11 Minutes beat 13 other films including The Room by Lenny Abrahamson, known to the audience thanks to his previous film Frank; Chant d'Hiver by Otar Iosseliani, 7 Chinese Brothers by Bob Byington and I Promise You Anarchy by Julio Hernández Cordón.
The jury when granting Skolimowski Jaeger-LeCoulture Best Film Award said that 11 Minutes is ‘an excellent film, introducing innovative solutions to the film language’.
11 Minutes by Jerzy Skolimowski is a mosaic thriller that takes place during 11 minutes in central Warsaw. It depicts the stories of several people whose paths cross in tragic ways. The characters include: an English director (Richard Dormer known from the series Fortitude) trying to force an actress onto the casting couch; her obsessively jealous husband (Wojciech Mecwaldowski); a hotdog seller (Andrzej Chyra); a young girl (Ifi Ude) breaking up with her boyfriend (Mateusz Kościukiewicz); and a crackhead courier (Dawid Ogrodnik).
11 Minutes is a Polish-Irish co-production. The main producer is Skopia Film, and the co-producers are Element Pictures, Telewizja Polska, Orange, HBO and Tumult Foundation. The film received financial support from the Polish Film Institute, Eurimages and Irish Film Board. 11 Minutes by Jerzy Skolimowski is Poland’s submission for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category at the 88th Academy Awards.
Mother Earth wins in Portugal
Mother Earth by Piotr Złotorowicz was also awarded at the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival. It was originally created as part of a diploma project at the Łódź Film School. It was considered the best short film of the festival, with its prize being distribution in Portugal.
It is yet another award for Złotorowicza's film, having already been lauded by juries at film festivals in Locarno, Gijon, Athens, Paris, Braga and Potsdam.