The vernissage was preceded by a screening of animations from O!PLA Across the Borders, a unique festival not only for its unusual subject, but above all, for seeking to renew the bond between the filmmaker and the audience. Thus, during the award ceremony of O!PLA, the audience serves as the jury, which guarantees a significant diversity of the material presented. Viewers have the opportunity not only to see the 19 awarded animations, but also to hear an introduction from Jared Taylor, the Programme Director for the Animation programme at the Edinburgh College of Art.
After the screening, the participants were invited to the cinema cafe bar, where the vernissage took place. Polish Art Europe presented a selection of posters, whose authors included Jakub Erol, Franciszek Starowieyski, and Andrzej Pągowski, among others. The exhibition of the Polish School of Posters attracted a considerable audience, despite being held at 10:00pm.
In one of the corridors, one could also see a complete exhibition of all the Play Poland Film Festival posters. The tradition is that each year, the organizers of the Festival ask a well-known Polish graphic artist to design a poster for the festival. The posters on display were created by Andrzej Pągowski, Sławomir Łukuć whether Tomasz Płonka. This year, Professor Sławomir Witkowski, who was selected by the festival, decided to experiment with the task and completed the project at the university, encouraging his students to partake in the challenge. As a result, five works by Kateryna Pomorova, Agataa Buiko, Natallia Kramianouskaya and Kaja Krzysiek, all presented at the vernissage, have served to promote the fifth edition of Play Poland Film Festival.
The audience, as usual, provided a fantastic atmosphere at the event. Some even commuted from as far as Glasgow. In the joyous hubbub of conversations, guests exchanged opinions on the festival’s artworks and films. In addition, the results of a competition for the creative use of the template on the cover of the festival catalogue were announced. The winners were: Rhys Wilson, Monika Ciska and Monika Kula, who won sets of double tickets for Play Poland Film Festival screenings. Festival goodies were also drawn among the holders of tickets to the O!PLA Across the Borders.
In addition to the outstanding posters, the tables hosted outstandingly tasty snacks. Pickles, lard sandwiches, Polish cheese, aromatic sausage and a tasting of traditional Polish vodka undoubtedly contributed to guests’s pleasure, as they stayed on until midnight. We hope they went home with bellies full of treats and souls full of culture.
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