The 9th Festival of Film Critics Camera Action will be held in Lodz from 18 to 21 October, 2018. In its program there are over 80 films shown at the best international festivals, including 50 full-length feature films and 25 premieres, discussion panels on the subjects that thrill film-makers and film buffs most nowadays (mobbing and sexual harassment in film industry, new cinemaphilia, creative producer, film language vs contemporary technologies) with the participation of such celebrities as Agnieszka Holland and Grażyna Torbicka. A special guest of the festival will be the international icon of the film studies, Thomas Elsaesser.

The organizers provide 30 events for the festival goers to participate in. During the 4 festival days, it will be possible to meet nearly 60 experts, who in various ways work in the film industry. There will be a workshop devoted to video games evaluation run by Michał Walkiewicz (Filmweb Editor in Chief), a workshop on styles in film criticism run by Sebastian Smoliński, or an extraordinary meeting with Dorota Wardęszkiewicz devoted to film editing, organized within “Action Education”.

The Camera Action Festival is famous for revealing film industry secrets to cinema-goers. This time, the organizers invite you to a meeting with Łukasz Grzegorzek and Natalia Grzegorzek devoted to making the film, “Córka trenera” (Coach’s Daughter), whose charming style is compared to the greatest hits of the Sundance Festival. A film critic, Kuba Mikurda, and now also the director of the film, “Love Express. Zniknięcie Waleriana Borowczyka” will talk about the production of the film. Worth mentioning is also the section: “Film studies expert and film-maker”, this year represented by Paweł Edelman, the world famous cinematographer who in a special interview will talk about professional challenges to be encountered by the DOP.

A great attraction of the film program will be a Polish premiere of the Sundance Festival music hit “Hearts Beat Loud”. The film directed by Brett Haley reminds us of John Carney’s films such as “Once” or “Sing Street” most admired by the public. In the section devoted to Ursula Meier, the festival audience will take part in the Polish premiere screening of this year’s Berlinale hit, the film “Shock Waves – Diary of My Mind”. It will be also possible to see the films produced and distributed by young American legendary Studio A24. In this section, the film, “Climax”, the latest film by one of the biggest contemporary cinema provocateurs, Gaspar Noé, will be screened. The permanent sections of the film program will also return: Critics premieres – the hits of the world most important festivals including among others the films “The Wild Pear Tree” (dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan), and 7 Days in Entebbe (dir. José Padilha).

This year, new elements in the traditional festival program have appeared. As a novelty, the Competition “Critics write” under the patronage of the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute will have a double jury. The essays of future journalists and critics will be evaluated by: Monika Talarczyk, Małgorzata Steciak, Agata Sotomska, as well as the film-makers: Grzegorz Brzozowski, Katarzyna Szczerba, Justyna Rucińska. As usual, there will be also a Competition of Student Films and Animated Films under the patronage of Wajda School and Legal Culture. An ambitious public prosecutor looking for justice at all costs, or Paweł Deląg landing in a helicopter on the beach? Thugs chasing after a push-chair, or turning over your partner’s plate with soup as a proof of true love? An ant on the edge of a break down, a square in the stair-case, or maybe Wardruna and a Viking’s funeral? The short films competitions are included in all film festivals in the world. It is not any different when it comes to the Camera Action Festival, where this year eight student films and eight animated films will compete for a trophy in the section. The jury members who will decide about the winners in this section are among others: FIlip Marczewski (Wajda School), Joanna Łapińska (Transatlantic Festival), Ada Minge (film critic from the portal O.pl) and film bloggers.

The Camera Action Festival will also be present at the Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. The festival audience will be able to join festival events in a number of locations on the school campus including three screening rooms: (CINEMA A) named after Antoni Bohdziewicz which on a daily basis hosts the school’s Film Club whose program is provided by the Festival Camera Action; (CINEMA Z) a specious main screening room situated in a modernized Film Studio, which last December was equipped with modern equipment for 4K projection; and finally, (CINEMA H) situated in the Acting Department building. A modern classroom at the Film School will accommodate a program of meetings and workshops. (ROOM, in building Z).

The host of a part of Festival events will be the Film Museum situated just round the corner from the Film School. At any time all the festival screening rooms altogether will be able to accommodate nearly half a thousand of viewers.

Discussion panels are a characteristic feature of the Camera Action Festival.
We offer the following debates to choose from:

Discussion panel: Violence in film. Work conditions in the film industry Date: 18 October, Thursday, 17:00 hrs
Guests: Agnieszka Holland, Greta Gober, Natalia Grzegorzek
Host: Michał Pabiś-Orzeszyna

 We will talk about working conditions in various sectors of the film industry in Poland discussing such issues as sexism, ageism, racism and class prejudice. Special attention will be devoted to matters of power, exclusion, injustice, informal hierarchy in the film industry. The guests will discuss the conspiracy of silence regarding sexual harassment in the film industry and the #metoo movement. Not only will we focus on the action, “Women in film 50/50 in 2020”, but we will also talk about the ‘glass ceiling’, not only because of the gender. What roles are performed by male and female production managers, male and female assistant directors, how much can a male sound recordist and a female sound recordist get away with and how actors and actresses are treated on set. These subjects will be discussed from various perspectives by: the world famous director, Agnieszka Holland, the producer of the films, “Kamper” and “Córka trenera”, Natalia Grzegorzek, and the media researcher and member of the international equality alliance in the media, Greta Gober.

