International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Camera is a film festival held in Kraków, Poland, with up to 400 screenings annually, seminars, international stars, guests and jury. It is the first event of its kind in the country based on creative dialog between world experts representing other independent film competitions such as the Sundance Film Festival and CineVegas, as well as festivals in Bangkok, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Busan, Dubai, Kolkata, Los Angeles, Reykjavík, Rotterdam, Toronto, and Venice. It is a festival of festivals with official backing from the City of Kraków with dozens of international sponsors and prominent partners including Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Lufthansa, Mercedes-Benz and Sony. In 2008–2014 the official name was "Off Plus Camera", since 2015 it is "PKO Off Camera".
The festival consists of film screenings in studio movie theatres located within the Old Town. The organizer of the event is the Society for Independent and Similar Arts Off Camera (Stowarzyszenie Sztuki Niezależnej i Nie Tylko Off Camera) as one of the city's "Six Senses" (Sześć Zmysłów) programme of sponsoring artistic life in Kraków. The Festival organizers invite young filmmakers from all over the world, directors, actors and film industry experts to meet the audience and take advantage of getting their feedback in person. Szymon Miszczak is the director of the Festival and Ania Trzebiatowska is the artistic director. Off Plus Camera program showcases newest work by world-class directors as well as retrospectives of the most distinguished artists of independent cinema from the past.
Main dramatic competition "Making Way" The most important event of the Off Plus Camera Festival is its Main Competition named "Making Way" (Wytyczanie drogi). In it, the films from all over the world compete for the Kraków Film Award in the sum of $100,000 presented by the President of the City of Kraków. The main criteria for the rating by the festival programmers are the quality and the artistic merit of the films, the use of traditional and avant-garde filming techniques as well as the directors' sensibilities and artistic maturity in their productions.
In 2009, 12 films from 8 countries qualified for the Competition. The winner was chosen by the international Jury, whose members were Allison Anders, Zbigniew Preisner, Max Farberbock, Fernando Trueba and Andriej Zwiagincew and the prize went to Sebastian Silva for the movie La Nana. The winner was also given 1, 000, 000 Polish zlotys from the Polish Film Institute for the production of his next film in Poland.
According to the main theme, "Making Way", the Kraków Film Award is meant to make it more likely for the winner to shoot their next movie. That is exactly what happened in the case of the winner of the first edition of Off Plus Camera. In 2008 the Kraków Film Award went to the American director, Azazel Jacobs for his film Momma’s Man. Thanks to the prize he was able to start working on the next project. Sebastian Silva has similar plans and he wants to work on the script telling a story of the sirens.
Marek Najbrt, whose picture, Protector, won the Kraków Film Award of the third edition of the festival, made Polish Film in Kraków as a part of his winner's deal. The premiere of the production took place in 2014 in Karlovy Vary. The winner of the fourth edition of the festival was Park-Jung Bum, who won for his film The Journals of Musan. In 2012 the award went to the Danish director Mads Matthiesen for the movie Teddy Bear. Marcin Kryształowicz won the sixth edition of Off Plus Camera for his film Manhunt.
Polish Feature Film Competition The first edition of the Competition meant for the Poland's producers was held in 2011 and showcased 10 feature films. Polish Film Noble was given to Marcin Wrona for his movie The Christening.
In 2012 the Award went to Leszek Dawid for his film Ki. In 2013 the winner was Bejbi Blues by Katarzyna Rosłaniec.
Event history Off Plus Camera 2008 The first edition of the festival started on 1 October 2008. The main prize (for the best first feature film) was €100,000. The festival opened with a concert by Czesław Śpiewa, and the opening film was Golden Palm-winner "Class". The following days of the festival brought us numerous screenings of artistic movies and Q & As. The festival club was held in the building of the Main Train Station Of Kraków and it hosted a couple of indie music concerts. Bonobo, Giles Peterson, Pati Yang as well as Polish and European DJs performed there.
Due to the retrospective of Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey special guests visited Kraków. The press conference with Paul Morrisey, Warhol's manager for many years and director of his movies was held at the festival center. Holly Woodlawn, actress and a famous drag queen and Mary Woronov, actress and Warhol's friend from the Factory period also made appearances. The guests introduced their films and participated in the meeting with Krystian Lupa and his actors who star in the play "Factory 2" at the National Stary Theatre. The Closing Gala was a moment when Zbigniew Preisner introduced the members of the Jury. Hector Babenco, Michael Almerreyda and Petr Zelenka appeared on the stage. Holly Woodlawn performed a song "Walk on the Wild Side", in which Lou Reed originally sings about her. Jacek Majchrowski, president of the City of Kraków, handed the award to Azazel Jacobs. Critics’ Award, Polish Film Noble, sponsored by Noble Bank went to another American, Alex Holdridge.
Over 100 movies were shown and almost 400 screenings were held. Lectures and seminars were organized as well. There was also a competition for the films shot with a cell phone and over several hundred people participated in them. The starting inspirations for these short films were ideas by Polish artists: Kasia Nosowska, Maria Peszek, Olga Tokarczuk, Maciej Maleńczuk and Szymon Majewski, to name just a few of them.
