The Main Competition with the Golden Frog Award has been the most important part of the EnergaCAMERIMAGE Festival from its beginning. The Competition exists since 1993 i.e. since the first edition of the Festival. From the very beginning the idea behind the competition is to present the feature films where the image significantly contributes to the way a story is told. The visual value of these films results from the cooperation between a director and a cinematographer and the unusual sensitivity of the author of a film image. The Main Competition emphasizes the enormous contribution of the cinematographer to the film work. The aim of the Main Competition is to present films with unique visual appeal which will then be evaluated by International Jury who will choose and award the authors of the best cinematography. Also this year we will present the most interesting phenomena of world's cinematography, distinctive in terms of creative use of the image in film narration.
12 PAINTINGS OF ENSLAVEMENT
Original title: 12 obrazów zniewolenia
Cinematographers: Lech Majewski, Paweł Tybora
Director: Lech Majewski
Produced by: Stowarzyszenie Twórców i Mecenasów Kultury i Nauki Angelus Silesius
Country and year: Poland, 2025
Lech Majewski opens up the world of Jacek Malczewski, a symbolist painter from the turn of the twentieth century. In a wordless visual dialogue, the director recreates Poland’s history from the World War I to the present day. The characters from Malczewski’s canvases march through successive decades, fighting and fleeing various yokes. They traverse Siberia and Polish fields to arrive in a contemporary, urbanised homeland, immersed in apathetic consumption.
ANEMONE
Cinematographer: Ben Fordesman
Director: Ronan Day-Lewis
Produced by: Absinthe Film Entertainment, Focus Features, Granada Film Productions, Plan B Entertainment
Country and year: Switzerland, UK, 2025
An enigmatic shared history marred by shocking violence and harsh religiosity has left brothers Ray and Jem Stoker estranged for 20 years. Each brother has sought redemption in his own way: Ray lives a life of self-imposed exile, while Jem has taken refuge in his devout faith and his devotion to partner Nessa and their son Brian. But a family crisis forces Jem to track Ray down and ask him to revisit some of the most troubling moments of his life. In Ray’s primitive cabin, hidden deep in the woods of northern England, the brothers face the ghosts of the past, baring deep resentments, almost forgotten grudges and untold tragedy.
CHOPIN, A SONATA IN PARIS
Original title: Chopin, Chopin!
Cinematographer: Michał Sobociński
Director: Michał Kwieciński
Produced by: Akson Studio
Country and year: Poland, France, Spain, 2025
Paris, 1835. Fryderyk Chopin, a 25-year-old composer and darling of the Parisian elite, does not miss a single important event in the country. Although grappling with a crushing diagnosis, he still radiates energy and determination. Aware that time is not on his side, he aims to live life to the full. He creates some of his greatest works, sometimes by special commission, while also giving piano lessons for financial reasons. Admired by friends and adored by women, his longing for love and recognition spurs him on. In time, however, he comes to realise that the true centre of his life is music.
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
Cinematographer: Phedon Papamichael
Director: James Mangold
Produced by: Range Media Partners, Searchlight Pictures, The Picture Company, Turnpike Films, Veritas Entertainment, White Water
Country and year: USA, 2024
New York, early 1960s. A 19-year-old from Minnesota, gifted with extraordinary musical talent, arrives in the West Village to meet his idol, Woody Guthrie. At first, he becomes part of the folk scene, but gradually begins to free himself from its influence, searching for his own original voice. Unwilling to be pigeonholed, he makes a controversial choice that will revolutionise the world of music. A Complete Unknown tells the true story of one of the most iconic singer-songwriters in history, Bob Dylan, portrayed by Timothée Chalamet, who also performs all of Dylan’s songs featured in the film.
F1: THE MOVIE
Cinematographer: Claudio Miranda
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Produced by: Apple Original Films, British Film Commission, Dawn apollo,Green Eyes Production, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Monolith Pictures, Plan B Entertainment, Warner Bros.
Country and year: USA, 2025
Dubbed “the greatest that never was”, Sonny Hayes was Formula 1’s most promising prodigy of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, he’s a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former team-mate Ruben Cervantes, now the owner of a struggling Formula 1 outfit on the verge of collapse. Ruben convinces Sonny to return to Formula 1 for one last shot at saving the team — and proving he can still be the best in the world. He’ll drive alongside Joshua Pearce, the team’s hot-shot rookie intent on setting his own pace. But as the engines roar, Sonny’s past catches up with him, and he finds that in Formula 1 your team-mate is your fiercest competition — and the road to redemption is not one you can travel alone.