Discussion panel: Cinephilia after the end of cinema
Date: 19 October, Friday, 15:00 hrs
Guests: Grażyna Torbicka, Barbara Hollender, Paulina Kwiatkowska, Patrycja Mucha
Host: Michał Pabiś-Orzeszyna

 We will discuss the issue of contemporary cinephilia. On one hand, the digital one practised in front of a computer screen or a TV set at home where we are flooded especially by VOD platforms offering a huge number of latest films and series. In this case, a cinephile will be a person who’ll devour a whole season of a series in a single night. On the other hand, the festival one, treating a cinema as an enclave of legal fetishism and snobbery to a large extent entertaining the idea of an unusual common experience. The discussion participants will try to answer the question: What does it mean to love cinema at the time when its death is stated so often? Discussion guests: Grażyna Torbicka, a film critic, who for over 20 years was the host of her television programme, “I love cinema”, Barbara Hollender, a film critic writing for “Rzeczpospolita” newspaper, Paulina Kwiatkowska a cinema theoretician, the author of the book, “Nowa Kinofilia: przestrzenie i afekty”, Patrycja Mucha, a film blogger, has run the Film Club for three years.

Discussion panel: An artist or a manager. Various aspects to a creative producer.
Date: 20 October, Saturday, 15:00 hrs
Guests: Urszula Antoniak, Agata Szymańska, Joanna Solecka, Mariusz Włodarski
Host: Michał Pabiś-Orzeszyna

 A producer is not a profession but a state of spirit – that’s what representatives of the profession keep saying. During the discussion panel, we will talk about the cooperation between the producers and film crews. We will try to gauge what aims producers try to achieve and what makes them successful. In the past, a producer – usually a man – was regarded as “a person in charge of cash”. Today, everybody knows that success depends on cooperation between the person, who apart from supervising finances, becomes a part of a creative team. Eventually, without passion and complete involvement, it is difficult to produce successfully either commercial or artistic films. At the same time, a producer should be a person who sees more and is always one step ahead the director. The aim of a producer is to produce at the least possible cost an excellent artistic film which will have a big audience and receive good critical acclaim ... but how to achieve this aim? We will ask this question to two producers: Mariusz Włodarski from LAVA Films (“Intruz”, “Żniwa”) and Agata Szymańska from Balapolis (“Baby bump”, “Wilkołak”, “Walser”). Urszula Antoniak (“Cold blue”, “Pomiędzy słowami”) has been also invited to take part in the discussion to share her views from the director’s perspective, and Joanna Solecka, a communication and marketing strategist, will talk about her cooperation with producers.

Discussion panel: Cinema senses. Film language and contemporary technologies.
Date: 21 October, Sunday, 15:00 hrs
Guests: Thomas Elsaesser, Iwona Pomianowska, Iwo Sulka
Host: Michał Pabiś-Orzeszyna

 This discussion will be an attempt to look at cinema from the perspective of all senses. We will talk about possibilities to transform in a creative way the whole tradition of cinema including radical experiments like cinema with smells, or “extended” cinema - in the light of the possibilities offered by contemporary new media. We will discuss the subject of “retro” technologies, which are so fascinating to contemporary viewers (e.g. Cinerama or Vitarama). We will also try to give an answer to a question about creative and critical communing with cinema, which is still a living and fluctuating medium. We will talk about virtual reality, which can possibly be the future of a collective experience. These days almost every festival from Cannes, Sundance, up to SXSW and Venice, has a section devoted to VR in its program, so the subject cannot be omitted at the Camera Action Festival either. By focusing on the senses, the interlocutors will look again at the language of film and confront it with contemporary technologies that artists have at their disposal. Discussion participants will be: Thomas Elsaesser, a world famous film theoretician, Iwona Pomianowska, a designer and a film director, who together with Jacek Nagłowski and Milenia Fiedler initiated Polish research on Cinematic VR phenomenon, and Iwo Sulka, who devoted his dissertation to the subject of the cinemascope format.

 The participants of the Camera Action Festival from all over Poland appreciate it for its atmosphere and never ending discussions. Everybody who wishes to take part in the 9th Camera Action Festival can still buy sets of tickets for 50 zł and 25 zł on the net at www.kameraakcja.com.pl.

The 9th Film Critics Festival Camera Action is financed from the funds of the Culture Department of the Lodz City Council, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Polish Film Institute and Lodz University, the festival patron. The main partner of the event is the Lodz Film School.