Poland’s Energa Camerimage film festival has long been considered a cineaste’s dream. Established 31 years ago as a specialty event focused on cinematography, the Toruń fest has expanded significantly lately but has retained its essence as a pure celebration of the art of filmmaking, prioritizing craftsmanship behind the camera — DPs, directors and production designers — over celebrities and industry functions.
“The explanation people keep coming back here to Poland is that they get to speak about art; it’s not one other trade show or a festival with red carpets every night,” says Camerimage director Kazimierz Suwała, who estimates that the festival normally welcomes between 700 and 800 cinematographer guests over the course of its week-long run every November. “You come here to fulfill your fellow artisans. We’ve got DPs who come from LA and joke that they live just round the corner to one another, nevertheless it’s easier to get together to really speak about filmmaking here at Camerimage.”
Not that this yr’s festival might be without stars. Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett will serve because the president of the festival’s principal competition jury, Emmy-winning Shogun star Hiroyuki Sanada will receive a brand new award honoring excellence in TV, and iconic indie cinematographer Ed Lachman will get a lifetime achievement prize. The fest also will generate a widely watched industry moment by playing host to the world premiere of Rust, the Alec Baldwin-starring indie Western that resulted within the accidental on-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Camerimage can be coming under intensified scrutiny in 2024. In August, the industry group Women in Cinematography launched a petition urging the festival to do more to support the work of girls cinematographers, who remain drastically under-represented within the trade. Camerimage’s founder and CEO Marek Zydowicz responded last week with in editorial in Cinematography World magazine. But fairly than committing to improving representation at his event — because the leaders of the Cannes, Berlin and Tokyo film festivals have done lately — Żydowicz’s somewhat muddled column appeared to argue that pushing for greater female representation could lead to diminished artistic quality of the festival’s programming. The response from the international film community was swift, with several leading cinematography guilds publicly condemning the remarks and Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen, who was scheduled to attend Camerimage’s opening-night screening of his latest feature, Blitz, canceling his appearance. Filmmaker Coralie Fargeat followed suit on Friday, pulling her film The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, from the festival lineup.
Żydowicz issued a proper apology, saying he “would love to take this chance to take a seat down in an open forum and speak about the way to move forward together in a more open and inclusive manner.” Blanchett, for her part, has stuck with the festival, putting out an announcement along with her fellow members of the competition jury saying, “We welcome debate regarding gender representation” and “look ahead to being a part of meaningful discussions with our peers on the festival.”
This yr’s Camerimage festival runs Nov. 16-23 within the medieval Polish city of Toruń, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ahead of the fest, THR connected with Suwała — Żydowicz’s second in command — to debate the vision behind this yr’s edition and the steps the festival plans to take to handle the problems raised by the recent controversy.
Not less than two of the acclaimed movies in Camerimage’s competition this yr — Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and Sean Baker’s Anora — were shot on film. There’s a growing trend of younger filmmakers embracing classic formats. What do you make of that?
Well, it’s exciting to see more filmmakers coming back to classical formats — that they still have such legacy — because they’re pretty much as good as the rest available to us today. What we at all times emphasize here on the festival is that each one types of cinematographic technology are simply tools, or colours available to the painter — whether it’s 35mm or generative AI. In fact, there’s numerous anxiety around AI — some are fearful that it would eventually enable us to exchange every part within the filmmaking process, including DPs, actors, set designers, etc. — so we’re planning to carry a discussion on the festival about whether this technology is the start of the tip or just the newest tool that may empower filmmakers. These sorts of conversations have at all times been a vital a part of our event.
Are you able to tell us in regards to the decision to premiere Rust? It has generated a mixed response amongst international cinematographers.
Yes, I comprehend it has turn out to be divisive. Some felt we were doing it for promotional reasons and that it was inappropriate to screen a movie that resulted in a death. But for us, the motivation was quite simple. Halyna had a robust connection to this festival. She attended several times. And we were contacted by her friends, who told us that before shooting even began on Rust, she told them that the film was very essential to her and it was her dream to screen it at Camerimage. So the screening is barely about that: fulfilling her wish of showing her film on the festival. Halyna’s mother, who’s Ukrainian, goes to attend the screening if she’s in a position to leave her country, nevertheless it’s hard at once due to the war. Some have suggested we’re holding this screening simply to generate attention for the festival, but we don’t need that form of attention. We didn’t invite Alec Baldwin, and we never considered doing so. That will be too distracting. What that is about is honoring Halyna’s dreams for her work.
Regarding the controversy that emerged in recent days in response to your founder’s editorial, it seems fair to say that the festival was slow in recognizing how much those words upset and offended many within the industry. What happens now? What steps will the festival take?
Well, in fact, we’ve to vary. To maneuver forward, the subsequent step is to fulfill throughout the festival and explore ways to handle the changes which might be vital at our festival and within the film business overall. Festivals have a vital role to play, but we’re the last step — inclusivity needs to start during project development and carry through the whole journey of the filmmaking process. The festival is coming up very soon, and we’re still attempting to put something together, but my hope is that we will hold an open seminar near the tip of the week in regards to the way forward for film festivals — and that inclusivity and variety might be a central topic of dialogue. Within the statements which were put out by Women in Cinematography and other filmmakers, there have been suggestions of very detailed steps we could take to enhance inclusivity at Camerimage. We have the desire to make this work, but we also must be sure that every part is achievable before we make guarantees as a corporation. So, there’s work to do.
What advice do you normally give to first-time attendees for getting probably the most out of Camerimage and the town of Toruń?
Absorb the festival and its atmosphere. See as many movies as you may and discuss them with passion with the various people you’ll meet here. That is the simplest festival on the planet for meeting and talking to filmmakers. You’ll encounter filmmakers all over the place, across the screenings or on the bars afterward. Seize that chance to make connections, and share ideas about this art form that all of us love.
This story appeared within the Nov. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
