Jerzy Skolimowski, whose latest feature EO won the Visconti Legend Award at the Global Film & Music festival on the Isle of Ischia in Italy, is one of five filmmakers shortlisted in the European Director category.
Skolimowski, 84, is one of Poland’s most internationally renowned directors. His credits include Identification Mark, Barrier, Walkover, Hands Up, Deep End, Four Nights with Anna, and Essential Killing.
His EO is Poland’s candidate for the Academy Awards in the best foreign film category.
Meanwhile, The Balcony Movie by Paweł Łoziński is in the race for the award in the European Documentary category. In the film, Łoziński is watching people from his balcony as they are passing by: sad, thoughtful, glued to their phones, young and old, neighbours, random visitors or simply passers-by.
In his statement for the media, Łoziński wrote: ”I decided to stop and wait for the world to come to me. I spent two years standing on my balcony with a camera, catching everyone who walked past below. The result of these encounters is a film that portrays these people by telling us what they wanted to say about themselves. And about the director who was interested in them. I was surprised to find how little I know about people. Hardly anyone is the person they look like. People are full of mysteries and secrets. They’re not easy to pigeonhole. Life is impossible to invent."
Other People, a Polish-French production directed by Aleksandra Terpińska, has been shortlisted in the European Discovery category. It is described by its producers as “an urban drama … a polyphonic story about isolated people dreaming of love in the big city."
The European Film Awards ceremony will be held in Reykjavík, Iceland on December 10.
(mk/gs)