ECFA Awards were recently handed out in two Polish festivals.
THE BREADWINNER won the ECFA Award at the Cinema in Sneakers Festival in Warsaw. The animated feature by Nora Twomey (Ireland, Canada, Luxembourg) tells about 11-year-old Parvana, who disguises herself as a boy to become the breadwinner for her family in war-torn Kabul, Afghanistan.
Cinema in Sneakers also launched an ECFA Short Film Award. The second nomination (after the Int. Short Film Festival Oberhausen) in the newly installed category went to FRUIT OF CLOUDS by Katerina Karhánková from Czech Republic.
The Cinema in Sneakers ECFA jury were Iris Verhoeven (JEF, Antwerp), Marije Veenstra (IDFA, Amsterdam) and Rok Govednik (Vizo, Ljubljana).
In the 5th edition of the Kino Dzieci Kids Film Festival, organised by the Educational Department of the New Horizons Association, the ECFA Award went to THE WITCH HUNTERS by Raško Miljković (Serbia). The film tells about the remarkable friendship between Jovan, a boy with cerebral palsy, and his determined new classmate Milica. Together they set out to free Milica’s father from the claws of his new girlfriend, whom the children recognise as a true witch.
Marta Grzesiuk (Ale Kino, Poznan), Axelle Munich (Ciné-Jeune Festival, Region de l’Aisne) and Jens Lanestrand (Biografcentralen, Sweden) were the ECFA Jury: “THE WITCH HUNTERS is a film about crossing borders on many levels, with great performances by young actors. Their joyful friendship touched our hearts.”