First held in 1997, Student Etudes Competition supports the development of novice filmmakers and provides unique opportunity to confront cinematic achievements of students from various parts of the world. Each year, a growing number of film schools submit their best etudes for consideration of the Camerimage selection committee. The winners are chosen by an international jury of prominent filmmakers and industry professionals.

Student Etudes Competition will be screened on Wednesday, 19th November, in the Festival Center in Opera Nova. The author of the best cinematography wins the coveted Laszlo Kovacs Student Award - The Golden Tadpole. Silver and Bronze Tadpoles are awarded for the second and third place respectively.

Additionally, Polish Film Institute and Mastershot will present a Special Prize for Outstanding Cinematography, while the Polish Filmmakers Association will award the winner of the Student Etudes Competition a cheque for PLN 10 000.

Albert… This is your relaxation time. Take a deep breath...

Directed by: Daniel Wawrzyniak
Cinematography: Daniel Wawrzyniak
Film school: Lodz Film School

Impetuous 10-year-old Anton is the radiant focus of his family. When his parents get into financial difficulties, they try to keep it away from him as much as possible. However they can’t hide their worries from him. Anton tries to win back the attention of his parents, but in doing so he ignores other people’s boundaries. And his own.

Directed by: Nico Van Den Brink
Cinematography: Kasper De Bont
Film school: Nederlandse Filmacademie - Netherlands Film Academy (AHK)

During a stormy night of grave political crisis, an expert interpreter suffers a nervous breakdown. Young diplomat Konrad Gelb is recruited to step in and interpret between the two conflicting superpower leaders, who seem to hold the fate of humanity in their hands – an absurd responsibility, which by extension rests on the shoulders of the young interpreter. He must balance the oversized egos in the room and maneuver the world’s destiny to either peaceful resolution or total annihilation.

Directed by: Andrej Gontcharov
Cinematography: Julian Landweer
Film school: Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin - German Film and Television Academy (dffb)

Łukasz wants to escape his social reality. Being a thug in Hamburg’s underworld seems to be a possibility. But then his little brother turns up on his doorstep after their mother’s death.

Original title: Bruder
Directed by: Jarek Duda
Cinematography: Felix Tonnat
Film school: Internationale Filmschule Köln (IFS)

An old man fulfills his promise and remembers his final days in World War II and the unlikely bond he formed with a Jewish prisoner.

Directed by: Simon Temple
Cinematography: Elana Wilson
Film school: Griffith Film School

Alexandra isolates herself.
She runs away to overcome the hardship she’s suffering.
Her pain was unpredictable. So is life.

Original title: Au moins le sais-tu...
Directed by: Arthur Lecouturier
Cinematography: Clémence Warnier
Film school: Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IAD)

An old couple goes to visit their only son in psychiatric hospital, but this time a meeting was not destined to take place, because their son was trying to commit suicide. Upon returning home, they decide to take their son out of the hospital.

Directed by: Ekaterina Kozhakina
Cinematography: Nikita Rozov
Film school: Vserossijskij Gosudarstvennyi Institut Kinematografii - Russian Institute of Cinematography (VGIK)

A boy meets a girl. It could be love. But there is this jacket, too. And the jacket will change everything...

Original title: Die Jacke
Directed by: Patrick Vollrath
Cinematography: Anselm Hartmann
Film school: Institut für Film und Fernsehen FILMAKADEMIE WIEN

A toxic relationship between an older man and a younger woman.
Negative emotions are released sparking a series of unexpected events that will affect others around them.

Polish title: Śmiech w ciemności
Directed by: Marta Trela
Cinematography: Michał Łuka
Film school: Lodz Film School

My last concert.
My last concert in the town of my birth.
My last concert in the town of my death.
My last concert in the town in which I hope to find inner peace.

Original title: Mein letztes Konzert
Directed by: Selcuk Zvi Cara
Cinematography: Nils A. Witt
Film school: Fachhochschule Dortmund - University of Applied Sciences and Arts (FH Dortmund)

Isolated on a farm Aaron battles with his family to hold onto what he cherishes most.

