CAMERIMAGE 2018 STUDENT ETUDES COMPETITION LINE-UP!

Monday October 8th, 2018

We announce the line-up of the Student Etudes Competition of the 26th edition of the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE.

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.

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 Filmmakers Association will award the winner of the Student Etudes Competition a cheque for PLN 10 000.

Almost Everything

At only 47 years of age, Paul suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. His wife, Leandra, is supposed to take him to a nursing home, but Paul would rather go on holiday with her. So they drive to the sea, just like a regular couple.

Original title: Fast Alles
Director: Lisa Gertsch
Cinematographer: Simon Bitterli
School: Zürcher Hochschule der Künste - Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)
Country and year: Switzerland, 2017

Cake for Lizzie, A

Sofia, a single mother and dedicated police officer, lives in a dystopian future of Los Angeles where food is a luxury and not a right. Sofia’s daughter, Lizzie, is ill, and with Lizzie’s tenth and possibly last birthday coming up, Sofia yearns to bake her a simple little cake – something few people remember and many have never seen. In a world where food only comes in pre-cooked STRICTLY controlled rations distributed by a totalitarian government, getting fresh ingredients just to bake a cake can mean breaking the law, and risking your life.

Director: Michel Kreisel Vaisberg
Cinematographer: Brian Sergott
School: University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematic Arts
Country and year: USA, 2018

Darkness Is A Color

A visual journey inside the psyche of an old hunter who is fighting the aging process and has to confront himself within his natural environment: the forest.

Director: Mujtaba Al Madlooh
Cinematographer: Adrian Langenbach
School: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
Country and year: Germany, 2017

Dead Birds

A teenager at a Catholic girls’ school goes to extreme lengths to overcome her failure at badminton in order to win the inter-school cup. Dead Birds is a wild, supernatural black comedy about competitive mother–daughter relationships, competitive badminton, and how far you’d go to get what your heart most desires.

Director: Johnny Kenton
Cinematographer: Jonathan Flint
School: National Film and Television School (NFTS)
Country and year: UK, 2018

Ikar

In an attempt to impress a girl, young Ikar chases a ball into an auto repair shop. Inside, his imagination changes reality into a nightmare.

Directors: Łukasz Dziedzic, Oran Zegman
Cinematographer: Łukasz Dziedzic
School: American Film Institute Conservatory
Country and year: USA, 2018

In His Place

Omar is visiting his parents’ house with the baby girl of his departed lover, Ma’ayan, a Jewish woman. The presence of the baby in his childhood home brings up old tensions between him and his parents and opens up Omar’s wounds.

Original title: Bimkomo
Director: Ofir Feldman
Cinematographer: Guy Sahaf
School: The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television - Tel Aviv University
Country and year: Israel, 2018

Last Call

Anikó Kárpáti is 61, and this is her last day in Budapest. She hopes for a better life with her daughter’s family abroad, but first she must sever all her links with Hungary. Anikó begins a mad dash through the city, but at the end of this frantic day, she must face what is ahead of her and the things that she leaves behind.

Director: Hajni Kis
Cinematographer: Ákos Nyoszoli
School: Színház- és Filmművészeti Egyetem - University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest (SZFE)
Country and year: Hungary, 2018

Petit

Mateo is all alone. The world around him seems to be spinning too fast and everyone seems so insensitive; no one realises what is happening to him. Mateo will find out something, and there will be only one option: TO RUN AWAY.

Director: Asier Ramos
Cinematographer: Joan Martínes
School: Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya (ESCAC)
Country and year: Spain, 2017

Rien ne va plus

Bodo is standing on a roof and is ready to jump when, out of the blue, his phone rings. It's Evi, telling Bodo he’s won a prize in a competition he never took part in. While Bodo tries to get rid of Evi, all of a sudden, robbers attack the casino from where Evi is calling...

Director: Sophie Linnenbaum
Cinematographer: Fee Strothmann
School: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Country and year: Germany, 2017

Simon

A young Venezuelan freedom fighter seeks political asylum in the US after being persecuted by his government, but his heart remains with the fight back home.

