During the months of February, March, and April, a film retrospective we named “The Manaki Brothers’ Greats” delighted the audiences in Bitola and Skopje with an impressive lineup of narrative films featuring exceptional cinematographic achievements by some of the great award-winning cinematographers of the International Cinematographers’ Film Festival “Manaki Brothers”.
The retrospective started on February 7th with the screening of “Persona” by Ingmar Bergman (1966), a cinematographic masterpiece by the double Oscar winner and first international recipient of our “Golden Camera 300 Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cinematography”, Sven Nykvist, at ICFF “Manaki Brothers” 1998. A week later we screened the Cannes winner “Paris, Texas” (1984), directed by Wim Wenders. The visual narrative of the film was crafted by Robbie Muller, the recipient of the “Special Golden Camera Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Art of Film” in 2002 and the “Golden Camera 300 for Lifetime Achievement in Cinematography at ICFF “Manaki Brotheres” 2016. The third film in our line-up was “The Big Lebowski” (1998) by the Coen Brothers and the double Oscar winning master cinematographer Roger Deakins, who received our “Golden Camera 300 for Lifetime Achievement” in 2018. The last film screened in February was “Enter the Void” (2009), directed by Gaspar Noé and visually crafted by Benoît Debie, who won the “Golden Camera 300” in our Official Competition Program at ICFF “Manaki Brothers” 2010.
March began with “Amélie” (2001) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a cinematographic masterpiece by Bruno Delbonnel, who was nominated for an Oscar for this very film, won the European Film Award for Best Cinematography, and received our “Special Golden Camera 300 for Outstanding Contribution to the Art of Film” in 2011. “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966) by Sergio Leone was the second film screened in March, a cinematographic gem by Tonino Delli Colli, the recipient of the “Golden Camera 300 Award for Lifetime Achievement” at ICFF “Manaki Brothers” 2002. The next film screened was “Erin Brockovich” (2000), by director Steven Soderbergh and cinematographer Edward Lachman, who won the “Golden Camera 300 for Lifetime Achievement” in 2019. March concluded with “Léon: The Professional” (1994) by Luc Besson, visually shaped by Thierry Arbogast, the recipient of our Audience Award at ICFF “Manaki Brothers” 2006.
We kicked off April with the Oscar-winning film “Parasite” (2019) by Bong Joon-ho. The Korean cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, the recipient of our “Golden Camera 300” at ICFF “Manaki Brothers” 2018, is credited with the cinematography of this film. “Amadeus” (1984) by Milos Forman followed, a film that triumphed at the Oscars in 1985, winning eight Academy awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture. The cinematographer of this film was Miroslav Ondříček, the recipient of our “Golden Camera 300 for Lifetime Achievement” in 2001. We rounded off the retrospective with the cult classic “Run Lola Run” (1998) by Tom Tykwer and cinematographer Frank Griebe, who received the Special Jury Prize at ICFF “Manaki Brothers” 2000 for this film.
Our retrospective “The Manaki Brothers’ Greats” is a testament to our long-standing dedication to celebrating the extraordinary creativity of the world’s greatest masters of cinematography and the decades-long vision of the leadership of the festival to seek and discover new talented artists who will later become masters of the film imagery on a world scale.
Due to this reason and the high attendance at our screenings over the past few months, our retrospective will continue in the fall under the title “The Gems of ‘Manaki Brothers'”.
