CINEMATOGRAPHERS' DEBUTS COMPETITION 2016 LINE-UP!

Monday October 17th, 2016

Cinematographers’ Debuts Competition was initiated in 2010 due to the Festival’s increasing openness to the noteworthy artists and the new film phenomena they create. The idea of creating additional competition section was a natural consequence of our previous activities. For years we have been promoting innovative projects that combine intellectual freedom, remarkable insight into world affairs and a desire to inspire other artists of the screen.

Cinematographers’ Debuts Competition bring new discoveries: great movies of high artistic value and great filmmakers whose new ventures surprise not only the Jury members but all audiences around the world as well.

Competition is under the patronage of Polish Filmmakers Association.

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Agony

A twenty-something student murders his girlfriend without any apparent reason, then cuts her into pieces and throws her into a dumpster. A fourteen-year-old girl attacks her mother with a knife just because she was not allowed to use the internet. These crimes presented by the film were very specific and yet undefined, undoubtedly for myriads of reasons that get lost in the mundanity of everyday life. Agony tells two parallel stories of young men who are forced by adult life to negotiate their dreams and desires with an indifferent world. Can their souls be tainted by evil too? On the one hand, they are very similar: neither has the support of a father figure; neither knows how to vent their sexual tensions. On the other hand, they come from completely different worlds and seem to be driven by entirely different things. This is a film about them, and their generation, as well as – quite simply – about the human nature.

Original title: Agonie
Director: David Clay Diaz
Cinematographer: Julian Krubasik

Produced by: Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München - University of Television and Film Munich (HFF München)
Austria, Germany, 2016

Aloys

Aloys Adorn is a private detective who has lost his will to live after his father’s death. He tries to fill the existential void with a series of repetitive actions and gestures, as well as a voyeuristic streak that his job demands of him, while living in permanent emotional and physical isolation. But then, one day Aloys unexpectedly meets a woman who wants to change his way of thinking. Well, he meets Vera over the phone when she invites him to participate in a game of imagination called ‘phone walking’. It goes like this: one person opens the other’s mind through the power of voice and verbal suggestion, thus establishing a connection, devoid of imperfect physicality, which will enable both of them to go on exciting virtual adventures and become better versions of themselves. Aloys is an innovative drama that poses a series of questions about the limitations of the human psyche and the power of imagination to both build bridges of understanding and walls of ignorance.

Original title: Aloys
Director: Tobias Nölle
Cinematographer: Simon Guy Fässler

Produced by: Hugofilm Productions GmbH

Polish distributor: Solopan Sp. z o. o.
Switzerland, France, 2016

Codename Holec

Honza David is a young Czechoslovakian film director who would like to use the power of cinema to lead a charge against the Communist government and promote self-awareness among his peers. The problem is that his films are censored and nobody can legally watch them. Helmut Zilk is a popular Austrian television producer who would like to be the one to bring the latest news from behind the Iron Curtain to viewers in the West, but he begins to collaborate with the Czechoslovakian government and is forced to turn a blind eye. Between them there is a young and alluring actress named Eva. She loves Honza, but at the same time she is tempted by the freedom offered by Helmut. There will be no classic love triangle between them, though – it is 1968, the Prague Spring is already happening, and the military intervention of the Warsaw Pact is under way. Codename Holec is a poignant drama of people whose individual dreams and desires were suppressed by the world they could not do anything to change.

Original title: Deckname Holec
Director: Franz Novotny
Cinematographer: Robert Oberrainer

Produced by: Dawson Productions, Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion GmbH
Austria, Czech Republic, 2016

Eyes of My Mother, The

It begins with a brutal murder, and then it only gets more intense. A raving lunatic with a grotesque grin on his face mercilessly slaughters an older woman, who happens to be an immigrant that found asylum for her family in the idyllic American countryside. There is a witness to this heinous crime: the woman’s young daughter, who will never be the same again. Years later, the adult girl lives in seclusion, grieving the recent passing of her dear father and manifesting increasingly psychopathic inclinations. Will she become a monster as cruel as the man who tainted her life forever? The Eyes of My Mother is a tale of loneliness disturbing the mind and leading to desperation, shot in elegant and expressionistic black and white. Both a drama about a broken human being and a classical horror movie with creepy narrative twists and turns, its suggestive atmosphere builds upon Gothic imagery and melancholic yearning expressed through soulful fado music.

Original title: The Eyes of My Mother
Director: Nicolas Pesce
Cinematography: Zach Kuperstein
Produced by: Borderline Presents, Tandem Pictures

USA, 2016

My Angel

A tale as uncommon as they come, imaginative and fairylike, though at the same time painfully real. One day at a psychiatric asylum, a magician’s ex-assistant finds herself performing the greatest trick of them all: she gives birth to an invisible son. She names the boy My Angel and decides to keep him a secret to shelter him from the world’s cruelty and lack of understanding. But no child can live long in its parent’s protective bubble, and so My Angel quickly develops a liking for the outside world. There, he meets Madeleine, a blind freckled girl with red hair, beautiful eyes, and a ravishing smile who does not need her sight to love with all of her heart. She does not know the truth about his existence, which is why their relationship is honest, unique, and based on mutual trust and understanding. But there comes a time when Madeleine leaves My Angel to have the surgery that will bring back her sight. Will this change everything? Can love really be unconditional?

Original title: Mon Ange
Director: Harry Cleven
Cinematographer: Juliette Van Dormael

Produced by: Terra Incognita Films, Après le Déluge, Climax Films

Polish distributor: Mayfly
Belgium, 2016

Play the Devil

Gregory is an eighteen-year-old Trinidadian who lives in the country with his hard-working grandmother. He is an eager student, dreaming of using his knowledge and skills to leave the world of poverty and no opportunities behind. Though everyone tries to persuade him to go into medicine, he would prefer to become a professional photographer. One day, Gregory is approached by James, a much older businessman interested in his talent who offers him a taste of living in luxury. The boy lets curiosity get the best of him, especially because his new friend lends him his expensive digital camera and seems to understand his artistic yearning and moral dilemmas. Will Gregory be tempted by the forbidden fruit and risk it all? And if so, will he be able to remain true to himself after the dust has settled? Play the Devil is a tale of Trinidad and Tobago’s culture and tradition, as well as a story of the joys, sorrows, and dangers of growing up and young people’s need to find their place in the world.

Original title: Play the Devil
Director: Maria Govan
Cinematographer: James David Wall

Produced by: Play the Devil Pictures Ltd.
Trinidad & Tobago, 2016

Playground

Final day of school in a small Polish town. It's the very last chance for a 12 year old Gabrysia to tell her classmate that she had fallen in love with him. She sets up a secret meeting and blackmails the boy to show up. But what was supposed to be an intimate talk spins out of control and leads to an unexpected and tragic ending.

Polish title: Plac zabaw
Director: Bartosz Maciej Kowalski
Cinematographer: Mateusz Skalski

Produced by: FILM IT Sp. z o. o.
Polish distributor: NEXT FILM Sp. z o. o.

Poland, 2016