The news that Leon Niemczyk, one of the most prominent polish film actors and the friend of Camerimage Festival passed away, filled us with deep sorrow.

On behalf of the organisers and participants of the 14. International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, we would like to offer our condolences to the family, friends and all the fans of this great artist.

He will always remain in our memory as a great man and an accomplished actor.



Director of the Camerimage Festival

Marek Żydowicz



LEON NIEMCZYK HAS PASSED AWAY

Cameimage Festival is paying tribute to the winner of 2002 Special Camerimage Award from Cinematographers to a Polish Actor. Leon Niemczyk died after a long and serious illness. He has been an actor for almost 50 years. He starred in many productions important for cinematography: Celullose, Baltic Express, Black Cross, Knife in the Water, and the cult film The Saragossa Manuscript. Throughout his 50-years long career, he starred in more than 400 films, which makes him a record-holder.

STUDENTS AND FORUM, PETER AND THE WOLF, GOLDENEYE AND CASINO ROYALE

Wednesday, the 5th day of Camerimage was the day of student films. For many years Wednesday has been the day when young cinematographers from all over the world begin the battle for the Golden Tadpoles. This year, 16 films from 6 countries took part in the competition. It was also on Wednesday that Paweł Dyllus from Poland received The David Samuelson Student Award, the Panavision award for technical achievements. The second edition of CAMERIMAGE FORUM was also held during which the cinematographers discussed the issues of legal regulations concerning their profession. The special screening of the Polish feature animation "Peter and the Wolf" was also met with applause. An internet chat with Phil Mehaux, the cinematographer of Casino Royale and Goldeneye aroused interest as well.

Who will leave Lodz with Golden Tadpole will be revealed on Sunday. It will be decided by the jury:

Rolf Coulanges [Germany] - cinematographer, director, editor, scriptwriter and writer. He also lectures at at electronic media faculty at Stuttgart Media University HDM. Works for International Film School of Third World in Havana. Seamus McGarvey [Ireland]- cinematographer and director of awarded documentaries and short films. He made more than 100 videoclips [among others: U2, The Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, and Elton John]. He made cinematography for World Trade Center by Oliver Stone, Sahara, High Fidelity, or Enigma.Peter Strietman [USA] - works on different fields of art. He makes videos, instalations, computer animations, performances, and most of he is a ci! nematogr apher. He made cinematography for the Cremaster cycle [dir. Matthew Barney]; Jerzy Zieliński [Poland] - distinguished Polish cinematographer, has been working in the USA and Western Europe for a while. Cinematographer of Escape from the 'Liberty' Cinema by Wojciech Marczewski and Daimler-Benz Limousine by Filip Bajon, as well as films by Agnieszka Holland The Secret Garden, Washington Square and The Third Miracle; Bruce Finn [USA] - Emmy award winner. Cinematographer of many popular American series;Ken Fisher [USA] - visual effects expert, working by special visual systems for film, commercial and TV for 25 years.

SAMUELSON for DYLLUS AND COMPETITION FILMS

The etude Wild Duck Season, with the cinamatography by Paweł Dyllus is the firstThe David Samuelson Student Award winner in the history of CAMERIMAGE. It is a special award for the best cinematography technique in the student films competition founded by PANAVISION company.

Films presented on Wednesday which belong to the main competition are The Fountain, with the cinematography by Matthew Libatique [dir. Darren Aronofsky] and The Illusionist with the cinematography by Dick Pope [dir. Neil Burger].

As for the screenings in Charlie cinema it is worth remembering the screening of the German-Lithuanian Ghetto [cin. Andreas Hofer, European Films Review]. Other films presented in Charlie are:

Fraulein [cin. Igor Martinović, European Films Review]. As It Is in Heaven[cin. Harald Gunnar Paalgard, Swedish Films Review] and Border Post [cin. Slobodan Trninić, European Films Review].

On Wednesday many interesting meetings and press conferences were held. The journalists met with Tom Stern, the cinamatographer of Flags of our Fathers, nd with Robby Muller

Środa była też dniem ciekawych spotkań i konferencji prasowych. Dziennikarze spotkali się z Tomem Sternem, operatorem w oraz z Robby’m Mullerem [The Camerimage 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award ; Müller met also with students]. While the member of the Main Jury and the author of the cinamatography for Casino Royale and Goldeneye, Phil Meheux met wit the internauts at the chatroom Stopklatka.pl [report below].

FORUM

Crucial for the future legals for cinematographers was the meeting of the day CAMERIMAGE FORUM, that is a panel discussion concerning the job regulations and the cinematographers' copyrights. The legal panel has been held for the second time during Camerimage Festival. The participants were informed among others about the profits resulting from the declaration submitted last year concerning the job regulations in the film industry signed by more than twenty famous cinematographers. This year the panel was divided into two parts, the first concerning the legal issues relating to the ownership and recognizing the cinematographer as co-authors, the second discussing the job regulations in the film industry.

Reports:

I'M NOT A NATIONALIST

Tom Stern Press Conference

Stern talked about the difficulties with shooting Clint Eastwood film. While looking for location they eventually reached Iceland.

