Krakow Film Festival recommends “21 x New York City” to the European Film Award.
For the second time, Krakow Film Festival, included among 10 of the most important European film festivals, recommends documentary films to the European Film Award. This year, the official recommendation was given to the film “21 x New York City” by Piotr Stasik that opened this year’s edition of the Festival.
On May 29, within the frames of the festive opening ceremony of the 56th Krakow Film Festival, with the participation of the audience consisting of several hundred people in the cinema Kijów.Centrum, the world première of the documentary film by Stasik was held. A première screening at the Festival is one of the requirements for transferring the recommendation to the European Film Academy.
“21 x New York City” was very favourably received. In the prestigious ranking in the Festival Newspaper, recognised film critics: Tue Steen Müller (Filmkommentaren.dk), Will Tizard (“Variety”), Truls Lie (“NY TID”), Paweł T. Felis (“Gazeta Wyborcza”), Krzysztof Kwiatkowski (“Wprost”) and Janusz Wróblewski (“Polityka”) unanimously awarded the film the highest score possible, which unquestionably gave it the first place among feature-length documentary films, shown within the frames of the Festival.
In one of his feature articles, Tue Steen Müller wrote specially for the Festival Newspaper: “This film is an international breakthrough for him with a feature documentary, that places him in the first division of European documentary directors. (…) What is it that makes Stasik’s film so attractive… Everything actually. It is a musical composition with a superb score, with use of music of very different nature, with a sound design that includes all that comes from the subway trains with an editing and a rythm, that is carried by the director’s fascination and ability to bring the film to a level of reflection on human existence”.
The documentary film by Piotr Stasik is an intimate portrait of the city and its inhabitants. We get acquainted with the protagonists in the New York City subway, and we follow them to the surface in order to learn more about their lives, desires, passions, hopes and dreams – sometimes squandered, and sometimes still waiting for fulfilment. The collection of stories forms an emotional tale about loneliness which accompanies human beings living in the Western society of the 21st century.
The European Film Award, given since 1988, is one of the most prestigious awards granted to European films. Its first laureate was Krzysztof Kieślowski for his “A Short Film About Killing.” This year’s award ceremony will be held on 10 December in Wrocław, European Capital of Culture in 2016. Krakow Film Festival is one of the 10 European film festivals, recommending films to the Award in the category Documentary Film and one of the 15 festivals recommending films in the category Short Film. Among other recommending festivals, there are the festivals in Locarno, Venice, San Sebastian, Cannes, Berlin, Amsterdam and Lisbon.