Competitions: Emigration Museum in Gdynia Award

This year, for the first time during the festival, the Award of Emigration Museum in Gdynia will be handed out. The aim of the founder and award is to interest the public in documentaries showing the degree of this phenomenon, its multidimensionality and influence on societies and individuals. It’s also meant to provoke a discussion on global migration and expand our common sensibility to the problems of migrants. The laureate will receive 2000 €. The winning film will be selected by a jury consisting of Andrzej Kołodyński, Karolina Grabowicz-Matyjas i Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz.

Jury

Andrzej Kołodyński

Art critic, holder of a PhD in film studies, specializing in the theory of documentaries as well as the issues of popular cinema. Since 1994 he has been the editor-in-chief of “Kino” monthly magazine. Published in various magazines, he is also an author of books as well as encyclopedia entries („Speelfilm Encyklopedie”, „Encyclopedia of Cinema”, „World Encyclopedia of Religious Films”), as well as a translator of books on films and pieces of fiction, and editor of compilations. The program director of Krakow Festival of Short Films from 1989 to 1991. Since 2012 vice-president of the Warsaw Film School. A jury member at many film festivals as well as a lecturer.



Karolina Grabowicz-Matyjas

Director of the Emigration Museum in Gdynia. Educated as an art historian. From 2003 to 2007 the curator of the Center of Modern Art “Łaźnia” in Gdańsk, where she was responsible for organizing and promoting its exhibitions both nationally and internationally. The author of a series of exhibitions “Incubator” promoting young Polish artists. She coordinated EU projects (“Cities on the Edge”, “Re: Location”), as well as a long-lasting international project “Galeria Zewnętrzna: sztuka w przestrzeni publicznej” (“External Gallery: Art in Public Space”). The author of many exhibitions. From 2007 to 2012 she was responsible for coordinating as well as promoting both cultural and mass events in Gdynia. She has cooperated in two consecutive editions of the Polish Films Festival in Gdynia. Since 2011 she has been the plenipotentiary of the Gdynia mayor responsible for the project of the Emigration Museum. Appointed its director when the Institution was established in March 2012.



Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz

Born 1954 in Cieplice Śląskie, Poland. Filmmaker and screenwriter. Graduated from the faculty of painting at Wroclaw University (class of 1978) and the Faculty of Radio and TV University of Silesia in Katowice (class of 1982). Author of dozens of documentary and television theater films that received awards both in Poland and abroad, as well as director of the social comedy “A Country of the World” („Kraj świata”). In 2003, she received the Polish-German Journalism Award in the Television category. In 2008, she received her Ph.D. in film studies. She currently teaches at the Polish National Film, Television and Theater School in Lodz.