Zydowicz has been the CamerImage festival director since its inception in 1993. Films can be nominated for the main festival competition by cinematography associations, the directors of other festivals and film critics. [Editor's note: The ASC, by policy, does not make festival nominations.] Typically, 40 to 50 films are nominated, and 10 to 15 are chosen by the foundation as finalists. One significant problem, however, is that some U.S. distributors won't provide prints because they are concerned about piracy in Poland.
Zydowicz insisted that the issue is an old concern left over from the days of communist rule. "Poland has a great tradition for filmmaking," he said. "The people love movies. Already, there are exhibitors looking for places to build cinemas. Our sponsors include the Polish state radio and television networks. We can open the door to this market."
A more pragmatic Zsigmond observes, "The truth is that most cinematographers don't have the clout to persuade distributors to make prints available. If this was Sundance or a festival for actors or directors, I don't think they'd have this problem."
Zsigmond lauded Friend and the Academy for tracking down and providing good quality prints, and for their support in screening them at the festival.
The main prizes in the festival's cinematography competition are gold, silver and bronze Frog statuettes. The Frogs are symbolic of a local fairy tale which parallels the Western fable of the Pied Piper, who rid a town of an infestation of mice by luring them away with music. In Torun, the mythical marauders were frogs.
This year, the jury awarded the Golden Frog to Rogier Stoffers for Character, a period film set in Holland during the 1920s. The story is about a young man's struggle with a powerful father. The Silver Frog was presented to Ron Fortunato for Nil By Mouth (see Points East, AC Nov. '97), an intense story about a dysfunctional English family which marks the writing/directing debut of actor Gary Oldman. The Bronze Frog went to Pawel Edelman for Family Tales, a Polish film which focuses on a man's remembrances of his childhood and adolescence.
Explaining the jury's top choice, Jerzy Zielinski offers, "He [Stoffers] really understood what he wanted to do and how to support the story with cinematography. The lighting was very interesting, but more importantly, it supported the story. It wasn't a series of pretty pictures. All of the [cinematic] elements came together: lighting, camera movement and composition. There's a plot with characters and depth that is enhanced by the cinematography."
Ten other films vied for honors, including Chinese Box, The Eel (Shigeru Komatsubara, Japan), Hamlet (Alex Thompson, BSC; United Kingdom), The House (Sharunas Bartas, France/Portugal/ Lithuania), Marvin's Room (Piotr Sobocinski, U.S.), Mother and Son (Aleksiej Fiodorov, Russia/ Germany), Jerusalem (Jorgen Persson, Sweden), Nenette et Boni (Agnes Godard, AFC; France), She's So Lovely (Thierry Arbogast, AFC; U.S.), and Whitman Boys (Tibor Mathe, Hungary/France/ Poland).
"I'm proud of the work done by the jury," says Victor Kemper. "We took it very seriously. There were no politics. It was about the art and craft of lighting. Art is subjective, so there were different opinions, but there was no doubt about the winning film by Rogier Stoffers. It was exquisite lighting that amplified a character study about the relationship between a father and son. We realized it was unanimous before we voted."
Jack Green observes that films chosen for the competition generally had a heavy, European film noir influence. "There were some really terrific films," he says, citing Character and Hamlet in particular. "I think this will become a world-class film festival as cinematographers from more countries participate."
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