17/05/2011 10:58

Exit Point selection – the jury

Each year Cinema City holds three competition selections, one of them, Exit Point. This selection presents the latest features of world cinematography, bringing laureates from some of the most significant international festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Tribeca and Sundance, with many of them having their world premieres right here at Cinema City. This year, Exit Point selection will be screened at the Arena Cineplex, Cinema City’s central location in 2011.

Exit Point will introduce ten choice films, dedicated to female directors or representing female characters in lead roles. A jury of five will present awards for the international competition selection Exit Point. This year, this selection is comprised of five renowned names from domestic and foreign cinematography. Dorota Kedzierzawska, Sergey Lavrentiev, Igor Sterk, Ana Maria Rossi and Visar Vishka.

Presiding over the jury is Polish novelist and director Dorota Kedzierzawska who will receive the Ibis award at this year’s Festival for her contribution to the European film. Her very first steps in the field of feature film brought her critical acclaim and numerous awards at international festivals. At this year’s Berlinale, her latest feature “Tomorrow Will Be Better” was awarded the Peace Film Award as well as Grand Prix for best feature film within Generation Kplus section. Her work has a sense of familiarity to which our audience can relate. The Audience Award at the Free Zone festival in Belgrade in 2007 for her feature “I Am” is the best proof of it.

In the words of eminent Russian film critic Sergei Lavrentiev, who is also a member of Exit Point jury: “Dorota creates films which bring us back to the traditional Polish film school… The magnificent Polish film is not dead! It lives in her film shots”. Dorota’s unique type of film follows ordinary people who live their ordinary lives, and it often deals with destinies of the underprivileged women and children.

Honoring Dorota’s creativity, Cinema City will present her complete body of work including multiple winners “Tomorrow Will Be Better”, “Time to Die”, “I Am”, “Nothing”, “Crows” and “Devils, Devils”.

Four more notable names will choose the films in Exit Point selection. Sergey Lavrentiev is a renowned Russian film critic and art historian from Moscow who is also a cofounder of the new wave of Russian film critics. He used to be the art director of the Film festival in Sochi and the art director at the Mirror Festival, which is dedicated to the works of Andrei Tarkovsky. Lavrentiev is an excellent authority on Central and East European film.

A notable Slovenian director Igor Sterk is the third member of Exit Point jury. His first feature film “Gone with the Train” aka “Express, Express” brought him numerous awards, marking the beginning of a successful career. Sterk’s newest feature “9.06” is a multiple winner at the Festival of Slovenian film in 2010.

Ana Maria Rossi was a guest of the Festival last year, presenting her story in the omnibus “Some Other Stories”. This year she is our jury representative within the Exit Point selection. A long term director of the Bitef chronicles and the Beokult TV show at RTS, Ana Maria wrote and directed one of the five stories of this great film.

The last member of the jury is Visar Vishka, Macedonian actor who stars in Edmond Budina’s “Balkan Bazar”, screened within the Balkan Box selection. Awarded for many of his achievements, Viska starred in numerous film, television and theatre productions in various countries.