Warsaw Film Festival- my feelings

Let’s talk about an evening, which brought back my tradition of attending film festivals. As a kid, I used to take part in those quite regularly, which might have had an impact on the fact that now making movies is what I strive to do in my life. However at some point, aka. when the global pandemic started, film festivals were not necessarily my usual leisure time activities, until the last night. So let me share some feelings and opinions based on it.

I have chosen to watch 2 sets of „Best Polish short- films” awarded in the last two years, 11 movies in total. Even though the cinema hall was no different than at usual movie screenings, the atmosphere was completely different. Instead of just watching a movie because we have free time and no other idea how to accommodate it, the people who gathered there ( at least the majority of them) came into the cinema to appreciate the work of the directors and the whole filmmaking team and analyse what the movies are shown, to later rate them, giving the movie, they particularly enjoyed an opportunity to win an award. One detail that varied from a usual cinema screening was the fact that after each screening the room was filled with clapping hands.

To be honest, it makes me happy that many people out there are still appreciating movies as unique works of art in an era when mass production is focused on making profits rather than maintaining the appreciation of film as art. Furthermore, the amount of applause revealed which films were more popular with the audience than others (referencing that one movie where the room was silent as in a grave). I assumed that the movie’s hour of projection had caused people to fall asleep, but the last movie, which received the most applause of all, convinced me that the silence was due to the fact that we all did, in fact, not enjoy the movie.

More on the repertoire; to my surprise, it all began and ended with animations. I was delighted when I heard the list of films that would be shown, half of them being animated, as I had been lately thinking about creating my own animation. This film festival certainly gave me a lot of artistic motivation, as I left the cinema with a head full of ideas, that I cannot wait to change into actual movies. Who knows maybe next time at a film festival I will be the director, rather than a part of the audience :))