Tuesday October 24th, 2023
The Main Competition with the Golden Frog Award has been the most important part of the EnergaCAMERIMAGE Festival from its beginning. The Competition exists since 1993 i.e. since the first edition of the Festival. From the very beginning the idea behind the competition is to present the feature films where the image significantly contributes to the way a story is told. The visual value of these films results from the cooperation between a director and a cinematographer and the unusual sensitivity of the author of a film image. The Main Competition emphasizes the enormous contribution of the cinematographer to the film work.
The aim of the Main Competition is to present films with unique visual appeal which will then be evaluated by International Jury who will choose and award the authors of the best cinematography.
Also this year we will present the most interesting phenomena of world's cinematography, distinctive in terms of creative use of the image in film narration.
ALL OF US STRANGERS
Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal in ALL OF US STRANGERS.
Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
© 2023 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.
One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbour Harry, which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents, appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before.
Tytuł polski: Dobrzy nieznajomi
Director: Andrew Haigh
Cinematographer: Jamie D. Ramsay
Produced by: Blueprint Pictures, Film4, Searchlight Pictures
Polish distributor: The Walt Disney Company Polska
Country and year: UK, USA, 2023
BLACK FLIES
An upstart paramedic Ollie Cross courses through adrenaline-fueled nights in an ambulance for the New York City Fire Department in Brownsville, Brooklyn while spending days studying for med-school exams in a Chinatown hovel. Working alongside seasoned first responder Gene Rutkovsky, Cross discovers firsthand the chaos and awe of a job that careens from harrowing to heartfelt, and occasionally stretches into ethical ambiguity. Furthering his examination of violence inside institutions and among close-knit groups, French filmmaker Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire turns his unflinching and inquisitive eye on his adopted hometown of New York City in all its ragged glory. Sauvaire concocts a visceral and immersive thriller out of the complex and grueling lives of emergency medical technicians and the everyday people they live to save.
Polish title: Granica mroku
Director: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire
Cinematographer: David Ungaro
Produced by: AZA Films, Force Majeure Productions, Projected Picture Works, Sculptor Media, Two & Two Pictures
Polish distributor: Monolith Films
Country and year: USA, 2023
EL CONDE
Cr. Pablo Larraín / Netflix ©2023
El Conde is a dark comedy/horror that imagines a parallel universe inspired by the recent history of Chile. The film portrays Augusto Pinochet, a symbol of world fascism, as a vampire who lives hidden in a ruined mansion in the cold southern tip of the continent. Feeding his appetite for evil to sustain his existence. After two hundred and fifty years of life, Pinochet has decided to stop drinking blood and abandon the privilege of eternal life. He can no longer bear that the world remembers him as a thief. Despite the disappointing and opportunistic nature of his family, he finds new inspiration to continue living a life of vital and counterrevolutionary passion through an unexpected relationship.
Polish title: Hrabia
Director: Pablo Larraín
Cinematographer: Ed Lachman
Produced by: Fabula
Polish distributor: Netflix
Country and year: Chile, 2023
FERRARI
photo by Lorenzo Sisti
It is the summer of 1957. Behind the spectacle of Formula 1, ex-racer Enzo Ferrari is in crisis. Bankruptcy threatens the factory he and his wife Laura built from nothing ten years earlier. Their volatile marriage has been battered by the loss of their son, Dino, a year earlier. Ferrari struggles to acknowledge his son Piero with Lina Lardi. Meanwhile, his drivers’ passion to win pushes them to the edge as they launch into the treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy, the Mille Miglia.
Director: Michael Mann
Cinematographer: Erik Messerschmidt
Produced by: Bliss Media, Esme Grace Media/COIL, Forward Pass, Grisbi Productions, Le, Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment, Moto Productions, Rocket Science, Storyteller Productions, STX Entertainment
Polish distributor: Monolith Films
Country and year: USA, UK, Italy, China, 2023
FILIP
Filip, an attractive twenty-something man, juggles working as a waiter in a luxury hotel with trying to enjoy life at a time when enjoyment is hard to find. But pleasure can also be derived from vengeance, especially when every day brings uncertainty in terms of survival. This very current study of identity and wartime trauma dressed in period garb poses unsettling questions about the limits of human resilience and the price of survival.
Director: Michał Kwieciński
Cinematographer: Michał Sobociński
Produced by: Telewizja Polska S.A., Akson Studio
Polish distributor: Telewizja Polska S. A. Dystrybucja Kinowa
Country and year: Poland, 2022
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Killers of the Flower Moon is an epic western crime saga, where real love crosses paths with unspeakable betrayal. Based on a true story and told through the improbable romance of Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), Killers of the Flower Moon tracks the suspicious murders of members of the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight after oil was discovered on their land. Killers of the Flower Moon also stars Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons and is directed by Academy Award® winner Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, based on David Grann’s bestselling book.
