Still from Paweł Pawlikowski's "Ida", photo: Opus Film
London Loves Ida, Toronto Awards Ida, Gdynia gives its Golden Lion Award to Ida. The "impeccably executed and judged, achingly written, finely structured and eloquently shot" film, as Piers Handling put it, garners award after award. After winning the Golden Lion Award at the Gdynia Film Festival for Best Cinematography, it received the main prize in the Special Presentations section at the Toronto International Film Festival, the main prize at the 57th edition of the London Film Festival, the Warsaw Grand Prix in the International Competition category during the annual Warsaw Film Festival and now it swoop the First Prize (the Golden Frog) at Poland's Plus Camerimage International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography.
The impressive collection is in no small degree owed to Ida's cinematographers Łukasz Żal and Ryszard Lenczewski as well as its Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski touted "one of Britain's leading filmmakers". Ida is a road film with a mystical tale about identity. The titular character, Ida, was brought up in a convent and wants to become a nun herself. Before she takes her vows, she needs to get to know her only living relative. Her encounter with aunt Wanda, a judge who conducted trials in the Stalinist period, is both clash of personalities and the return of a tragic family history. In a review for The Guardian Peter Bradshaw reflects that it's a "drama that obliquely but candidly addresses the issues of Polish catholicism, antisemitism, the church and the state".
Read Culture.pl's review of Ida
Camerimage, taking place since 1993, is among the world's most important film festivals dedicated to the art of cinematography and the technical aspects of filmmaking. 2013 sa the 21st edition of the prestigious event and among the numerous contestors, the awards went to:
- Lifetime Achievement Award for Sławomir Idziak
- Polish films competition winner: Bodo Kox's Girl from the Wardrobe, cinematography by Arkadiusz Tomiak
- Laszlo Kovacs Student Prize, the "Golden Tadpole": Jagoda Szelc's Such a Landscape, cinematogrpahy by Zuzanna Pyda
- Full Features documentary film competition, "Golden Frog Award": Manuel von Stuerler's Winter Nomads, cinematography by Camille Cottagnoud
- Short Documentaries: Asa Blanck and Johan Palmgren's Grandpa and Me and a Helicopter to Heaven, cinematography by Johan Palmgren
- Directorial debuts competition: Alice Winocour's Augustine, cinematography by Georges Lechaptois
- Cinematographic debuts competition: Andrea Pallaoro's Medeas, cinematography by Chayse Irvin
- 3D Films Competition recognitions: Wim Wenders' Pina, Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity
- Best Video Clip: Fleur and Manu's Gesaffelstein Pursuit
Editor: Mai Jones 28.11.2013
Sources: Camerimage, Polish language article for Culture.pl, Culture.pl, the Guardian