FRANZ
Cinematographer: Tomasz Naumiuk
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Produced by: Marlene Film Production, Metro Films, X Filme Creative Pool
Country and year: Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, 2025
Franz, by director Agnieszka Holland, isn’t a biopic of the writer Franz Kafka but rather a film about what it means to be young, lost and different in a world in constant flux. Kafka would have been perfectly at home in the twenty-first century: a workaholic who despised faceless corporate bureaucracy; a man who preferred writing to his lovers over spending time with them and who could end relationships imperceptibly; a hard-core vegetarian; and a son whose father shouted at him to “be normal” while he was writing brilliant stories about waking up as a bug. The film tells a quietly amusing story that offers a more-than-realistic dive into one of the most iconic and thoughtful young men in world history – a man who essentially invented modern angst long before the internet existed.
HAMNET
Cinematographer: Łukasz Żal
Director: Chloé Zhao
Produced by: Amblin Entertainment, Book of Shadows, Hera Pictures, Neal Street Productions
Country and year: UK, 2025
England, 1580. Impoverished Latin tutor William Shakespeare meets free-spirited Agnes, and the pair, captivated by one another, strike up a torrid affair that leads to marriage and three children. Yet as Will pursues a budding theatre career in faraway London, Agnes anchors the domestic sphere alone. When tragedy strikes, the couple’s once unshakeable bond is tested, but their shared experience sets the stage for the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.
A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE
Cinematographer: Barry Ackroyd
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Produced by: First Light Productions, Netflix, Prologue Entertainment
Country and year: USA, 2025
When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.
LATE SHIFT
Original title: Heldin
Cinematographer: Judith Kaufmann
Director: Petra Biondina Volpe
Produced by: Zodiac Pictures
Country and year: Switzerland, Germany, 2025
A dedicated nurse, navigates the relentless pace of a surgical ward with unwavering commitment, bringing humanity and warmth to her patients even during an understaffed shift. As the day intensifies, Late Shift becomes a gripping race against time, leading to a powerful and riveting climax.
MOTHER
Cinematographer: Virginie Saint Martin
Director: Teona Strugar Mitevska
Produced by: Entre Chien et Loup, Film i Väst, Frau Film, Sister and Brother Mitevski
Country and year: Belgium, Macedonia, Sweden, Denmark, India, 2025
Calcutta, India, August 1948. Teresa, the superior of the Sisters of Loreto convent, eagerly awaits a letter that will at last allow her to leave the order and found a new congregation in answer to God’s call. Yet, just before her departure, she is confronted with a choice that, at this pivotal moment in her life, tests not only her ambitions but also her faith.
NUREMBERG
Cinematographer: Dariusz Wolski
Director: James Vanderbilt
Produced by: Filmsquad, Mythology Entertainment, Széchenyi Funds, Walden Media
Country and year: USA, 2025
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, as the world grapples with the unveiled horrors of the Holocaust, US Army psychiatrist Lt Col Douglas Kelley is assigned the extraordinary task of assessing the mental state of Hermann Göring, the notorious former Reichsmarschall and Hitler’s second-in-command, along with other high-ranking Nazi officials. As the Allies, led by the unyielding chief US prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, alongside Sgt Howie Triest, David Maxwell-Fyfe, Gustave Gilbert, Col John Amen and Burton C. Andrus, navigate the monumental task of creating an unprecedented international tribunal to ensure the Nazi regime answers for its atrocities, Kelley gets to know his ‘patients’. But he soon finds himself locked in a psychological duel with Göring, whose charisma and cunning reveal a sobering truth: that ordinary men can commit extraordinary evil.
SINNERS
Cinematographer: Autumn Durald Arkapaw
Director: Ryan Coogler
Produced by: Warner Bros.
Country and year: USA, Australia, Canada, 2025
Sinners is a genre-bending and multi-layered exploration of Black culture and the blues music that is unique to it through the lens of a Southern Gothic thriller. Set in 1932 Mississippi, Michael B. Jordan stars as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, who, after chasing success in the North, return to Clarksdale, Mississippi to open a juke joint and revive the soul and spirit of their hometown. As music and dance meld in celebration of artistry, culture and history, evil descends, threatening to devour the fabric and heart of the community, and all that Smoke and Stack have worked to achieve.
SOUND OF FALLING
Original title: In die Sonne schauen
Cinematographer: Fabian Gamper
Director: Mascha Schilinski
Produced by: Studio Zentral
Country and year: Germany, 2025
On the same farm in northern Germany, but at different moments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, four girls grow up: Alma, Erica, Angelika and Lenka. Although separated by time, each experiences similar emotions – first love, rebellion and family tensions. Their stories intertwine, revealing secrets that have remained hidden for years.
SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE
Cinematographer: Masanobu Takayanagi
Director: Scott Cooper
Produced by: Bluegrass Films, Gotham Group
Country and year: USA, 2025
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere chronicles the making of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska, when he was a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggling to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past. The album marked a pivotal moment in his life and is considered one of his most enduring works – a raw, haunted acoustic record populated by lost souls searching for a reason to believe.