Directed by: Phil Sheerin
Cinematography: Steven Ferguson
Film school: National Film and Television School (NFTS)

Set in 1950s England, Room 55 follows the journey of Alice Lawson – a strictly self-disciplined wife, mother and celebrated television cook – as she spends an unplanned night alone at the mysterious Clove Hotel...

Directed by: Rose Glass
Cinematography: James Blann
Film school: National Film and Television School (NFTS)

Scanonization is a short story about a young woman working in supermarket who notices biblical scenes while doing her routine duties. Everything is observed by a mysterious man via security system cameras.

Polish title: Skanonizacja
Directed by: Jan Grobliński, Dawid Makowski
Cinematography: Jan Grobliński
Film school: Lodz Film School

Judith and Damien are young actors. They are in love. To truly exist together, outside of their set, of their fictional world, they will have to leave the frame and cut the sound.

Original title: Mouettes
Directed by: Zeno Graton
Cinematography: Juliette Van Dormael
Film school: Institut National Superieur des Arts du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion (INSAS)

A man, while hunting a wolf in a forest, is startled by the sound of guns firing. Suddenly, in an explosion of movement there are people running, one of whom, a small boy, gets lost. Even the wolves are overwhelmed by a sense of impending danger.

Polish title: Las cieni
Directed by: Andrzej Cichocki
Cinematography: Andrzej Cichocki
Film school: Uniwersytet Śląski - Wydział Radia i Telewizji im. K. Kieślowskiego (UŚ WRiTv)

Jacek hasn’t seen his son for 18 years. Suddenly he turns up in the countryside to visit him. The film tells the story of two men who are too stubborn to patch things up and talk about their feelings. There are two people helping them achieve harmony: an energetic woman – Jacek’s partner – and a small boy.

Polish title: Mocna kawa wcale nie jest taka zła
Directed by: Aleksander Pietrzak
Cinematography: Mateusz Pastewka
Film school: Warsaw Film School

The detective office of Glatt & Glatt is on the verge of bankruptcy at the hands of the young Ubaldo Glatt, since his father’s death. It is then that the beautiful, wealthy young lady Rebecca Normond appears to maliciously start an investigation.

Original title: O Lenço Manchado de Vermelho
Directed by: Jess Weiss
Cinematography: Dudu Mafra
Film school: PUC-Rio

Luis Camus is a confident journalist, but the arrival of news that defies everything he knows will make him start to doubt his ethics and those in which he trusts. Owl is just a piece of the puzzle called to wake Luis from the lethargy of a corrupt regime.

Original title: Me llaman Buho
Directed by: Irene Garces
Cinematography: Pepe De La Rosa
Film school: Universidad de Sevilla

A story about a group of close friends around the age of thirty. They talk about work, life, and love, and constantly consider things instead of simply acting. Then an event occurs that makes time flow faster.

Directed by: Anton Kolomeets
Cinematography: Egor Kochubey
Film school: Vserossijskij Gosudarstvennyi Institut Kinematografii - Russian Institute of Cinematography (VGIK)

Hagar comes to visit her father in a Jerusalem nursing home. Before entering his room she looks at him and chooses to escape, but a series of mishaps forces her to spend the day in the building, masquerading as a caretaker. The short visit turns into a journey between the narrow corridors of society.

Directed by: Inbar Horesh
Cinematography: Omer Lotan
Film school: Minshar School of Art

December 1914. Arthur and Annie say farewell to their son William as he leaves for the war. Drifting further and further apart, the couple try to cope with their son’s absence.

Directed by: Joel Hooks
Cinematography: Charlie Jenkins
Film school: Arts University Bournemouth (AUB)

While their son fights the Germans on the Eastern front in Soviet Russia, a farmer and his wife are asked to hide and protect five priceless paintings evacuated from Leningrad. As a harsh winter shrouds the region, and it becomes ever more likely he will not return, these works of art help to calm their fears.

Directed by: Goran Stankovic
Cinematography: Carolina Costa
Film school: American Film Institute (AFI), Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies