Ulaa Salim and his ‘Sons of Denmark’ won the Cracow Film Award (USD 100,000), ‘Dolce Fina Giornata’ directed by Jacek Borcuch won the Kulczyk Foundation Award (PLN 300,000) and ‘Zabawa zabawa’ by Kinga Debska won the Audience Award. Who else triumphed at the Closing Gala of the 12th Mastercard OFF CAMERA?

The jury of the ‘Making Way’ Main Competition presided by Allan Starski selected ‘Sons of Denmark’ as the no. 1 film. The action of the dark thriller is set in Denmark, but could take place in many other European countries as well. The director speaks about one of the major problems today’s Europe has to face – radicalism, the rise of hate, and intolerance of everything which is different.

‘Dolce Fina Giornata’ gained the acclaim of the Polish Feature Film Competition jury. Marcia Gay Harden, Jonatha Romney, Laura Rosenthal, and Kim Yutani decided that the PLN 300,000, the Kulczyk Foundation Award, will go to Jacek Borcuch.

The ‘Making Way’ Main Competition and the Polish Feature Film Competition are parts of the project ‘Image of the world/the world in images’ held during the 12th Mastercard OFF CAMERA International Festival of Independent Cinema.

Once again the MasterCard Rising Star award for the best actor’s debut was presented during the Polish Feature Film Competition. The recognition and PLN 10,000 was received by Karolina Bruchnicka for her role in ‘The Coach’s Daughter’. For the fifth time, the program board of the Festival announced the laureates of the awards for Best Actress (Albert Riele) and Best Actor (BNP PARIBAS). The laureates were Gabriela Muskała (‘Fuga’) and Jacek Braciak (‘The Coach’s Daughter’). Members of the jury also presented additional recognitions. They were received by Jagoda Szelc for her film ‘Monument’ and the wonderful actors trio: Dorota Kolak, Agata Kulesza and Maria Dębska for their roles in the film ‘Zabawa zabawa’.

The FIPRESCI International Film Critics Association Award was presented to the film ‘Monsters and Men’. In his film debut, Reinaldo Marcus Green shows what consequences a single act of violence can have for an entire community. Adrian Panek’s ‘Werewolf’ was awarded the prize of the Skrytykuj.pl Youth Jury.

The audience awarded the film ‘Zabawa zabawa’ by Kinga Dębska with its prize. The award was sponsored by the brand 4F.

The Award of the Polish Producers Alliance for Best Producer’s Debut 2018 was presented ex aequo to Małgorzata Wabińska for ‘Diagnosis’, directed by Ewa Podgórska – in recognition of the ambitious form, audacity and great consequence, and to Jarosław Sawko for the film ‘Another Day of Life’ directed by Raul de la Fuente and Damian Neonow – for its original, hybrid form combining animation with documentary and the international production aspect.

During the Closing Gala, awards in the competition #63PL were presented. The list of laureates included Julia Klimek, Jan Kieniewicz (1st place), Filip Tomczak, Patryk Bankowski (2nd place), Adrian Bednarczyk, Mateusz Kaczmarek (3rd place). The Onet.pl Special Award was presented to Radosław Jędrzejczyk.

During the 12th Mastercard OFF CAMERA more than 250 film screenings were held, watched by 32,000 viewers. The location most willingly visited by the Festival guests was the 19th Century Polish Art Gallery in the Cracow Cloth Hall (Sukiennice), and the ‘Wajda’ exhibition held at the National Museum in Cracow. You can find the Festival reports at www.offcamera.pl