In September Iwona Bojko served on the jury of one of the largest and most important film festivals in Poland. The deputy director of BOK-MCC, an expert who has worked with Bolesławiec cinema for years, was invited to serve on the jury of the Polish Federation of Film Discussion Clubs (PFDKF).
In addition to the woman from Bolesławiec, the three-person jury included: Silvia Dubecká (Slovakia, head of that country’s federation of film discussion clubs) and Marta Maciejewska (DKF Miłość Blondynki from Gdańsk).
“Serving on the jury and spending five days in Gdynia primarily involved watching a dozen or so films, holding hours-long discussions about them and meeting their creators,” says Iwona Bojko. “The standard of this year’s competition was very high. The choice was difficult. Personally, I hesitated between two films: ‘Life Feels Good’ and ‘Ida,’” the juror adds.
Ultimately, the film “Ida,” directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, won. “As a juror selecting films for discussion, I voted for ‘Ida,’” says Iwona Bojko. “It is an intimate film, more difficult to take in; after watching it, there are many topics worth discussing.”
The most important event of this year’s festival was the European premiere of Roman Polański’s film “Venus in Fur.” The director visited Poland to attend the premiere. “We welcomed Polański with a standing ovation,” Bojko recalls. “There was also tremendous applause after the film. It is a very good film, another theatrical and cinematic offering from the renowned director. The film will be shown in Bolesławiec in the autumn. At Forum, we will also screen ‘Ida’ and ‘Life Feels Good’ (from October 18). The latter film is my favorite. In my opinion, Dawid Ogrodnik’s performance deserves an Oscar,” the head of Forum added.
The biggest surprise for Iwona Bojko was the award for Best Actor going to Andrzej Chyra. “In my opinion, the award should have gone to Dawid,” Bojko says. “Very good news for Polish cinema is the very high artistic level demonstrated by young filmmakers. As many as 41 films were presented in the Young Cinema Competition, which means that Polish cinema is not threatened by a crisis in the coming years,” Bojko adds.
The film “Ida,” awarded the Golden Lions, tells the story of a search for one’s own identity. The jury, on which Iwona Bojko served, honored the film primarily for its high artistic merits, its simple, even ascetic form, and the extraordinary performance by Agata Kulesza. At Forum Cinema, the film will be shown in its premiere run starting October 25.
(information: Grażyna Hanaf)