Hanna Polak was among the winners at IDFA's Awards Ceremony held in Amsterdam's Compagnietheater on Friday night, 28 November: the Polish director's Danish-produced documentary "Something Better to Come" grabbed the Special Jury Award in the Feature-Length Competition.
The VPRO IDFA Award for the Best Feature-Length Documentary goes to "Of Men and War" by Laurent Bécue-Renard. Among the nominees for IDFA's main award was also Denmark's Camilla Nielsson's "Democrats."
Something Better to Come
Polish director, producer and cinematographer Hanna Polak followed Yula, a girl living in Europe's largest garbage dump near Moscow, for 14 years – from she was 11 until she turned 25 and finally found a way out of the landfill.
"What's a successful life? These people were not successful materially, but for me they were very successful as human beings. They can feel, they can love, they can share. That doesn't mean they weren't flawed, but it's incredible to come to such a place and be made to feel welcome," says Hanna Polak. Read the full interview in our FILM magazine: Human Beauty in a Russian Garbage Dump
Polak's "The Children of Leningradsky" (2004), a short film about homeless children at Moscow's Leningradsky station, was nominated for an Oscar and two Emmys and won an IDA Award. "Something Better to Come," world premiering at IDFA, is produced by Sigrid Dyekjær for Danish Documentary Production with support from the Danish Film Institute.
Get the full list of the 15 Danish titles at IDFA 2014
IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 19-30 November 2014
