Camerimage Cinematography Festival Maintains Its Appeal in a Challenging Year
Like the cinematography sector overall this year, the profession’s prime annual festival, Poland’s Camerimage, has come through major challenges in 2023, says the event’s founder, Marek Zydowicz.
Launching in the historic town of Torun on Nov. 11, the 31st edition of the fest was organized in a time of nearby crises in Europe plus record levels of inflation hitting the region, and fallout from the Hollywood actors strike.
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“It’s hard to say these things were really helping us,” notes Kazik Suwala, one of the festival’s key organizers and director of its most ambitious project, the construction of the European Film Center, which broke ground in October. “It was a tough year to work,” as he puts it. “The preparations were much harder than usual. Getting movies programmed involved much more time.”
Thus, Zydowicz and Suwala confess to feeling a bit of extra pride in pulling off a Camerimage calendar featuring major work from a dozen top cinematographers, including Micheal Mann’s “Ferrari,” filmed by Erik Messerschmidt, Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” shot by Matthew Libatique, Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” lensed by Rodrigo Prieto, and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” with epic camera work by Dariusz Wolski.
The SAG-AFTRA actors strike meant the festival could not have any firm commitments from most actors, Suwala points out. “With the strike, there was no way to talk to actors, to most of the productions. You can kind of feel it in the business, that everybody is waiting for the strike to finish so they can start working again.”
Camerimage has meanwhile returned with another of its other key components, the competition showcase of Polish films, featuring seven features with striking work by directors of photography ranging from Adam Bajerski’s crisp monochrome imagery in Robert Glinski’s spy love story “Strawman” to Piotr Kukla’s world-shifting visuals in Piotr Dumala’s surreal “Fin Del Mundo?”
The fest’s other juried sections, for docs, TV series, music videos and student films, have also been put together to show off distinctive camera work. Ernesto Pardo’s evocative landscapes in the Mexican-German creative nonfiction film “The Echo” illustrate the kind of visually rich docs Camerimage seeks out.
Meanwhile, Camerimage’s special screenings this year include a 15 diverse features, many of which local audiences will have trouble finding onscreen elsewhere, such as the European premiere of Viggo Mortensen-directed western “The Dead Don’t Hurt,” lensed by Marcel Zyskind, plus screenings of buzz-worthy recent work including “Eileen,” shot by Ari Wegner, and Todd Haynes’ “May December,” filmed by Christopher Blauvelt.
But Camerimage’s role in education, celebrating the work of student filmmakers while also inspiring them with visits from mentors and workshops organized by technology companies, is also back. “As you know, we are having lots of companies coming for the market, to support us, to support cinematographers with equipment,” Suwala says.
Talks by honorees such as producer Jon Kilik, a longtime Spike Lee and Julian Schnabel collaborator, feted this year for work of special visual sensitivity, are also expected to sell out lecture halls. These complement the technical workshops put on by Arri or Canon and Sony, says Suwala. “We keep that going because the education component is important.”
With space limited for now, Camerimage runs only the events it feels have the strongest interest and value for its specialized audience, says Suwala. “We are quite picky because of that.”
Suwala’s new mandate aimed at expanding the venue options, the European Film Center, is also making steady progress, he says. “We are in the process of building,” with completion of the first part of the project slated for mid-2025. “You will see the construction site next to the Jordanki festival center. We signed the contract with the construction company in October. Their fences are there – some heavy equipment is coming in.”
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