Oscar Hopefuls 'War Witch,' 'Holy Motors' take Camerimage Honors

BYDGOSZCZ –War Witch, Canada's official entry for the 2013 Foreign Language Oscars, won top honors, the Golden Frog for director of photography Nicolas Bolduc, at Poland's Plus Camerimage festival, the biggest film fest dedicated to the art of cinematography.

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Holy Motors, Leos Carax's acclaimed, insane Cannes Film Festival entry, took the runner up Silver Frog for DP Caroline Champetier. Bronze went to Touraj Aslani for lensing the drama Rhino Season from Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi.

In the feature documentary competition, director/cinematographer Seung-Jun Yi took top honors for  Planet of Snail. The thriller To Kill a Beaver from director Jan Jakub Kolski won the Golden Frog for best Polish film.

The Camerimage awards ceremony – which included honors in fields as diverse as music-videos, student films and commercials – capped a banner-year for the festival, which was hosted by the picturesque city of Bydgoszcz and attracted many luminaries, including directors Alan Parker, Joel Schumacher and David Lynch, who received a lifetime achievement honor from the festival.

Actor/producer Keanu Reeves, who visited two years ago to film interviews for his cinematography-documentary Side by Side, was also on hand to present the finished work on opening night.