Aniela Gabryel received the ARRI IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary for her film When Will The Wind Stop, an intimate story about Tartars living in Russian-occupied Crimea. It doesn't portray international politics, but the stories of separated families and the loneliness which is the price for living under the pressure of the regime. Culture.pl’s review reads:
Telling their story, Aniela Gabryel shuns the poetics of a TV report. Instead, the young director sketches intimate portraits of the characters. When Will This Wind Stop is not a story about political changes in Crimea, but primarily about empty rooms, abandoned people, and broken hearts filled with longing.
Close Ties awarded
Close Ties by Zofia Kowalewska received a Special Jury Award at the IDFA International Documentary Film Festival in the Best Student Documentary category.
Close Ties is a story about a marriage with a 45-year-long history and a turbulent past. A few years before filming, Zdzisław left his wife Barbara and moved out to start a new life with his lover. After falling ill, he returns to their once shared apartment. Barbara and Zdzisław try again to answer the question of who they are to each other. The approaching anniversary of their marriage is an opportunity to understand their new relationship.
Kowalewska, a 21-year-old student at the Directing Department of the National Film School in Łódź, tells the story using a comedic tone, turning Close Ties into a pleasant story about loss and forgiveness.
Close Ties, produced by Warsaw’s Munk Studio, has won awards at many festivals over the last few months – in Kraków, Koszalin, Liepzig, Wrocław, and Poznań. Kowalewska’s documentary is also on the shortlist of ten films competing for an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Documentary.
Other Polish films also competed for awards in this year's edition of IDFA: You Have No Idea How Much I Love You by Paweł Łoziński (Main Competition), Icon by Wojciech Kasperski (Best Mid-Length Documentary), and Daniel by Anastazja Dąbrowska (Best Student Documentary). Other Polish films were presented in the non-competition sections of the festival: Communion by Anna Zamecka and All the Sleepless Nights by Michał Marczak.
More info at the festival's website.