TWO AWARDS FOR "BATHS" BY TOMEK DUCKI

Last weekend belonged to Tomek Ducki and his latest animated film "Baths." The film won two awards - at the Animatricks festival in Helsinki and at BE FILM Underground Film Festival in New York.

Tomek Ducki is the first winner of the international competition of Animatricks - organized this year for the first time in the history of the nine-year-old festival. In the competition, 51 short films competed for awards, including 23 Finnish films. Apart from "Baths", "Darling" by Izabela Plucińska was also shown in the same competition, as well as the student film "Ars moriendi" by Miłosz Margański. On awarding “Baths” the jury noted the following: this is an original piece that goes into the depths of life through the depth of water. The film is a rare treat with focus on elderly main characters. Visual style is strong and completely supporting the story. Sound design adds the final layer of dreamlike atmosphere. The Animatricks festival ended yesterday evening.

It is the second time in the row that the Polish film wins the Best Animated Film Award at the Be Film Underground Film Festival in New York. Within the frames of the festival, the tenth edition of which was held this year, every year the best short films are shown, which are assessed in four main competition categories: the best feature film, the best animated film, the best documentary film and the best experimental film. After last year's success of "Beach" by Paweł Prewencki, this time the main award of the animation competition went to "Baths" by Tomek Ducki. The screening in New York was the American première of the film, which up till now has been shown at ten foreign film festivals.

"Baths" is a story of an unusual meeting of two old swimmers, who visit the baths to take part in the common ritual of swimming. However, this time they dive deeper than usual. The festival audience knows Tomek Ducki for his previous film "Life Line," which was made at Hungarian MOME. The producers of "Baths" are Studio Miniatur Filmowych and English Peek and Boo.

At the end of May, the film will be shown in the international competition of 54th Krakow Film Festival. 

You can find out more about the festivals BE FILM Underground Film Festival and Animatricks on their official websites.