Grzegorz Dębowski’s drama What Belongs to Others won the Warsaw Grand Prix at the 42nd Warsaw International Film Festival, concluding its run during a Saturday night awards ceremony. The film centers on a Polish burglar who assumes the identity of a dead stranger’s girlfriend, with unexpected results.
The Bottom Line
- Grzegorz Dębowski took home the top Warsaw Grand Prix for his feature What Belongs to Others.
- Chinese filmmaker Cai Chengjie won best director for Suzhou Quartet, while Lorin Terezi’s Agia triumphed in the Competition 1–2 program.
- Maciej Sobieszczański’s Through the Wall secured the FIPRESCI Award, alongside a special jury award for Maria Dębska.
Warsaw Jury Honors Complex Characters and Daring Forms
The international competition jury praised the top-winning film “for its precise and delicate storytelling, its exceptional performances, and its complex portrait, devoid of judgment, of a flawed and elusive woman who undergoes a transformation as she slips into a stranger’s identity and life, and therein finds the possibility of her own.”
Meanwhile, the best director prize went to Cai Chengjie for Suzhou Quartet. The jury described the production as “an original and ambitious concept brought to life through striking cinematography and daring experimentation with narrative form.” Following an accidental encounter inside a compact noodle bistro among four individuals, the movie reveals that these people are actually companions from the past who have reunited.
Recognizing Historical Drama and Debut Features
Maciej Sobieszczański’s Through the Wall earned a special jury award for Maria Dębska. The jury lauded her performance as “a remarkably precise and emotionally truthful portrayal [and] for creating a complex character with great sensitivity and without exaggeration,” adding that the honor is also “for a role that stays with the audience long after the film ends.” The film is about two young political prisoners during the Stalinist terror in Poland who fall in love. Through the Wall also captured the festival’s FIPRESCI Award.
In the Competition 1–2 program, dedicated to directors’ first and second fiction features, Lorin Terezi’s Agia took the main prize. The jury noted that it is rare for a fiction feature debut to feel so complete, praising its structure that recalls a Greek tragedy and tells the story of a young woman rebelling against patriarchal tradition.
| Award Category | Winner | Director / Creator |
|---|---|---|
| Warsaw Grand Prix | What Belongs to Others | Grzegorz Dębowski |
| Best Director | Suzhou Quartet | Cai Chengjie |
| Competition 1–2 Award | Agia | Lorin Terezi |
| Documentary Competition Award | Meanwhile in Namibia | Jonas Spriestersbach |
| Short Grand Prix | Meteorit | Elisabeth Werchosin |
Documentary and Short Film Winners
The documentary competition top prize went to Jonas Spriestersbach’s Meanwhile in Namibia. The movie investigates the way Germany implements development assistance initiatives rather than issuing financial compensation for its past rule over Namibia spanning the late 1800s and early 1900s. The jury commended the director’s ability to frame reality with extraordinary precision.
Additional honors included the Ecumenical Jury Award going to Linda Olte’s The Child, while the NETPAC Award was presented to Keisuke Yoshida’s Mentor. Martina Buchelová’s Lover, Not a Fighter received the Young FIPRESCI Award, and Beth de Araújo’s Josephine earned the Polish Film Institute Award.
