lived since 1989. Federico Fellini: annex Maestro Fellini is an exhibition at the City Museum in Stary Ratusz (Town Hall) of Wrocław, presenting more than 300 artefacts from the collection of the Swiss FONDATION FELLINI pour le cinéma - photos, drawings, screenplays, production documents, posters, costumes etc. This event will be complemented by a review of documentaries about Fellini and an experimental multi-media project by Witold Liszkowski, inspired by Fellini's La Strada and entitled- Wspólna przestrzeń (Common space) – which will be shown at Galeria na Solnym and at Solny Square; as well as by - Incontro con Fellini – an installation by the sculptor Krzysztof Bednarski. Midnight Madness are films made with a “wink of an eye” and playing with conventions. Same as every year, the most interesting proposals of the Asian popular culture will constitute an important part of this section. The 2007/2008 Season is a selection of the most interesting titles presented by Polish cinemas during the 2007/2008 season . Short Films is a review of European short-length films presenting the most interesting trends observed in recent years among the creators of this film form. World on Both Sides of the Camera - It suffices to give them a video camera or a photo camera and teach them several technical details... We will find that the ,,dirty world" of the so-called difficult adolescents is not only about theft, bad language, or hooliganism. There is also space for imagination and sensitivity to beauty there. For involvement and real creative stubbornness. The Children and Youth Program are carefully selected films for the youngest ones, accompanied by get-togethers with the creators and by art workshops. |
