The Main Competition with the Golden Frog Award has been the most important part of the EnergaCAMERIMAGE Festival from its beginning. The Competition exists since 1993 i.e. since the first edition of the Festival. From the very beginning the idea behind the competition is to present the feature films where the image significantly contributes to the way a story is told. The visual value of these films results from the cooperation between a director and a cinematographer and the unusual sensitivity of the author of a film image. The Main Competition emphasizes the enormous contribution of the cinematographer to the film work.

The aim of the Main Competition is to present films with unique visual appeal which will then be evaluated by International Jury who will choose and award the authors of the best cinematography.

Also this year we will present the most interesting phenomena of world’s cinematography, distinctive in terms of creative use of the image in film narration. Nominees include:

LIVING

1953. A London shattered by WWII is still recovering. Williams (Bill Nighy), a veteran civil servant, is an impotent cog within the city’s bureaucracy as it struggles to rebuild. Buried under the paperwork at the office, lonely at home, his life has long felt empty and meaningless. Then, a shattering medical diagnosis forces him to take stock – and to try and grasp fulfilment before it goes beyond reach. At a seaside resort, chaperoned by a local decadent (Tom Burke), he flirts with hedonism before rejecting it as his solution. Back in London, he finds himself drawn to the natural vitality of Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood), a young woman who once worked under his supervision and is now determined to spread her wings. Then, one evening, he is struck by a revelation – one as simple as it is profound – and with a new energy, and the help of Peter (Alex Sharp), an idealistic new recruit to his department, he sets about creating a legacy for the next generation.

Director: Oliver Hermanus
Cinematographer: Jamie D. Ramsay
Produced by: TFP
Polish distributor: County Hall, Film4, Filmgate Films, Ingenious, Kurosawa Production Co., Lipsync Productions, Number 9 Films
Country and year: UK, Japan, 2022

 

See the full list of nominees here.