Seymour Cassel |
Anna Karina |
Polish Brothers |
Melonie Diaz |
Gregg Araki |
The festival lasts 10 days and it takes place simultaneously in 8 independent movie venues. There will be over 400 screenings and 100 films shown. The films were carefully selected from all over the world.
International Dramatic Competition for the Cracow Film Award, with the prize of $100,000, is the most important part of the second edition of the festival. 12 dramatic feature films that were produced in 2008 and 2009 and were selected by the Programming Board, are competing for this award. The winner will be chosen by the international Jury, chaired by the composer
Zbigniew Preisner, and the prize will be handed to the winner by the President of the City of Cracow.
The huge impact and importance of the Off Plus Camera was appreciated by the Polish Institute of Film Arts. As a result, the director of the winning film will be provided with the financial support of 1,000,000 PLN (approx. $300,000) for his next production.
Journalists will also have the opportunity to honor their favorite during this year's Festival. The winning film will be given the Polish Film Noble – $10,000. Noble Bank is the sponsor of this prize.
Apart from the Dramatic Competition, important films that discuss tolerance, racial issues and religious differences are going to be presented at the Off Plus Camera. The screenings are organized within the special section titled "Cultural Bridge" which is in fact the European version of the original program presented by Dubai International Film Festival. Meetings with invited guests and discussion panels are going to be held to further the discussion on the role of cinema in building cultural bridges. The newest productions which were honored at various international film festivals (Sundance, Dubai, Rotterdam, Berlin) and were given recommendation by the Festival's foreign film programmers, will be presented in the "Discoveries" section. The selection of these films for Off Plus Camera was made by the acclaimed programmers who work for Sundance Film Festival, BAFICI and Dubai Film Festival. Traditionally, the films that gained admiration abroad and have not been introduced either to Polish distribution or to Polish film festivals, will be featured within the section called "Catching Up".
This year we are proud to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sundance Film Festival. 25 Years of Sundance is a selection of ten films which won major Sundance awards and were recommended by John Cooper, Sundance Director.
A number of new sidebar programs will be added this year: "Queer Cinema" - a selection dedicated to films that break the heternormative status quo and depict the process of shaping and negotiating sexual identities. Works of the French New Mave Master, Jean-Luc Godard will let the audience find out more about what was the inspiration for many late 2th centruy directors.
The mobile phone competition - "Take It and Make It" will be continued during the second edition of the Off Plus Camera festival. The mobile phone project is conducted in cooperation with HBO and Cinemax television channels. Competitors from 10 countries in Central Europe, including: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia, can compete for the Cinemax Prize of $3,000 and the Grand Prix of $3,000 funded by the Polish cellular network Plus.
The unique feature of the Off Plus Camera is the fact that the screenings are kept in small, or medium-size screening rooms of the most renowned Cracow movie theatres.All venues are located in the City centre.
The organizers of the festival are the Off Camera Society for Independent and Other Arts and Krakow Festival Office. The media partners of the festival include: TVN television network, TVN24, RMF FM radio network, "Gazeta Wyborcza" daily, onet.pl portal, Ströer and Newsweek.
Organizer: Off Camera Society for Independent and Other Arts
Karmelicka 64/8, 31-128 Krakow
phone (+48 12) 361 33 04
fax (+48 12) 633 13 15
www.offpluscamera.com