21/09/2015 - Malgorzata Szumowska's film has snagged the Golden Lions at a ceremony tinged by mourning, owing to the death of filmmaker Marcin Wrona the night before

While Malgorzata Szumowska and producer Jacek Drosio received the Golden Lions at the 2015 edition of the Gdynia Film Festival for Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Malgorzata Szumowska
interview: Malgorzata Szumowska
film profile] (which has already won awards at such festivals as Berlin), the event's closing ceremony was cut short and was held without a red carpet following the sudden, unexpected and untimely death of director Marcin Wrona (42 years old), who was found dead in one of the city's hotels on Friday night. The director had been in Gdynia to present his latest film, Demon [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Besides pocketing the top prize, Body also did exceedingly well in the overall list of award winners, as Malgorzata Szumowska's feature was singled out for Best Lead Actor (Janusz Gajos), Best Female Newcomer (Justyna Suwala) and Best Sound (Marcin Jachyra, Kacper Habisiak and Marcin Kasiński).

The Silver Lions statuettes went to Janusz Majewski and to producer Wlodzimierz Niderhaus for The Eccentrics. The Sunny Side of the Street [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which also earned Wojciech Pszoniak the Best Supporting Actor Award.

The Special Jury Prize was handed to Jerzy Skolimowski and producer Ewa Piaskowska for 11 Minutes [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Jerzy Skolimowski
film profile], which was also victorious in the music (Pawel Mykietyn) and editing (Agnieszka Glińska) categories. Interestingly, the latter was also singled out for her work on The Here After [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile] by Magnus von Horn, which bagged two further awards: Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Featuring on the list of people who won awards for their performances are Agnieszka Grochowska (Best Actress for Strange Heaven [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Krzysztof Stroinski for Anatomy of Evil (ex-aequo with Janusz Gajos for Body).

The Best Feature Debut Award went to The Lure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
film profile] by Agnieszka Smoczynska and the Best DoP Award was bestowed upon Jerzy Zielinski for Summer Solstice [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which also won in the Best Supporting Actress category (Maria Semotiuk).

Lastly, Influenza snagged the Best Production Design Award (Jagna Janicka) and the Best Costumes Award (Dorota Roqueplo and Andrzej Szenajch), while Best Make-up went to Janusz Kaleja and Tomasz Matraszek for The Lure.

(Translated from French)