Piotr Dzięcioł • Producer
Producer on the Move 2006 – Poland
Piotr Dzięcioł is the director of Opus Film, a production company founded in 1991 whose headquarters are in the famous Łódź Production Studio that she herself renovated and modernised. Opus Film makes 60 productions (cinema, TV, advertising) annually.
The two Polish films that have been chosen for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival (Z odzysku [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Slawomir Fabicki in Un certain regard and Dziki jeździec by Adam Guzinski in the Special Screenings) were produced by you. That’s a sign of success, all the more so since Polish film has been absent from Cannes for many years…
Certainly. The selection at Cannes is one of the most difficult to reach compared to those at other festivals. We are very happy about this since – as you know – the international “career” of artistic films especially depends on their presence at festivals.
Like another of your films – Edi by Piotr Trzaskalski.
Exactly. This film won awards in festivals worldwide, from Japan to Sao Paulo, it was the Polish candidate at the Oscars and it was nominated for the European Film Award. These successes have contributed to rights to the film being sold to several countries, which is indeed rare in Polish cinema recently.
Let’s come back to what you call “the artistic film”. Why has Opus Film chosen to concentrate on auteur films by turning down more commercial films?
I don’t really like this distinction between commercial cinema and non-commercial cinema. Let’s take the example of Edi: it’s not a big commercial production and yet the film garnered admissions of 450,000, which is a very good in Poland. I would like to produce a good commercial film – a film that I would be really happy with and not feel ashamed of. But I notice that it is pointless trying to compete with the major commercial productions, such as those from the US. The strength of European film productions lies on another level, in another quality.
You are one of the producers chosen by European Film Promotion (EFP) to take part in the Producers on the move initiative. Contacts with foreign producers nevertheless are nothing new for you.
Taking part in this initiative is crucial for us, as finding partners is a very important part of our business. Our most recent films have, in fact, been co-productions My name is Justine by Franco de Pena with Luxembourg, Maestro by Piotr Trzaskalski with Germany. Our new production Lekcja Pana Kuki by Dariusz Gajewski is co-produced with Austria and funded by Eurimages.
But it is true that the number of co-productions made with Poland is still very few, which can be explained by the lack of sources of financing in our country. We have to hope that with the help of the Polish Film Institute that this will improve for Polish producers.
See the background