Special Mention in Screenplay

Let Me Cry

by Wojtek Jastrzębski
Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School, Poland

Jury Motivation by Kalina Nikolova

Special Mention in Screenplay for the compelling and authentic portrayal of a female protagonist who carries the emotional and practical burden of holding her family together, while navigating her partner’s depression and her own unspoken needs. For its carefully measured storytelling and thoughtful use of visual language, demonstrating how images, gestures and silences can convey what words cannot.

Synopsis

Aniela is a loving young mother who, faced with her partner's depression, bears the responsibility of providing for her family on her own. Things begin to spiral out of control when she loses her job and receives a call about overdue rent and unpaid utility bills. As she struggles to survive, Aniela is confronted with difficult moral dilemmas. Her relationship is put to the test, and she is forced to confront the boundaries she has long ignored and the needs she has suppressed for years.

Director's biography

A film directing student at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice, a graduate of jazz piano from the Bednarska State Music School in Warsaw, and a former philosophy student at the University of Warsaw.

Director of the short fiction films, commercials, music videos.
Co-creator of the stage production The Annunciation (New Epiphanies Festival at Studio Theatre in Warsaw) and cinematographer for the theatre installation Catastrophe created as part of the Beckett Planet project at the Polish Theatre in Poznań.

Director and author of the performative reading It Was Dark and I Was Almost Not Afraid, presented at the Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wrocław.

Credits

Director: Wojtek Jastrzębski
Screenplay: Wojtek Jastrzębski
Producer: Krystyna Doktorowicz

Specifications

Original title: Pozwól mi płakać
Running time: 25'
Film type: Fiction
Country: Poland
Completion date: July 2026