13/09/2005

'Out of concern for the bad quality of the films presented here, the jury will not grant a First Prize'. These words, uttered in 1996 by Maciej Karpinski (artistic director of the Gdynia Polish Film Festival, will clearly not be heard this year, since the 30th Gdynia Festival is much more promising than it has been until recently.

As Maciej Karpinski himself said, the films which applied to be presented this year represent a great improvement, not only quantitatively (the competition includes 21 titles, 16 of which are premiering) but also in terms of quality. 'I have no doubt that this year will stay on record. The standards are very high this year, which shows that Polish cinema is taking off again, so we have great expectations for the future,' Karpinski added.
Two special screenings followed the opening ceremony: Oskar, by Marek Piwowski (author of the 1970 cult comedy Rejs), an adaptation of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's novel Oscar et la Dame Rose co-produced by Endemol Neovision and the public channel TVP, as well as Solidarnosc, a movie co-directed by thirteen of the best Polish directors for the 25th anniversary of the famous trade union and produced by Apple Film Production, in collaboration with TVP and the Polish Ministry of Culture.

The competition jury, presided over by Andrzej Wajda, will be shown such films as Pitbull, Patryk Vega's directorial debut, an attempt to give a realistic description of infiltration activities in the police. Pitbull, which is the only Polish movie to have sold over 100,000 tickets since its release (8 April), was produced by Dziki Film in co-production with ATM Studio. Studio Interfilm distributed it on 61 prints.

(Translated from French)