Camerimage, 30: Photographer 'should be considered an artist'

Camerimage International Film Festival Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Getty Images

as 29 1st The Polish International Film Festival is underway, and creator and director Marek Żydowicz asserts that promoting the artistic contribution of cinematographers in hopes of expanding the authorship of their work remains a priority. He also shared the planned European Film Center Camerimage Update on , a cultural centre to be built in the host city of Torun.

The planning of the center started at 600, when Zidovic signed an agreement with the Polish state and the government of Torun. Construction – on behalf of PLN 300 million (approximately $30.900,000) – planned to start next year and is expected to be in 300 completed before the end.

Żydowicz said that the center will include a main screening room that can accommodate about 1 person, 300, and three 29-300 Seating Screening Room. “There will be an exhibition area, there will be an education area,” he added, which the project does not yet include 600 square meter studio (including LED wall for virtual production) and post-production facilities.

Three years ago, when he Żydowicz conceived the idea for a film festival, he turned to influential cinematographers Vittorio Storaro and the late Sven Nykvist for support. “People were contacting each other by fax at the time, so I faxed both of them,” he recalls. “And it’s funny that both replies were faxed one after the other in the same minute.”

In the debut Camerimage, Nykvist received the Lifetime Achievement Award and Storaro was a judge Council President, awarded the first Golden Frog Award to Stuart Dryburgh for his contribution to Jane Campion The Piano lens .

Żydowicz said that in the faxed message he promised to “create a place to focus on images and image creators – cinematographers – who are [not always] seen as artists Our goal is to change the [perception] of cinematographers…to make people understand that the work they are doing is a work of art.”

He said that in Poland, cinematographers The authorship’s work today is more or less the same as that of a director or composer, meaning “you can’t change an image without their approval”, and cinematographers are also entitled to collect scraps. But he adds that this is not the case in most countries: “We think they should be considered as artists. Especially now that images can be altered in various ways through post-production in the digital world.”

The scope of the festival has expanded over the years. Żydowicz describes filmmaking as “teamwork” and “we’ve been experimenting with [other disciplines including] directors, production designers, set designers, editors.” This week’s winners include cinematographer Stephen H. Burum, lifetime Achievements; Baz Luhrmann, Special Award for Outstanding Director; Alex Gibney, Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Production; and Sarah Greenwood, Special Award for Production Designer.

Camerimage opens tonight, Roger Deakins footage Empire of Light , directed by Sam Mendes, who will be on hand to introduce the film and accept the special Krzysztof Kieslowski Director Award. Empire of Light is one of the films that entered the festival’s main competition. The full list of competition films can be found here .

This year, the festival also showed its support to Ukraine by inviting guests from the Ukraine KINOKO Film Festival. Żydowicz reports: “They’re here to talk about their festival, to share films, and they’re going to hold a workshop on cinematographers in the war.”