Camerimage 2025 Award Winners Announced on Closing Night
The festival's jury, which was headed by Niki Caro and included a number of ASC members, presented top honors across 14 categories.
The audience at the Jordanki Cultural Centre erupted with enthusiastic applause as German cinematographer Judith Kaufmann won ENERGACamerimage’s top prize, the main competition’s Golden Frog, on Saturday evening in Toruń, Poland.
For the 33rd edition of the annual cinematography festival, a jury led by Niki Caro praised Kaufmann’s work on Late Shift, writer-director Petra Biondina Volpe’s drama about a dedicated nurse (Leonie Benesch) navigating a shift in an understaffed surgical ward. The Switzerland/Germany co-production is also Switzerland’s entry for the Best International Feature Oscar.
Caro praised “the restraint and elegance in the cinematography, showing us only what we need to see when we need to see it, without calling attention to itself, and immersing us in how we see hospitals and the nurses who make them run.”
Kaufmann was working and accepted the honor via a video message, saying, “with this film, we wanted to pay tribute to all the caregivers, mostly women, who perform this indispensable work every single day, all around the world.” She thanked Wolpe for her “wisdom and for her warm, yet always analytical, perspective,” and Biondina “for her dedication, her precision and her captivating presence.”
Kaufmann also addressed representation. “I am aware of the intense discussions surrounding Camerimage — of the dissatisfaction that, over the years, so few female cinematographers have been represented there, not only in competition,” she said. “Talent has never been limited by gender. Only opportunity has. I accept this award with deep gratitude, but also with the hope that it becomes unremarkable for women to be here.
“My work is one voice among many,” she continued. “There are countless women emerging, mid career and long overlooked, whose visions have been and are changing this art form in extraordinary ways. I especially want to encourage young DoPs, female DoPs, to keep moving forward with curiosity and open eyes to keep fighting for our visibility, but also to trust it is truly the most beautiful professional there is.”
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In the closely-watched main competition, the Silver Frog was presented to Fabian Gamper for director Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling, which follows four girls growing up on the same farm in Germany, during four different periods of the 20th and 21st centuries (This film is also Germany’s Best International Feature Oscar entry.) Accepting, he remembered his first Camerimage, learning this was “a place where you are brought together with your DoP heroes.”
The Bronze Frog was awarded to Michał Sobociński for Chopin, A Sonata in Paris — a biographical drama about Frederic Chopin, directed by Michał Kwieciński. The Audience Award went to director Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Norway’s Best International Feature Oscar entry, shot by cinematographer Kasper Tuxen.
Speaking via translator toward the end of the ceremony, festival director Marek Żydowicz effectively spoke about community building, noting that Camerimage has always shown works created by women. He also announced a pair of Festival Directors Awards, which were presented to Kristen Stewart, who accepted via video, as she had already left Torun; and cinematographer Tomasz Naumiuk.
In other Camerimage competitions, the Golden Frog for a TV series was awarded to cinematographers Corrin Hodgson and Ben Richardson for what they described as an “intimate but epic” visual style for 1923: A Dream and a Memory, which was also directed by Richardson.
The Golden Frog in the music video competition was presented by ASC President and jury chair Mandy Walker, to Jake Gabbay and director Gabriel Moses for Chains & Whips.
In the Grand Prix Documentary Features Competition, jury chair Nancy Schreiber, ASC, presented the Golden Frog to Benjamin Bryan for Iron Winter, directed by Kasimir Burgess. Additionally, Ronnie McQuillan’s photography for No Mean City, directed by Ross McClean, topped the Documentary Shorts Competition.
In the Polish films competition, jury chair Amy Vincent, ASC announced the Golden Frog recipient, Piotr Sobociński Jr. for The Altar Boys, directed by Piotr Domalewski.
Golden Frogs for Directors’ Debut and Cinematographers’ Debut were awarded to Qi Shu for Girl and cinematographer Adam Suzin for Father, respectively.
The Laszlo Kovacs Student Award, the Golden Tadpole, was presented to cinematographer Nico Schrenk for Skin on Skin, directed by Simon Schneckenburger, from Germany’s Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Also in the student competition, the Silver Tadpole was bestowed on Henri Nunn for Walud, directed by Daood Alabdulaa and Louise Zenker, from University of Television and Film in Munich; and the Bronze Tadpole was awarded to Francesca Avanzini for Marina, directed by Paoli de Luca from Italy’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.
The closing-night film was Craig Brewer’s musical film Song Sung Blue, which was introduced by cinematographer Amy Vincent, ASC.
Due to illness, Cate Blanchett was unable to attend the closing ceremony to accept the previously-announced Icon Award. Blanchett sent a gracious note to Camerimage, which, in turn, sent her best wishes for a speedy recovery and hope to host her again at a future festival.
As the festival closed, it was also revealed that government funding for the previously announced construction of a Camerimage European Center for Cinematography — a groundbreaking was held in Toruń in 2023 — had been pulled back, and a petition urging it to reconsider was beginning to circulate.