Stern pointed out how important the mirroring of the story was and that there are hardly any fictional elements in it. In order not to make any mistakes the marines fighting during II WW on the Pacific were requested for advice.

When the journalists asked Stern about the role of war films in the American cinematography they received a surprising answer: 'Well...I'm not a nationalist. Is it enough?' Stern underlined that the main film theme is heroism. And the question 'how is it that people become heroes, not only war heroes but also in a wider sense?' Because it is sometimes by chance that someone gains the name 'hero'.

CHAT WITH CINEMATOGRAPHER OF 'CASINO ROYALE'

Another guest of Stopklatka from Camerimage was Phil Meheux - the author of the cinematography for the latest Bond film Casino Royale.He also worked during such productions as Trial, Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro , The Saint, The Legend of Zorro

When asked how it feels to introduce another new James Bond character, he answered: 'Each film making is a wonderful feeling. In both cases Martin Campbell was the director, this is the most important thing for me.I had great fun'

It appears that the cinematography line in Casino Royale included five teams with several cameras: the main team, theair team, the water team, etc.

In his opinion a cinematographer of a commercial film doesn't have to be limited in his creative visions: 'Everytime I work with Martin Campbell, I am the co-author of the film and it's not true that working by high-budget films limits the cinematographer. He has more equipement then. I have worked by low-budget films where we only had a camera and a lens box, that's really limiting.'

When asked for advice for the cinematography beginners, he said: 'Work everywhere, from the low positions to the high ones. This is what I did having learned a lot more than if I had been at school"

The whole interview here: http://www.stopklatka.pl/wydarzenia/wydarzenie.asp?wi=34878

SPECIAL SCREENING OF THE FILM PETER AND THE WOLF

This production is so far one of the biggest Polish-British co-productions in the field of animation.

Polish studio SE-ma-for from Lodz and BreakThru Films company from GB took part in the undertaking. The film was directed by Suzy Templeton - a young celebrity of English animation, and the winner of BAFTA award. The premiere took place in September, 2006, in prestigeous Royal Albert Hall in London. The movie can be interpreted as a fairy tale with a universal message both for children and adults. The director, herself, comments on her production: 'What fascinates me the most in this story and what I attempted to point out, make it the stem of the film is the abyss, and lack of understanding between 'the civilized' and 'the wild'. We simultaneously endure fear, and fascination by 'the wild', some kind of desire to regain the lost connection with nature, animals, and at the same time we are frantically afraid of it.

FILM CREW IS ONE BIG FAMILY

Conference with the producers of The Fountain

Eric Watson was the guest at the conference. Watson, the director, Darren Aronofsky and the cinematographer Matthew Libatique have been working together for several years. Watson and Aronofsky made together such films as:Protozoa, Pi, and Requiem for a Dream. At that time all the three of them became 30 years old and started thinking about death. 'what's more, Darren's parents got cancer, and he went through all the suffering, hospitals with them,' said Watson. The film Matrix was an impuls for them as well. 'We were thinking if anything else could be donein the field of science-fiction films. The Fountain is supposed to be sort of a challenge,' said the producer.

WHO FOUGHT FOR THE TADPOLES?

Student films competition

ANGEL [cin.: Raphael Jamar, dir.: Nikolas List, Institut des Arts de Diffusion Belgia]

BAD HABITS [cin.: Jason Ramp; dir.: Jason Ramp; Australian Film, Tv & Radio School]

The BLUE MONKEY, [cin.: Lars Petersen; dir.: Carsten Unger; Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany]

COSETTE [cin.: Velinda Wardell; dir: Samantha Rebillet; Australian Film, Tv & Radio School].

A DROP OF WATER [cin.:Matthieu-David Cournot; dir.: Deniz Gamze Ergüven; La Fémis France]. FIRN [cin.:Kolja Raschke; dir: Axel Koenzen; Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Germany].

PIECE OF HEAVEN [cin: Adam Palenta, dir: Kuba Czekaj; Wydział Radia i Telewizji Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Poland].

WORLD CHAMPION [cin. and dir: Łukasz Żal; school: Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna in Lodz].

LAST FRAME [cin. and dir.: Piotr Janowski, school: Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralnain Lodz].

BEYOND SILENCE [cin.: Grzegorz Korczak, dir.: Piotr Ryczko, school: Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna in Lodz].

BROADCAST REHEARSAL [cin: Agnieszka Olczyk, dir: Tomasz Jurkiewicz; Wydział Radia i Telewizji Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Poland].

ROAD MARKS [cin: Imri Matalon, dir: Shimon Shai; The Sam Spiegel Film & TV School - Jerusalem Israel].

SEA, THE [cin. i dir: Simon Gray; Australian Film, Tv & Radio School].

WILD DUCK SEASON [cin: Paweł Dyllus; dir: Julia Ruszkiewicz; Wydział Radia i Telewizji Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Poland].

ST. PAULI FOREVER [cin: Bettina Herzner; dir.: Michael Sommer; Hamburg Media School Germany].

ACCORDING TO PLAN [cin: Aleksander Duraj, dir: Tadeusz Śliwa; Wydział Radia i Telewizji Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Poland]