Off Plus Camera 2009 The Main Competition presented first and second features from all over the world, including Chilean "La Nana" – the winner of Sundance 2009 festival and "Gigante" – the winner of three prizes in Berlin. "The Messenger" starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster was also screened at the festival. Section Discoveries showcased new films made in 2008 and 2009, including "A Christmas Tale", starring Catherine Deneuve and her daughter, Chiara Mastroianni.
Catching Up was a section inspired by Jerzy Płażewski's essay, an approach to make the Polish audiences familiar with these productions that were not distributed across the theatres. Therefore, it was a very first chance to see Ira Sachs’ "Forty Shades of Blue" and Larisa Sadilowa's "I Love You, Lilia" on the big screen. The latest independent cinema from the US and Latin American was presented in the sections From the Gut and Discoveries: Latino. Jean-Luc Godard retrospective was held and the special guest of this part of the festival was his ex-wife, Anna Karina.
Off Plus Camera 2010 Due to the national mourning, the very first days of the festival were cancelled and the explosion of a volcano in Iceland that caused flight problems influenced some program changes. The third winner of the Kraków Film Award was Marek Najbrt for his Czech movie, "Protector". Polish Film Noble, given by the critics, went to Kyle Patrick Alvarez for his film "Easier with Practice". The Audience Award went to the Opening Film – Dagur Kari's "Good Heart". Jane Campion, the director of "Bright Star", that was shown at the festival, was given Against the Current Award, to honor her art in the international landscape of independent cinema. Three winners of three different "Take It and Make It" competitions for movies shot with a cell phone, a camera or a video recorder, were selected. The best L’OFF STORY title went to Bartek Tryzna's "Mateusz and Marta". ALLEGRO SHORT FILM winner was Julia Sokolnicka for "Z głowy" and TVN24 Report category winner was Bartłomiej Słabicki for his video relation of a rescue action in the middle of a frozen river.
Off Plus Camera 2011 The 4th International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Plus Camera lasted 10 days and was held between 8 and 17 April. The Festival Centre was located at Kino pod Baranami cinema at the Kraków's Main Square. Peter Weir added splendour to the 4th Opening Gala of the International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Plus Camera. Radosław Sikorski, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, presented him with the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. During the Gala there was the premiere of the last picture by Weir, "The Way Back".
The one to win the Kraków Film Award, the main prize in the competition, was Park Jung-bum for his "Musan il-gy". For the first time at Off Plus Camera Polish Film Nobles were presented in the Polish Feature Film Competition. The price went to Marcin Wrona for his film "The Christening" (Chrzest). The films were evaluated by the international Jury comprising Rose McGowan (the head of the Jury), Ellen Chenoweth, Roger Christian, Andrei Plakhov and Kim Dong-Ho.
During the 4th edition of the festival the FIPRESCI award was granted for the first time. Jury comprising Ronald Bergan (the head of the Jury), Tomislav Sakic and Krzysztof Kwiatkowski distinguished Jan Komasa's film "Suicide Room" (Sala samobójców). The audience award was presented to a Polish film, "Heniek" by Eliza Kowalewska.
The "Against the Current" award was handed out to Tim Roth by the head of the Main Competition Jury, Jerzy Skolimowski. SCRIPT PRO awards in the scriptwriting competition organised by the Wajda School and Off Plus Camera were also presented. Wiktor Kubica from Groń won the HBO Main Prize for a script to a film "Prescription" (Recepta). The winner was also presented with the out-of-the-competition Special Award founded by the Catalyst Holding Group. The Polish Film Institute was the sponsor of the second and the third prizes which were presented to Maksymilian Nowicki, the author of the script to "Sneaker Time" (Czas trampek), and Piotr Chrzan, who wrote "Tapping Bird" (Ptak-Klepak) respectively.
In the Take it & Make it competition, which takes place under the auspices of the festival, the awards were distributed in three categories. The winner in the "You Plus Festival" category was Paweł Soja for his film "Talk to Her" (Porozmawiaj z nią). The best "TV Bulletin for TVN24" award was given to Konrad Skiba for his film "Constructing Pier Without Assurance" (Budowa molo bez zabezpieczeń). In the "Allegro Short Film" category the award was presented to the "Single Player" by Paweł Soja, whereas in the subcategory of the "Allegro Short Film. Idea" there was a join prize presented to Artur Długokęcki for his "God Permitting" (Jak Bóg da) and Bartek Tryzna's "Second Head".
Numerous workshops and industry meetings took place during the festival with Roger Christian's Art Director workshops, Ellen Chenoweth's Casting Director workshops, Constantine Gregory's acting workshops, Wojtek Pałys's "First Film" workshops, Filip Kovcin's from FILM PRO "Reflex cameras in action" workshops, "Alternative sources of distribution" lecture by Christian Gaine, a meeting of co-producers, a discussion panel "How to debut?" and Ronald Bergan's lecture on film criticism.