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From 15 to 24 September, we will meet again for the 14th edition of Film Spring Open in Cracow’s Przegorzały. As in previous years, the workshop days will surely be a very intense time, which will probably result in little sleep. Among us, there are no viewers – we are all creators. Our festival is about making films and projects. About learning from the best and meeting future creative partners. This year over 60 remarkable technology companies will support us with equipment worth over PLN 12.5 million. Film Spring Open 2019 will also be attended by notable guests from Poland and aboard.

One of our special guests is Andrey Zvyagintsev, a prominent world-famous director, two-time Academy Award and BAFTA nominee, winner of the Venice and Cannes film festival awards, the Cesar’s Award and many other international festivals. He is best known for his films Leviathan, Loveless and The Return. Another guest is Ollie Rankin from Canada, visual effects expert who worked for legendary Hollywood productions such as Matrix, Transformers, X-Men, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings. He has been a virtual reality pioneer since the 1980s. We will also be honored to welcome Tomasz Kot, a brilliant actor who received acclaim in Poland and abroad. He was nominated for Best Actor by the European Film Awards for his role in the Oscar-nominated Cold War. Another foreign guest will be Sophie Kyriacou, a 3D-animation artist with over 20 years of experience in BBC, member of BAFTA, author of animation for prize-winning feature films and documentaries which received worldwide acclaim.

During the 14th edition of Film Spring Open debuting filmmakers will work in 21 dedicated groups, included below:

Writing:

• Scriptwriting group (Jagoda Szelc)

Feature Films:

• Kids and Family Film Group (Dorota Kędzierzawska) with support of PZU Foundation
• Criminal Film Group (Paweł Dyllus) with support of Arri
• Actors Previs Group (Sławomir Idziak)

Short movie formats:

• Animation Film (Kamil Polak) with support of PZU
• Commercial Film (Marcin Ziębiński) with support of PZU
• Music videos (Kobas Laksa) with support of Agora Publishing
• Documentary Film (Wojciech Staroń) with support of Canon

Innovative Audiovisual Narration:

• Film Close-up (Artur Reinhart) with support of Nikon
• Movement in film. Modern Storytelling Language (Michał Sobociński) with support of Sony
• Visual Mood Group (Martin Demmer)

Future and new film formats:

• VR and AR Group (Konrad i Gabriel Ziaja)
• Virtual Reality HP (Gabriel Ziaja) with support of HP
• Internet Filmmakers (Konrad Kruczkowski) with support of Sony Xperia
• Selfie TV (Tomasz Soliński i Łukasz Kościółek)
• Interactive Movie Group (Florent Pallares)

Production and Post-production:

• SFX make-up (Wanda i Marcin Kędzierzawscy)
• CGI and modern editing (Kuba Sobek)
• CGI in program Nuke (Agata Nawrocka)
• Offmaster (Wiktor Obrok)

This year we want to put emphasis on cooperation between workshop groups:

• The Previs Group is going to stage a murder scene which will be shot by the Crime Film Group and the SFX Group will be responsible for make-up and hairstyling. The CGI Editing and Nuke Visual Effects Groups are going to deal with postproduction.
• The Children and Family Film Group will cooperate with the Art of Close Up Group to jointly organize an audition for child actors.
• The Selfie TV Group will try to create a television with automatic video-streaming to the Cinebus, with the use of the Selfie TV app for Android and iPhone. The participants will have the chance to watch the edited films on our website.

The newest models of movie equipment and the software will be presented by Arri, Canon, Cinema 4D, Sony, HP, Movie Bird, Nikon, Black Magic, SYRP, Ronin, Avid, Edelkrone, Foton, ColorChecker, Kauposil.

Guest from various innovative companies will share their experience from the modern audiovisual industry:

• Bloober Team, a game dev studio – Piotr Babieno
• Kissinger Twins, a creative team – Katarzyna Kifert and Dawid Marcinkowski
• Cinema 4D, a software – Sophia Kyriacou
• Unit 9, an interactive production studio – Jakub Brzózka, Jakub Jakubowski

In-between the group work sessions the participants can attend excellent lectures…

• “How to live a good life as a creator and producer? Psychological tips for young filmmakers” – dr Jacek Santorski
• “Sound production in feature films in its esthetic and technological aspect. About the sound from script to the screen” – dr hab. Jacek Hamela
• “Crime in film versus crime in real life” – Police staff ensigns Krzysztof Marek and Wacław Serwin of the Cracow’s Regional Criminal Police Headquarters, in cooperation with Canon Polska
• “Become a stock creator and earn money! Practical tips on how to make videos for the Internet, sign contracts with the participants, and prepare and sell stocks” – Adam Strzelecki
• “Green Film Open: ecology in film. Innovation for sustainable film and TV production” – Benoit Ruiz, Jagoda Szelc, Sławomir Idziak

… and never-ending film screenings await at night!

• Ikar. The Legend of  Mietek Kosz, dir. Maciej Pieprzyca
• Loveless, dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
• Sid, Neil Corbould, a film created during last year’s Film Spring Open
• Dawn, Laila Pakalnina, cinematography by Wojciech Staroń
• Cold War, Paweł Pawlikowski, with remarkable Tomasz Kot, who will deliver a lecture on his view on acting
• Sword of God, Bartosz Konopka
• Volhynia, Wojciech Sarzowski, sound editing by Jacek Hamela
• Crows, Dorota Kędzierzawska, cinematography by Artur Reinhart,
• Dziwor, Paweł Dyllus
• Atlas, M. Kawalski, cinematography by P. Dyllus, featuring Tomasz Kot
• Pelé: Birth of a Legend, Jeff Zimbalist, Michael Zimbalist, visual effects by Ollie Rankin
• Aside from the above mentioned titles, I encourage our participants to show their films in the “Can Do” Personally, I recommend F for Freaks created in the Babelsberg film school by one of our participants, Sabine Ethrl, and Don’t Change the Topic, a film by Hubert Patynowski awarded this year at the Gdynia film festival

See you on 15 October in Cracow!

Sławomir Idziak

Official Poster created by prof. Maja Wolna