On the 6^th June the old­est film feast in Poland– 50^th Krakow Film Fest­ival — came to an end. Dur­ing the jubilee gala lots of young pol­ish film­makers received the awards, among them: Karo­lina Bielawska, Julia Ruszkiewicz, Bartek Kulas and Igor Cho­jna. For the first time in many years the highest dis­tin­cion in the inter­na­tional com­pet­i­tion – The Golden Dragon – went to the pol­ish film „Out of reach” dir­ec­ted by Jakub Stożek.

Within this year’s jubilee edi­tion of Krakow Film Fest­ival the films were selec­ted and awar­ded in three main com­pet­i­tions: doc­u­ment­ary com­pet­i­tion, inter­na­tional short film com­pet­i­tion and national com­pet­i­tion.

The jury of national com­pet­i­tion chaired by Maciej Dry­gas decided to award Karo­lina Bielawska and Julia Ruszkiewicz with the Golden Hobby-​horse. Their film — „Warsaw avail­able” – shows the story of three girls brought up in the coun­tryside who have now moved to the cap­ital city in search of a job, wider pos­sib­il­it­ies and bet­ter life. The Sil­ver Hobby-​horses went to Igor Cho­jna for doc­u­ment­ary „A Screen­ing at the Tatry Cinema”, Bartek Kulas for an anim­a­tion „Mill­haven” and Kuba Czekaj for a fic­tion short film „Don’t be afraid of the dark room”. The jury appre­ci­ated the artistic value of two films – „Ester­hazy” dir­ec­ted by Iza­bela Plu­cińska and „Out of reach” by Jakub Stożek – both of which gained hon­our­able men­tions.

The jury of inter­na­tional short film com­pet­i­tion chaired by Krzysztof Zanussi awar­ded Jakub Stożek’s film „Out of reach” – which tells the story of two teen­age, self-​reliant sis­ters that are try­ing to make any con­tact with the mother they hardly knew.

As it comes for the doc­u­ment­ary com­pet­i­tion the spe­cial men­tion went to Grzegorz Zar­iczny for his amus­ing „Dog hill”. The audi­ence – that has been vot­ing dur­ing all fest­ival days — decided to award Mar­cin Kosz­a­łka and his „Declar­a­tion of immor­tal­ity”- a poignant story about inab­il­ity of accept­ing efflux­ion of time and a strong crav­ing of immor­tal­ity. Not only People’s Choice award went to Mar­cin Kosz­a­łka, as his films had been appre­ci­ated also by the Stu­dent Jury that hon­oured „Let’s run away from Her” in the doc­u­ment­ary com­pet­i­tion and „Declar­a­tion of immortality”in the national com­pet­i­tion.

Fur­ther­more a few of bey­ond the stat­utory awards were handed, among them The Pres­id­ent of the Asso­ci­ation of Pol­ish Film­makers Award that went to Mar­cin Kosz­a­łka for his „Declar­a­tion of immor­tal­ity”, The Pres­id­ent of the Asso­ci­ation of Pol­ish Film­makers Award for the Best Film Edit­ing for Woj­ciech Jagiełło for his con­tri­bu­tion to „Get­ting on” and The Maciej Szu­mowski Award foun­ded by Kino Pol­ska for the sens­it­iv­ity and under­stand­ing towards social mat­ters that went to Grzegorz Zar­iczny and his „Dog hill”. Spe­cial men­tion and The Bron­isław Chromy Sculp­ture for the best short and doc­u­ment­ary films pro­du­cer went to Andrzej Wajda Mas­ter School of Film Dir­ect­ing.

Detailed inform­a­tion can be found at the festival’s webpage.  (11.06.2010)