Burbank, CA- October 19 – Last night at the opening and award ceremony of the 18th Polish Film Festival, Los Angeles that was held in Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater Cinema Without Borders received Friend of Festival Award for its 10th anniversary.
Also Susan Morgan Cooper and Bijan Tehrani announced the winners of 2017 Bridging The Borders Award for the Best Polish Short Film at the Polish Film Festival Los Angeles
First Bijan Tehrani announced the winner of CWB’s Honorable Mention award: “A married woman picks up one and then another male hitchhiker on her journey. The outcome is very different from what you would expect. With excellent acting and suspenseful direction, the Honorable Mention award goes to On the Road, directed by: Bartosz Nowacki”
Next was announcement for winner of CWB’s Bridging The Borders Award by Susan Morgan Cooper: “A young lawyer goes to move into the apartment she has bought cheaply from a bailiff. To her surprise she finds the apartment is occupied. With a well crafted script,good acting and fine direction….The winning film is The Tenants , directed by: Klara Kochanska”
Both of the winners of the Best Short Film were present and received their awards.
Twelve short films from Poland had been nominated for the 2017 Cinema Without Borders’ Bridging The Borders Award: A LONG TIME AGO IN SILESIA (Dawno temu na Slasku) by Tomasz Protokowicz, ADAPTATION by BArtosz Kruhlik, FRAGMNET by Miroslaw MAczur, HOT AND COLD (Cieplo-zimno) by Marta Prus’ MICE AND RATS (Myszy i szczury) by Kacper Anuszewski, MY PRETTY PONY by Maciej Barczewski , ON THE ROAD (Na drodze) by Bartosz Nowacki , ROMANTIK by Mateusz RAkowicz, SUMMER (Lato) by Martyna Jakimowska, THE END OF MY WORLD by Kamil Krawczycki, THE TENANTS (Lokatorki) by Klara Kochanska and UNFORTUNE TELLER (Czarnowidzka) by Joanna Atanowska
Cinema Without Borders jury members for deciding the winner of 2017 Bridging The Borders Award for The Best Polish Short Film were: Michael Franck, Susan Morgan cooper, Ramin Niami, Rachel O’Meara, Peter Plantec Vitae, Bijan Tehrani and James Ulmer.
Michael Franck
Michael Franck is a Finnish born noted journalist and awarded documentarian who´s wide-ranging career includes periods as foreign correspondent and documentarist the Middle East in the 1970s – 1980s and later as producer in L.A..
His reports and documentary films has focused on human aspects of life in the troubled Middle East – including the birth and growth of new Islamic movements.
During the last 20years his principal focus has been entrepreneurship and depicting political, economic, cultural and climate change related processes mainly in his home country Finland, and the Nordic region of Europe.
His films and fact series have been broadcasted by all tv-networks in Finland.
Some of his documentaries have been shown also in other Nordic-Scandinavian countries, Central Europe, the US and the Middle East.
Today he lives and works based in Finland.
Susan Morgan Cooper
Susan Morgan Cooper is a Director/Producer/ Writer and her credits include:
To the Moon and Back, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2016 (A cinematic act of love and courage’ … Broadway World) – Hopper [In his own words] Documentary, Producer/Writer 2013 (“I was moved to tears” Mike Medavoy) – Mulberry Child, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2012 (‘A powerful and touching film’… 31/2 stars. Roger Ebert) – An Unlikely Weapon [The Eddie Adams Story]..Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2008 ( ‘A terrific documentary’ The Hollywood Reporter) – Making Of Shadows in The Sun, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2005 – Heroes And Sheroes. Television Series, Director/Producer/Writer 2000 Mirjana: One Girl’s Journey, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 1997 – Stringers, Narrative Short Director/Producer/Writer 1990 – Hadley’s Rebellion, Narrative Feature Associate Producer 1989
Ramin Niami
Ramin Niami has worked as a writer, director, and producer in the US, UK, and Iran for twenty television documentaries, many of them broadcast by Channel Four, PBS, and Iranian TV. His last documentary is the award-winning blues feature Babe’s and Ricky’s Inn. Niami also wrote, produced and directed feature films such as Somewhere in the City, Paris, and Shirin in Love. His films were released theatrically and shown on platforms including HBO, Cinemax, TMC, and Showtime.
Rachel O’Meara
Rachel O’Meara has been a working actor across film, television and theatre for eighteen years, and is a graduate of London’s Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA). Prior to that, she worked in media with the Saatchi Group in London, S Africa and Dubai, during which time she contributed lifestyle and entertainment articles to numerous magazines, in particular IPC and ITP titles. Rachel also spent years working in Germany, France, Brunei, Nepal and Hong Kong, giving her a first-hand insight to international cinema, and she attends as many different film festivals as she can.
Rachel’s selected screen credits include “Mechanic: Resurrection” (Jason Statham, Tommy Lee Jones / Lionsgate), “Training Day” (Bill Paxton / CBS), “Spotless” (Denis Menochet / NETFLIX), “Day Of The Dead” (Millennium Films) to be released Dec 17, “War Inc.” (John Cusack, Marisa Tomei / Millennium Films), “The Experiment” (Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker), “Until Death” (JC Van Damme), in addition to many indie films and TV series
Peter Plantec Vitae
Plantec is the author of the pioneering first book on 3D Animation written for artists, The
Caligari trueSpace 2 Bible. The book covers all aspects of designing, producing a short
animated film. It was the #1 best selling computer book for 22 weeks.
Plantec has served as columnist and contributing Editor of Animation Magazine and as jurist
for the World Animation Celebration International Animation Competition.
As Contributing Editor of Studio Daily in New York, Plantec has written countless articles on
trends in Animation and Visual,FX. He has taught Master Classes in the design of animated character behavior and personality internationally.
As Co-Chair and host of Mundos,Digitales, Spain’s most prominent digital entertainment
conference, Plantec served as a jurist for their international animated film competition. He has
taught master classes for partially paralyzed young animators in A Caruña, Spain. For ten
years he was on the board of advisors of FMX Stuttgart, and hosted the Virtual Human’s Form
where the early concept of virtual human animated characters was pioneered.
Bijan Tehrani
Bijan Tehrani a film director, film critic and writer, works as founder and Editor in Chief of Cinema Without Borders while teaching Language & History of film workshops and organizes film screening events and festivals. Bijan has won several awards in international film festivals and book fairs for his short films and children’s books as in the process of publishing a few new children books and directing two documentary films. Bijan is perusing new ideas for creating an international film community to help distribution of independent international films.
James Ulmer
James Ulmer A contributing writer for The New York Times, James Ulmer’s 20-year journalistic career has included penning two national columns for Premiere magazine, and writing and directing for the BBC in London. He was a senior analyst and executive producer at the internet company Creative Planet, and served for eight years as international editor and columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, where he reported from over 50 festivals and markets worldwide. Ulmer is the author of James Ulmer’s Hollywood Hot List — The Complete Guide to Star Ranking from St. Martin’s Press., and founded the Hollywood database company The Ulmer Scale (www.ulmerscale.com. He has been interviewed in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Time and Newsweek, and his commentaries have been featured on “Entertainment Tonight,” “CBS This Morning,” and the BBC, CBS, CNN, HBO, and E! networks. He has frequently been seen on the Reelz Channel as a commentator and on-camera presenter. A graduate of Harvard College and an Iowa native, Ulmer discovered his passion for Italy as a teenager living in Naples, where he often spent weekends haunting his favorite piazzas.