Poland’s Camerimage Film Festival, a beloved industry event dedicated to the art of cinematography, has been mired in controversy just days before its 32nd edition. Several leading international cinematography organizations spoke out over the weekend to criticize a controversial editorial written by the festival’s founder and CEO Marek Żydowicz. The article, published in the latest issue of Cinematography World magazine, is a response to a September petition from Women Cinematographers, an international alliance representing female directors of photography around the world, calling on Camerimage to better support women in film Photographer’s job. But rather than working to increase representation in festival programming, as the leaders of Cannes, Berlin and Tokyo have done in recent years, Zhidovich sought to argue that including more works by female DPs would At the risk of lowering the artistic quality of the festival to some extent.
“The film industry is undergoing rapid changes that are affecting film image, content and aesthetics,” Zhidovich wrote. “One of the most important changes is the growing recognition of female photographers and directors. This evolution is crucial because it corrects a clear injustice in the development of society. However, it also raises the question: the pursuit of change Is it okay to exclude good things? Are we only going to sacrifice works and artists of outstanding artistic achievement to make room for mediocre filmmaking?
As word of Zhidovich’s stance spread among the global cinematographer community, the response to his work was almost immediate.
The British Society of Cinematographers, a craft organization founded in 1949, published a blunt letter of condemnation on its website.
“The BSC wishes to express its disapproval of your recent article in Cinematography World,” the association wrote in an open letter to Zhidovich. “We are dismayed and angry at your extremely misogynistic comments and aggressive tone. , we believe this is a symptom of deep-seated bias.”
The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) quickly expressed support for the BSC’s letter, as did the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC), the Brazilian Association of Cinematographers (ABC), the Camera Operators Association and the Women in Cinematographers Network (covering Germany) More criticism was also raised, Austria and Switzerland).
The controversy has cast a pall over Camerimage’s upcoming edition, which is due to begin on Saturday with screenings of Steve McQueen’s latest feature, blitzkriegthe Oscar-winning director attended. Other industry figures are expected to attend the event, including Cate Blanchett, who chairs the 2024 competition jury; general Star Hiroyuki Sanada, as well as several Oscar front-runners including Greig Fraserdune 2), Jarin Blaschke (Nosferatu) and Alice Brooks (evil), Haha Crowley (The is a barbarian), Stephen Fontaine (secret meeting), Ed Lachman (Maria), Paul Guillaume (emilia perez) and many other leaders in the field.
Over the weekend, Żydowicz hit back at the BSC and its members in a letter published on the Camerimage website.
“I firmly believe that the accusations against me in the statement published on the BSC website are completely false and quite offensive,” Zhidovich wrote. “If these accusations were true, this festival would simply not exist. Respect for others has always been My top priority, too, is our festival.
Festival chiefs said the organization had misunderstood his comments and that Camerimage had been in talks with women in cinematography about ways to work together to help the festival grow.
“Together we have developed a diversity and inclusion policy and plan to release it soon,” Zhidovich added.
He then attached the document to the bottom of the letter.
Women in Cinematography, whose petition first prompted Zhidovich to write an editorial, responded in an additional letter that the group was inspired by Camerimage’s shortcomings in supporting the work of women in the field.
“The photographic image has historically excluded all but a few women, which is why Women Cinematographers – a collective of filmmakers from around the world – was founded earlier this year,” the letter reads.
The organization went on to say that Camerimage’s recent programming “demonstrates how female cinematographers are marginalized from film festivals.”
WIC also took issue with Żydowicz’s release of its drafted diversity and inclusion policy, writing: “In outlining its defense, the festival has released a new diversity and inclusion policy that was actually drafted by Drafted by WIC and delivered to the festival on September 28, the article was not published until the recent backlash against the World of Cinematography article, which was published without attribution to its source or author.
The organization added that it was “pleased to finally read yesterday about Mr. Zhidovic’s commitment to progress” and that “we love this festival very much in our hearts and want it to thrive”.
WIC then urged the festival to make a series of commitments to increase transparency in the festival and its selection process. The list includes “full transparency on the selection committee,” the establishment of an advisory board to oversee D&I policy, and “broad collaboration with organizations representing minorities in the film industry,” among other changes.
“We hope this year’s initiatives will lay the foundation for meaningful and lasting progress and trust Camerimage is committed to these principles,” WIC added.
The Camerimage Film Festival will be held in the historic Polish city of Toruń from November 16th to 23rd.
