The New York Festivals was established in 1957, the international competition is run in six categories: ‘Film and video’, ‘TV productions’, ‘Radio productions’, ‘TV and radio advertising’, ‘Press advertising’ and ‘Interactive advertising’. The winners of this year’s edition of the Festival will be announced during a great gala in Las Vegas on 19th April. The successful productions will be awarded with the Grand Award as well as Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals. ‘The touch of an Angel’ is competing in ‘documentary productions’ category, whereas ‘Karski’ is among other shortlisted productions in the ‘drama’ category. The other finale productions competing over the main awards have been submitted by the following stations: TVE, ABC News, Discovery Channel, CTV, WDR, BBC, CBC, ORF, ZDF, CNN, CBS, HBO and NHK. In general, there are productions from over 50 countries from all over the world.

‘The Touch of an Angel’ by Marek Tomasz Pawłowski is a documentary coproduced by TVP, Zoyda Art Production and German WDR. It is a poetic story, a shocking testimony and an incredible memory record of WWII survivor Henryk Schoenker – a son of the last chairman of the Jewish Community in Auschwitz. The man reveals unknown to the world chance for Jewish immigration during WWII. Before the idea of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was conceived, a Bureau of Jewish Immigration to Palestine was established in the autumn of 1939. The order came from the Germans who delegated Leo Schoenker, the father of the main character, to establish the organization. Thousands of people would gather in a small town of Oswiecim in order to seek refuge from the threat of war. ‘Karski’ by Magdalena Łazarkiewicz is a TV theatre coproduced by TVP, National Audiovisual Institute and Chimany Pot. It is a sort of docudrama presenting the story of a Polish emissary Jan Karski. The production combines narrative fiction with staged scenes from life and work of the man. The contemporary part presents two young producers (Julia Kijowska as Olga and Piotr Głowacki – Luk) who, being under time pressure, are working on a feature documentary about Karski. The historical part on the other hand, combines staged scenes presenting war episodes from the life of Karski; i.a. the interrogation in Nowy Sącz, entering Warsaw Ghetto, a meeting with Zygielbojm in London and others. The producers of the movie while preparing materials, discuss about life choices and moral dilemmas of the movie character as well as attitudes of contemporary youth to the world. According to the director and script co-writer Magdalena Łazarkiewicz: ‘What we wanted to achieve was to filter Karski through the sensitivity of contemporary viewers, to show him through the eyes of young people - the producers of the movie about Karski. Those two had various reasons for taking up the production of such a film, nevertheless, the process of works starts affecting their own life choices and the dilemmas of the contemporary world start to dangerously resemble those of the times of Karski.’ More info on the Festival: www.newyorkfestivals.com