11/09/2017 - The film won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale earlier this year

The Polish Film Institute (PFI) has announced that Agnieszka Holland and Kasia Adamik’s Spoor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Holland
interview: Zofia Wichlacz
film profile] is Poland’s contender for the upcoming Oscars race, in the Best Foreign-language Film category.

The decision was made by a committee comprising directors Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile], the 2014 Best Foreign-language Film Oscar winner), Agnieszka Smoczyńska (The Lure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
film profile]), Tomasz Wasilewski (United States of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tomasz Wasilewski
film profile]), cinematographer Arthur Reinhart, film expert Grażyna Torbicka, Warsaw Film Festival director Stefan Laudyn and general director of the PFI Magdalena Sroka.

“Spoor is a universal, carefully crafted story that certainly increases our sensibility,” stated Pawlikowski in a press release. “This patchwork of genres remains incredibly current and has us constantly asking basic questions. It is a film about the value of fighting for what surrounds us, for our environment and for those who are weaker than us. Spoor is a film with a strong message that also serves as a powerful feminine voice; works by women have been increasingly present in world cinema in recent years.”

Spoor, which tells the story of a woman (Agnieszka Mandat) fighting against animal poachers in a small town in Poland, had its world premiere in the Main Competition of the 2017 Berlin Film Festival. It won the Alfred Bauer Prize (Silver Bear) and is currently in the running for the European Film Awards nominations. Holland’s filmis a co-production between Poland (TOR Film Studio), Germany (Heimatfilm), the Czech Republic (Nutprodukce), Slovakia (Nutprodukcia) and Sweden (Chimney). It was backed by the PFI, Eurimages, the Czech State Cinematography Fund, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund and the Swedish Film Institute. The sales agent representing the film is Beta Cinema. 

Holland has previously been nominated two times in the Best Foreign-language Film category (in 1986 with Angry Harvest and in 2012 with In Darkness [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), and once in the Best Adapted Screenplay category (in 1992 with Europa, Europa). 

The most recent Polish Oscar entries were Afterimage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Zofia Wichlacz
film profile], 11 Minutes [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Jerzy Skolimowski
film profile], Ida, Walesa. Man of Hope [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and 80 Million. Since 1957, ten Polish films have been nominated in the Best Foreign-language Film category, including Knife in the Water, The Promised Land, Man of Iron and Ida – the latter being the only Polish film to have scooped an Oscar.