90 debut films in competition at Koszalin

by Dorota Hartwich

15/09/2010 - Yesterday marked the opening of the 29th Koszalin Debut Film Festival which will run until September 18 with 90 titles in competition.

The event’s spokesperson Aleksandra Różdżyńska said: "Our festival is first and foremost a showcase for Polish debut films and it is an opportunity to discuss these titles. This year, audiences will get the chance to discover some very interesting works, including Krzysztof Łukaszewicz’s Lynch (Lincz), Ryszard Maciej Nyczka’s Belcanto and Tadeusz Król’s Recruited Love (Zwerbowana Miłość)."

Having served as a platform for first meetings between audiences and great Polish film masters (notably Krzysztof Kieślowski, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Zanussi), the Koszalin festival has also presented debut films by young, now well-known directors like Xavery Żuławski, Katarzyna Rosłaniec, Łukasz Palkowski and Marcin Wrona.

This year, the Polish Film Institute awarded the event "national film festival" status. Head of programming Janusz Kijowski said: "We were very keen for our meetings formula, renamed "Young People and Cinema", to become a national festival. There are such a large number of titles that we can easily fill the programme.”

He continued: “This is clearly the result of decisions that led to the creation of the Polish Film Institute. For the last few years, there has been specific funding for debut films, including narrative titles, documentaries and animated works".

Fourteen features will vie for Koszalin’s Grand Amber Award which will be presented by a jury presided by Robert Gliński. Meanwhile, Paweł Łoziński is heading the jury for the short film competition which comprises over 70 titles.

There will also be a retrospective dedicated to Janusz Kondratiuk (winner of the Amber Award at Koszalin in 1973) and a selection of the best foreign features presented in recent years, including Severine Cornamusaz’s Animal Heart [trailer], Cristian Jimenez’s Optical Illusions [trailer], Yelena and Nikolay Renard’s Mama and Hakon Liu’s Miss Kicki [trailer].

(Translated from French)