Agnieszka Holland's Green Border nominated for the Gotham Awards – the Oscars of independent cinema

The announcement of the Gotham Awards nominations means that the next Oscar season has just begun and we will soon learn the favorites of subsequent groups of filmmakers and critics' associations.

This year, the most awards went to the winner of the Palme d'Or in Cannes – Sean Baker's “Anora”, nominated in the four most important categories: best film, best director, best leading actor and best supporting actor. For several years now, the Gotham Awards have no longer differentiated by gender in the acting categories, awarding only one award.

“Green Border” Agnieszka Holland is nominated alongside four other titles in the international film category. The winners in all categories will be announced on December 2 this year.

Probably the most serious rival of the Polish film may be the British film “Difficult Matters” by Mike Leigh, which is receiving great reviews at international festivals.

In the press materials we read about him: “The heroine is Pansy, a woman tormented by anger and depression, hypersensitive and always ready to burst into anger. She criticizes her husband and adult son so mercilessly that neither of them dares to oppose her. She starts quarrels with strangers and lists the world's countless flaws to anyone willing or unwilling to listen to her. What she torments most is her opposite sister, Chantal, who is nevertheless the only person who is still able to sympathize with her.

In the film, an outstanding performance was given by Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste, known for the famous “Secrets and Lies” of this director, who was also nominated for the Gotham Awards in the category of Best Leading Actor. Previously, the actress won an award at the Denver festival.

In turn, the Italian “Vermiglio” directed by Maura Delpero tells the story of the last year of World War II in a large family and how, due to a paradox of fate, with the arrival of a refugee soldier, the family loses peace. Just when the world is getting it back. In fact, it is an intimate story about girls' and women's maturation – at every stage of life. Awarded Silver Lion in Venice, the film stands out for its original script and unusual sense of humor for this subject.

“In the Yellow Cocoon” is a Vietnamese-Senegalese-French film directed by Pham Thien An, awarded the Golden Camera in Cannes, i.e. the award for the best debut. It tells the story of a man who, after the tragic death of his sister-in-law, is tasked with delivering her body back to his hometown. He also takes his nephew on the trip, who miraculously survived the accident. In his hometown, among landscapes Vietnamold memories begin to haunt him and he begins to search for his older brother, who disappeared many years ago.

The last title is the Indian “All Shades of Light” directed by Payal Kapadia, showing the restrictions that are incompatible with the modern world and keep Hindu women trapped. The heroines are two roommates who moved to Mumbai to work as nurses. Life in the city is supposed to offer more opportunities and freedom, but this does not change anything for the heroines. One of them has been living in depression for months, waiting for a call from her husband, the other is secretly meeting her loving boyfriend because he is a Muslim, and according to tradition, her parents will choose her husband. Both women hope for changes that will allow them to live the way they want and with whom they want.

As you can see, all productions present engaged social cinema.

Introduced to Polish cinemas in 2023, “The Green Border” hit American screens in September this year. Let us recall that Holland's painting won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice festival last year. In September this year “The Green Border” won this year's Polish Feature Film Festival, winning the Golden Lion.

American critics are also delighted with the film, publishing basically only enthusiastic reviews. This is best illustrated by the website Rotten Tomatoes, which archives all ratings, where the positive rating rate is 93 percent. Agnieszka Holland herself admitted on social media that she had not had such enthusiastic reviews since she was nominated for Oscar for the best script of the production “Europa, Europa” (1990).

If we look at the prestigious “Variety”, we will find a review by Jessica Kiang, who writes: “Agnieszka Holland's incredibly powerful refugee drama ultimately comes from a place of optimism. Optimism is about nurturing a reaction of potentially motivating outrage when you portray the brutality that people are capable of, at the behest of the institution. It is optimistic to believe that in the face of extraordinary cruelty, common decency will compel rebellion.” The critic further concludes: “'The Green Border' is a gripping thriller set on the Polish-Belarusian border that wraps social criticism in the barbed wire of strong, intelligent filmmaking to evoke exactly that emotion. If we can feel the horror, perhaps there is hope.” “.

However, if we look at “The Guardian”, we can read a review in which Wendy Ide calls “The Green Border” “Agnieszka Holland's impressive, furious masterpiece about the humanitarian crisis of 2021 that took place in the exclusion zone between Poland and Belarus.” Ide ends her text with the conclusion that “Holland is no stranger to political topics, although she previously gravitated towards elegant dramas such as 'Mr Jones' (about famine in Ukraine) and 'Charlatan' (about a healer in communist Czechoslovakia). 'The Green Border' ', however, is a completely different beast: vital, furious and propulsive. It is a cinema that comes from struggle. It has the same unyielding focus as Michael Winterbottom's 'In This World' and it couldn't be more relevant.”

The Polish director has so far received three Oscar nominations. She received it, in addition to the above-mentioned title “Europa, Europa”, for the films “Bitter Harvest” (1985) and “In Darkness” (2012). The latter title was then the Polish candidate for the Oscar in the category: Best Foreign Language Film.