Lebanon triumphs at Lodz

by Dorota Hartwich

07/12/2009 - There were no major surprises among the prize-winners at the 17th Plus Camerimage Festival in Lodz, which is dedicated to cinematographers and the art of images.

Unveiled on Saturday, the prize list is dominated by Samuel Maoz’s Israeli/German/French co-production Lebanon [trailer]. Winner of the Golden Lion at Venice 2009, the film won the Golden Frog for the most accomplished work by a director and their cinematographer (Giora Bejach).

The two other top prizes were awarded to Polish features. The Silver Frog went to The Dark House by Wojciech Smarzowski and his DoP Krzysztof Ptak and the Bronze Frog to The Reverse [trailer, film focus] by Borys Lankosz (DoP: Marcin Koszalka).

In the Polish Films Competition, the international jury awarded Best Film to Xavery Zulawski’s Snow White Russian Red (DoP: Marian Prokop).

In the documentary features category, the Grand Prize went to Nati Baratz’s Israeli production Unmistaken Child (lensed by Yaron Orbach), while in the documentary shorts competition, top honours went to Michael Angus’ Australian film Salt (lensed by Murray Fredericks, who also co-directed).

Complete list of award-winners

Main competition
Golden Frog: Lebanon (DoP: Giora Bejach)
Silver Frog : The Dark House (DoP: Krzysztof Ptak)
Bronze Frog: The Reverse (DoP: Marcin Koszalka)

Polish Films Competition
Plus Camerimage Statuette for Best Film: Snow White Russian Red (DoP: Marian Prokop)

Student Films Competition
Laszlo Kovacs Student Award Golden Tadpole: Dirty Words (DoP: Weronika Bilska)
Silver Tadpole: Through Glass (DoP: Jakub Czerwiński)
Bronze Tadpole: Sunstroke (DoP: Maly Róbert)

Panavision Award
United We Stand (DoP: Arsen Sarkisiants)
Special Mention: Miss Mushroom (DoP: Pawel Tarasiewicz)

Polish Filmmakers Association Award
Dirty Words (DoP: Weronika Bilska)

Documentary Features Competition
Grand Prize - Golden Frog: Unmistaken Child (DoP: Yaron Orbach)
Discovery Networks Central Europe Award: The Two Horses of Genghis Khan (DoP: Martijn van Broekhuizen)
Special Mention: Blind Loves - (DoP: Juraj Chlpík)

Documentary Shorts Competition
Grand Prize - Golden Frog: Salt (DoP: Murray Fredericks)
Discovery Networks Central Europe Award: Poste Restante (DoP: Jacek Petrycki)
Special Mention: Nyarma (DoP: Alexandr Filippov)

Music Video Competition
Best Video: The Hickey Underworld “Blonde Fire” by Joe Vanhoutteghem (DoP: Nicolas Karakatsanis)
Best Cinematography: Shawn Kim for Depeche Mode “Wrong”

(Translated from French)