A scene from "The Skin I Live In", dir. Pedro Almodóvar
Winners of the 11th edition of the New Horizons Film Festival were announced at the closing gala in Wrocław on July 31. That evening Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar presented his latest film "The Skin that I Live in". This year's winners included Sándor Kardos, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Paula Markovitch, Nanouk Leopold, Jan Komasa, Anka Sasnal and Wilhelm Sasnal
Five competition sections were held this year: New Horizons International Competition, International Competition of Films on Art, New Polish Films Competition, European Competition Short Films and Short Films Competition Polish.
The Grand Prix of the festival and 20,000 Euros was awarded to "Attenberg" directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece 2010). The Jury Special Mention was given to the film "Gravedigger", directed by Sándor Kardos (Hungary 2010).
The International Film Guide award was given to "Brownian Movement" (Netherlands / Germany / Belgium 2010), directed by Nanouk Leopold. The FIPRESCI prize was given to Sándor Kardos's latest film "The Undertaker".
The Audience Prize went to Argentine director Paula Markovitch for her debut film "Prize" / "El premio" (Mexico / France / Poland / Germany 2011). The jury for the Art Film Competition was made up of Roee Rosen, Gaspard Kuentz, Cédric Dupire, Tomasz Budzyński, Werner Nekes, awarding10 000 Euro filmowi to North Korea's Kim Ki-Duk for her film "Arirang". A special distinction was given to "Pyuupiru 2001-2008" (Japan 2010) directed by Daishi Matsunagi.
In the New Polish Films section, Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal (2011) won for their "Z daleka widok jest piękny" / ""From a distance, the view is beautiful". Jan Komasa won for best debut for his controversial film "Suicide Room".
All winners will have guaranteed distribution for their films across Poland.
Over 11 days, the festival presented 483 films from 44 countries (including 228 films), of which 240 titles were Polish premieres during the festival. A total of 542 screenings were held, seen by over111,000 spectators.
157 film directors, actors, producers, sales agents and film distributors were in Wrocław from abroad, including Béla Tarr, Kim Ki-duk, Terry Gilliam Bruno Dumont, Anja Breien, Werner Nekes, Mariusz Wilczyński.
After establishing itself over 10 years as one of Poland's top international events the festival's programme is shaped up with a selection of over 400 films from around the world, 5 competitions: New Horizons, Films on Art competition, Polish Films competition, European Short Debuts competition and Polish Short Films competition. It also has a strong focus on music and contemporary art, and organises live music concerts every evening as well as art installations and performances throughout the city of Wrocław.
Nowe Horyzonty is a festival of film visionaries, of uncompromising artists who have the courage to follow a path of their choice against the current trend and to tell about the most important things using their own unique language.
- Roman Gutek, Festival Director
The films of the festival go beyond the limits of conventional cinema. This year the festival’s formula, especially for the competitions, features films where the filmmaker has gone against the current, using their own style, unusual form and force of expression to create the newest trends in the world of cinema art. From all over the world, the films give rise to polemics and discussions, praise and protest.
Programme highlights of the 11th edition include Norway Expanded, Red Westerns and Pinku Eiga (Pink Film). As part of the project entitled "Norway Expanded", the festival is dominated by Norwegian cinematography, the first book on Norwegian cinema will be published and a big Polish-Norwegian co-production forum is held during the Festival.
The New Polish Films competition sees the world premiere of Wilhelm Sasnal's "It Looks Pretty from a Distance". Sasnal is a world-famous contemporary artist, whose works are in collections of the Saatchi Gallery and Tate Modern in London. Also included in the competition is Bartosz Konopka's "Fear of Falling" (2010), Łukasz Barczyk's "Italians" (2011), Jan Komasa's "Suicide Room" (2011), Barbara Sass's "In the Name of the Devil" (2011), Lech Majewski's "The Mill and the Cross" (2011), Andrzej Barańsk's "Princedom", Wiesław Saniewski's "The Winner" (2011) and more.
The Polish Short Films competition is categorised into fictions, documentaries and animations, a few of the films included are: for animations; Marek Skrobecki's "Danny Boy" (2010), Kamil Polak's "The Lost Town of Świteź" (2010), Krzysztof Baran's "Conspire" (2010), Jarosław Konopka's "Underlife" (2010), Alek Wasilewski's "Lucky Day Forever" (2011), The Quay Brothers's "Mask" (2010), Małgorzata Bosek's "Gibbon' Island" (2010) and more. For the documentaries; Krzysztof Kadłubowski's "Returns" (2010), Piotr Bernaś's "Paparazzi" (2010), Anna Baumgart's "Fresh Cherries" (2010), Marcin Filipowicz's "My Father Lazaro" (2010), Łukasz Borowski's "3 Days of Freedom" (2010), Maciej Bochniak's "Reception" (2010) and more.
Along with the latest world cinema New Horizons showcases many retrospectives. The stars of this year's retrospectives include: Anja Breien, director and co-creator of the feminist image of the new wave of Norwegian cinema; Bruno Daumont, a Frenchman whose controversial films have been shown for years at the festival, provoking many discussions; and Terry Gilliam, member of the legendary Monty Python, one of the greatest originals in the film industry, as well as Andrzej Munk, Mariusz Wilczyński and more.
New Horizons hosts people from cinema, both beginners and great masters. They meet audiences in Wrocław at the numerous discussion panels, after film screenings and on less formal occasions during the festival. The jury members of all competitions are a mixture of film auteurs, artists and important film industry personalities.
Established in 2011, the film festival is held annually in July in Wrocław.
The 11th edition takes place between the 21st and 31st of July 2011.
The a full list of films and the programme along with more information on New Horizons see: www.nowehoryzonty.pl