WOJCIECH BĄKOWSKI WINS THE OBERHAUSEN SFF
This year's, 61st edition of the Short Film Festival in Oberhausen ended with a great success of Polish cinema. The festival's Grand Prix went to "Sound of My Soul" - the thirteen-minute film by Wojciech Bąkowski
The latest film by Bąkowski, the only Polish film selected for the competition at the festival in Oberhausen, is an animated, poetic impression with the author's commentary. In the justification given by the jury, who decided to award the festival's Grand Prix to the film on Tuesday evening, we can read: We award a work that challenges the relation of language to images, that renews the project of experimental film and post internet art, finding lyricism in ostensible dead ends. It is not the first film which Wojciech Bąkowski shows in Oberhausen. Two years ago, his film "Dry Standpipe" was included in the competition section at the festival.
Wojciech Bąkowski is a performer and author of experimental animated films and alternative music. He graduated from the University of Arts in Poznań, where he received the diploma in audioperformance and animation in the studio of Professor Hieronim Neumann. For several years, Bąkowski has consistently created experimental animated films within the frames of the series "Spoken films", in which he examines the relation between words and images.
"Sound of My Soul" has its première at the January edition of the Film Festival in Rotterdam.
The Oberhausen festival, which takes place continuously since 1954, from its very beginning was one of the leading events dedicated exclusively to short film. Every year in Oberhausen one can see the most diverse selection of short films - beginning with feature film form, documentary and animated films, through video art and film essays, to genre hybrids. Every year, over 1100 accredited guests participate in the Oberhausen festival.
You can find out more about the festival on its official website
This year's edition was held from April 30 to 5 May.