At the award ceremony of 23rd edition of Polish Film Festival LA, MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award jury member, Bijan Tehrani announced the recipients of the Honorary Mention and Best Polish Short Film.
Bridging The Borders Award is presented by Cinema Without Borders and Sponsored by MOZAIK Philanthropy.
Cinema Without Borders have been offering the Bridging The Borders Award at Polish Film Festival, Los Angeles in the fourteen years. This award is offered by Cinema Without Borders and Sponsored by MOZAIK Philanthropy.
MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award Honorary Mention goes to a beautiful and poetic film which depicts a Millennial woman suffering from unrequited love, This film is Unburial, directed by Artur Wyrzykowski
But the 2022 MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award goes to a film that masterfully portrays the loneliness of elder generation and their challenges facing the world today in a story about a middle age accountant who is alone in his office on Christmas eve, and a strange visitor challenges him to face the realities of his life. This amazing film is Out of Office, directed by Bartosz Nowacki
CWB Jury Members were:
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
Ali Murat Erkorkmaz
Ali Murat Erkorkmaz, born on 1948, is an architect with several works worldwide. Besides architecture he has released a daily newspaper, books, magazines, built yachts, wrote music and produced 63 television series, mostly animation that were broadcasted in 58 countries, and has received several awards. Recently he is working on artificial intelligence software programming and robotics on a project called ROBISAPIEN, where uncontrollable characters with curiosity on a 24 hr running broadcast can talk, learn and research together with children and with their robotic toys in more than 100 languages.
Chale Nafus was born in Dallas during World War II, he attended public schools, spent summers on his sister’s ranch in Comanche County in the 1950s, learned Spanish from schoolmates, and dreamed of getting out of Dallas. After getting through freshman year at SMU, he worked at Texas Instruments before realizing he really needed a college education. After attending the University of Texas at Arlington (B.A., English), La Universidad Autónoma de México, and UT Austin (M.A., English/RTF), he began a long college teaching career at Texas Southmost College (Brownsville), La Universidad de Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Kingsborough Community College (Brooklyn), and finally Austin Community College (1973-1998). At the latter, he founded the Department of Radio-TV-Film, taught classes in film studies, and for seven years served as Chair of Humanities (Northridge Campus). Retiring in 1998, Chale spent 4 years traveling and writing before joining the staff of Austin Film Society as Director of Programming (2002-2015). He is now totally retired and happily serving on the boards of Austin Film Society and OUTsider Fest as well as the advisory committees of IndieMeme (South Asian film organization) and Cine Las Americas.
Bijan Tehrani a film director, film critic and writer, works as 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.
Bijan runs several events every year in order to promote international cinema in the US, including ELAC International Animation Day Festival.
For the tenth anniversary of Cinema Without Borders, Bijan received Ambassador of International Cinema Award from South east European Film Festival, Friend of the Festival Award from Polish Film Festival, LA and Gateway to International Cinema Award from Hungarian Film festival. CWB will celebrate its 15th anniversary in 2022.