The 10 European Shooting Stars for 2024 will be introduced to international casting directors, producers and filmmakers at the Berlin Film Festival in February.
Urzędowska, 29, has been showered with praise for her leading role in The Peasants, the hand-painted animation based on the novel of the same title by Nobel Prize-winning Polish writer Władysław Reymont.
Kamila Urzędowska. Photo: PAP/Albert Zawada
Her portrayal of Jagna, a peasant girl who has been forced to marry a much older, wealthy farmer, Boryna, despite her love for his son, Antek, won her high critical acclaim, including Best Acting Debut Award at this year’s Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.
Sony Pictures Classics, the film’s distributor in the United States, has entered The Peasants as a contender in all Academy Awards categories, including Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Animated Feature, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Original Song.
The Peasants is the work of the directorial duo of Dorota Kobiela (DK) Welchman and Hugh Welchman, whose Loving Vincent, made in the same technique, won international acclaim several years ago.
Urzędowska is a graduate of the Drama Academy in Wrocław, southwestern Poland. Her other credits include 25 Years of Innocence, directed by Jan Holoubek.
Launched 25 years ago, the European Shooting Stars programme is run by the European Film Promotion (EFP) network of cinema marketing organizations from 35 countries.
The remaining 2024 Shooting Stars come from Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Georgia, Ireland Denmark, and France.
In previous years, seven Polish actors were named Shooting Stars: Agnieszka Grochowska (2007), Agata Buzek (2010), Jakub Gierszał (2012), Mateusz Kościukiewicz (2014), Zofia Wichłacz (2017), Dawid Ogrodnik (2019), and Bartosz Bielenia (2020).
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Source: PAP