Since its beginnings, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography PLUS CAMERIMAGE has always created a space in which film school students could acquire knowledge and accumulate experience. It enabled young disciples of the art of cinematography, directing, editing, producing, art directing, and acting to meet with some of the greatest filmmakers working in the film industry. It inspired them to try to achieve great things by providing them with the knowledge which they will use in the future to inspire people all over the world. As we consider this our mission, carried on for the last 20 years, it is our great joy to announce that during this year's anniversary edition of Plus Camerimage the Jury of Student Etudes Competition will be headed by Alan Parker, the director/screenwriter/producer known for his artistic integrity and love for the art of filmmaking.

Alan Parker, photo by Kinga Wasilewska
Alan Parker has always known the value of gaining the experience in a number of different fields, and finding one's own path. He started his career as a copywriter and director/screenwriter of TV commercials working, among others, with prestigious London-based Collett Dickinson Pearce agency. It was there that he established the basics of his craft and the reputation of a creative filmmaker who is not afraid of any challenges. After doing a few television projects, Parker made his debut as a feature film director in 1976, showing instantly that he will not follow anybody's footsteps. Bugsy Malone is a story about the titular gangster with child actors cast for all the parts and musical genre at its basis. An original, offbeat piece of work, evidential of its author's vision. If Bugsy Malone made Parker known within the industry, his second film, a drama set in sadistic Turkish prison entitled Midnight Express, helped him to get worldwide attention. Parker was also nominated to an Oscar in Best Director category, and he established himself a reputation as a filmmaker worth watching.

Still from "Bugsy Malone"
The 1980s saw Parker achieving a series of successes. Musical Fame was heralded by the young audiences as a cult hit, something of a generational classic, making the director an expert in that genre. He confirmed that reputation with Pink Floyd The Wall, a visually innovative film based on the titular album of the band, telling a story about limiting the artistic inclinations in human's soul. In Angel HeartParker redefined the rules governing the classic Hollywood film noir genre, and showed himself again as a director conscious of his work, and interested in projects with which he could say something of value. The controversial Mississippi Burning, which for many people was too difficult to handle, underlined his ability to tackle every theme possible. The film told a story of racial segregation in the American South, and once again brought him the Oscar nod in the Best Director category. Alan Parker said in one of the interviews that he would like to try new things and that he does not want to become a slave of a particular genre or definition of cinematic experience because it's utterly pointless. He confirmed those words in the 1990s creating such diverse films as: the musical drama The Commitments, the eccentric comedy The Road to Wellville, the history drama Come See the Paradise, the musical biography Evita, and the psychological dramas Birdy and Angela's Ashes. Parker's last finished project to date remains the 2003 political drama The Life of David Gale.

Still from "Mississippi Burning"
Alan Parker's films are always personal projects which he puts his whole heart and soul into. They provoke discussions, but also reactions; freeing oneself from the everyday torpor and trying to break the walls of one's fixed way of perceiving the surrounding world. Parker is also a director conscious of the visual side of his films, for most of his career he collaborated with the cinematographer Michael Seresin (both filmmakers received 2007 Plus Camerimage Award to Cinematographer-Director Duo). It's safe to say that Alan Parker embodies the traits we would like to train in the young disciples of the art of film. We are therefore certain that his presence in the Jury of the Student Etudes Competition will help us to carry on our mission for the third consecutive decade of the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography PLUS CAMERIMAGE.