The "Young Gala" of the 51st Gdynia Film Festival - during which the short film competition results were announced - was held on Friday evening at the Witold Gombrowicz Municipal Theatre in Gdynia.
The jury - comprising production designer, costume designer, and set decorator Ewa Braun (chair), director Bartosz M. Kowalski, and producer Joanna Szymańska - handed the Lucjan Bokiniec Award for Best Short Film to Patrycja Polkowska’s "Sprawa nr" ("Case No."). Earlier, the director had received two non-statutory prizes - from the Zwierciadło magazine and from the editorial team of the Interia web portal.
"Sprawa nr" is a story about the mechanisms of pressure and accountability embedded in a corporate system. The protagonist is a junior manager at an e-commerce company who, following an "unfortunate incident," testifies before an accident investigation committee.
"For a mature and conscious form and for addressing the conflict between loyalty to the system and one's own conscience, while avoiding easy answers and unequivocal judgments" - the jurors stated in their rationale.
A special award - "for recognizing the combination of formal ingenuity with an engaging story, lightness with substance, and the creation of a world that is simultaneously amusing, subversive, and visually appealing" - went to Alexandra "Sasha" Kutsen, for her short "Wszystkie miały na imię Anżelika" ("They were all named Anżelika"). An honorable mention went to Izabela Zubrycka for "Kołtunica" ("The Knot"), and the Award for Best Cinematography to Patryk Roman for "Długa Przerwa" ("Long Break").
The 51st Gdynia Film Festival will conclude on Saturday night.
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Source: PAP