16/02/2006

Andrzej Wajda, who will celebrate his 80th birthday on March 6, was awarded an Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement at the Berlin Film Festival yesterday evening. Wadja has already received the most important awards in international cinema, a Palme d'Or, a Golden Bear and an Oscar.

Although absent from the official competition at the festival, Polish cinema has attracted attention through several films. The Collector [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Komornik) by Feliks Falk (Grand Prix at the Festival of Polish Cinema in Gdynia) was a candidate for the official competition yet was ultimately selected for the Panorama section. The Perfect Afternoon (Doskonałe popołudnie), a new film from young director Przemysław Wojcieszek, was featured in the Forum section. Berlin audiences also had the opportunity to see I Am (Jestem) by Dorota Kędzierzawska, which won awards at Gdynia for cinematographer Artur Reinhart and film composer Michael Nyman.

Andrzej Wajda was also onhand in Berlin to teach a workshop at the "Berlinale Talent Campus", at which he presented the group project Reflection, a work that deals with the daily life of Poles and Germans in their small towns, produced by Andrzej Wajda Master School and the Cologne School of Cinema.
The festival also paid homage to Krzysztof Kieślowski, one of the masters of Polish cinema, who passed away ten years ago, while the Berlin Cinema Museum is offering a parallel exhibit on the life and work of the director. Participants of the February 15 "Colour me Kieslowski!" conference, organised by the Polish Film Institute, included Wim Wenders, Agnieszka Holland, and Andres Veiel. A publication on Kieślowski also accompanied the event.

(Translated from French)