Director: Diego Vicentini
Cinematographer: Romas Usakovas
School: New York Film Academy (NYFA)
Country and year: USA, 2018

Sirene

15-year-old Kay lives a boy’s life and enjoys roaring around on motocross bikes. He likes to hang out with his friends and sneak up on girls. But deep inside, something has been nagging him for a long time. Something about his life doesn’t feel like it fits: like a jacket that’s the wrong size. When the enchanting Melody sails into his life on a big boat, their flourishing friendship lures him towards this dormant feeling.

Director: Zara Dwinger
Cinematographer: Douwe Hennink
School: Nederlandse Filmacademie - Netherlands Film Academy (AHK)
Country and year: Netherlands, 2017

Sister

Maya fears that when her little sister is born, everything will change too much...

Polish title: Siostra
Director: Magdalena Bojdo
Cinematographer: Magdalena Bojdo
School: Łódź Film School – Szkoła Filmowa w Łodzi
Country and year: Poland, 2017

Skinny

This is a poetic and nostalgic portrait of childhood seen through the eyes of siblings. It’s a beautiful, sunny afternoon. A bunch of kids are playing football in the yard. Meanwhile in a nearby flat, a boy is looking after his younger sister. Behind a closed door, the boy and girl start a game of their own. What’s hidden behind children's games?

Polish title: Chudy
Director: Daniel Stopa
Cinematographer: Piotr Michalak
School: Krzysztof Kieślowski Faculty of Radio and Television University of Silesia – Uniwersytet Śląski - Wydział Radia i Telewizji im. K. Kieślowskiego (UŚ WRiTv)
Country and year: Poland, 2018

Techno

Ryszard, a sixty-year-old farmer living in a small Polish village in complete seclusion takes care of his wife, who struggles with Alzheimer’s. A young girl from a big city whom he stumbles upon by accident introduces him to a world of techno music, which, for at least a brief moment, helps him forget about the grave responsibility he has to carry on his shoulders.

Director: Tadeusz Łysiak
Cinematographer: Konrad Bloch
School: Warsaw Film School – Warszawska Szkoła Filmowa
Country and year: Poland, 2017

Them

Marie, her father and her little brother live in an underground bunker hidden deep in the woods. The world as we knew it no longer exists. When the father accidentally shoots a stranger while on a hunt, he finds himself faced with only two options and decides to take the stranger home. While the father distrusts the stranger, Marie is drawn to him. But when three marauders invade the bunker, she is not sure what or who her new friend really is.

Original title: Fremde
Director: Tim Dünschede
Cinematographer: Holger Jungnickel
School: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München - University of Television and Film Munich (HFF München), Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin - German Film and Television Academy (dffb), Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
Country and year: Germany, 2017

Thicker Than Water

To Kim, a 23-year-old kick-boxer, everything revolves around her projecting a strong exterior. She spends her days at a boxing gym with her trainer, Tarik. She then meets an attractive security guard, Mo, who sees her as a lady and confronts her about her inability to be vulnerable.

Original title: Bloed Kruipt
Director: Laras Rienstra
Cinematographer: Ruben Van Weelden
School: Nederlandse Filmacademie - Netherlands Film Academy (AHK)
Country and year: Netherlands, 2017

Touch Me

Alice has a fight on her hands: a fight against breast cancer, which makes her feel so helpless as she sees her body changing; a fight against her fears about what still lies ahead; and a fight against Moritz, who loves her deeply but struggles as much as she with the new situation. In a quiet, atmospheric way, the movie tells the day-to-day story of a relationship that will never be the same again.

Original title: Was bleibt
Director: Eileen Byrne
Cinematographer: Rebecca Meining
School: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München - University of Television and Film Munich (HFF München)
Country and year: Germany, Luxembourg, 2018

Word, The

Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine, 1933. The elite of Ukrainian culture live in Kharkiv’s House of Writers, also known as “the Word”. After a decade of flourishing activity by Ukrainian writers, everything changed. In the middle of the night, the NKVD takes away one of the writers, who is then declared an enemy of the people. Now, two of his friends, famous writers, must choose how to protect themselves and their families from the terrible fate that hangs over the entire house, a house that will later be called “the Crematorium”, and the artists who lived in it “the murdered Ukrainian renaissance.”

Original title: Slovo
Director: Igor Vysnevskyi
Cinematographer: Andrii Mironiuk
School: Kyiv National I.K. Karpenko-Kary University of Theatre, Cinema and TV (KNUKiT)
Country and year: Ukraine, 2018