Polish title: Czas krwawego księżyca
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cinematographer: Rodrigo Prieto
Produced by: Appian Way, Apple Studios, Apple TV+, Imperative Entertainment, Sikelia Productions
Polish distributor: UIP Polska
Country and year: USA, 2023
LEE
The story begins in the South of France 1938, where Lee is vacationing with her dearest and closest friends who are artists, poets, and confidants. A former model and subject of the avant-garde photographer Man Ray, Lee, now tired of being viewed through a lens and by men, is focused exclusively on her own work as a photographer. The threat of war looms and almost overnight everything about their daily lives changes completely. In the midst of the blitz Lee Miller follows the love of her life, the art dealer Roland Penrose, to his hometown of London, where she seeks out work as a photographer for British “Vogue”. Frustrated by the restrictions placed on female photographers at the time, who are limited to documenting life on the home front, and tired of hearing that women are expected to “do their duty” whilst the “men get to decide what that is!”, Miller urges her female boss at British Vogue, Audrey Withers, to request permission from the Ministry of Information for Lee to go to the front line.
Director: Ellen Kuras
Cinematographer: Paweł Edelman
Produced by: 55 Films, Brouhaha Entertainment, Hantz Motion Pictures, Hopscotch Features, Juggle Productions, MS Partecipations S.A., Pasaca Entertainment, Sky Originals, Vogue Films, Vogue Studios
Polish distributor: Monolith Films
Country and year: USA, UK, 2023
MAESTRO
Maestro. (L to R) Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein (Director/Writer/Producer) and Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre in Maestro. Cr. Jason McDonald/Netflix © 2023.
Maestro is a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. A love letter to life and art, Maestro at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love.
Director: Bradley Cooper
Cinematographer: Matthew Libatique
Produced by: Amblin Entertainment, Fred Berner Films, Joint Effort, Netflix, Sikelia Productions
Polish distributor: Netflix
Country and year: USA, 2023
NAPOLEON
Napoleon is a spectacle-filled action epic that details the checkered rise of the iconic Napoleon Bonaparte, played by Oscar®-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, the film captures Bonaparte's relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine, showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.
Director: Ridley Scott
Cinematographer: Dariusz Wolski
Produced by: Apple Studios, Latina Pictures, Scott Free Productions
Polish distributor: UIP Polska
Country and year: USA, UK, 2023
THE NEW BOY
In a remote monastery in 1940s Australia, a mission for Aboriginal children is run by a renegade nun, Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett). A new charge (Aswan Reid) is delivered in the dead of night – a boy who appears to have special powers. When the monastery takes possession of a precious relic, a large carving of Christ on the cross, the new boy encounters Jesus for the first time and is transfixed. However, the boy’s Indigenous spiritual life does not gel with the mission’s Christianity and his mysterious power becomes a threat. Sister Eileen is faced with a choice between the traditions of her faith and the truth embodied in the boy, in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
Director: Warwick Thornton
Cinematographer: Warwick Thornton
Produced by: dirty films, Scarlett Pictures
Country and year: Australia, 2023
POOR THINGS
Ramy Youssef and Emma Stone in POOR THINGS.
Photo by Yorgos Lanthimos. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
© 2023 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.
From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter. Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn, a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
Polish title: Biedne istoty
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cinematographer: Robbie Ryan
Produced by: Element Pictures, Film4, Searchlight Pictures
Polish distributor: The Walt Disney Company Polska
Country and year: Ireland, UK, USA, 2023
SOCIETY OF THE SNOW
In 1972, the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile, catastrophically crashes on a glacier in the heart of the Andes. Only 29 of the 45 passengers survived the crash and finding themselves in one of the world’s toughest environments, they are forced to resort to extreme measures to stay alive.
Original title: La sociedad de la nieve
Polish title: Śnieżne bractwo
Director: J.A. Bayona
Cinematographer: Pedro Luque
Produced by: Apaches Entertainment, Benegas Brothers Productions, El Arriero Films, Netflix Studios,
Telecinco Cinema
Polish distributor: Netflix
Country and year: Spain, 2023
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
This year's Cannes Grand Prix winner The Zone of Interest is director Jonathan Glazer's (Sexy Beast, Birth and Under the Skin) film look into the everyday live of the Auschwitz concentration camp commander Rudolf Höss and his family. With Toni Erdmann's Sandra Hüller and The White Ribbon's Christian Friedel in the leading roles of Hewdig and Rudolf Höss. International media called The Zone of Interest a chilling and profound film (Variety) that will haunt you long after seeing it (Deadline), as well as a film that is terribly necessary to its time (Vanity Fair) and illustrating the banality of evil (Indiewire).
Polish title: Strefa intresów
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Cinematographer: Łukasz Żal
Produced by: A24, Access Entertainment, Film4, House Productions, EXTREME EMOTIONS BIS, JW Films Ltd.
Country and year: UK, Poland, USA, 2023
FINANCED BY THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND NATIONAL HERITAGE OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND AS PART OF THE TASK: CO-ORGANIZATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF THE ART OF CINEMATOGRAPHY EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2024
CO-FINANCED BY: THE CITY OF TORUŃ AND KUJAWSKO-POMORSKIE REGION
