PLUS CAMERIMAGE, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, announced today the heads of the juries who will preside over the eight competition sections at the 20^th anniversary edition of the festival taking place November 24^th – Dec 1^st.

It was also revealed that the Festival will hold the Polish premiere of the highly anticapted ‘Life of Pi,” directed by Ang Lee, with cinematography by Claudio Miranda, who will be in attenndence. The film will be presented, along with the documentary ‘Side by Side” as part of the Festival’s exciting Opening Gala.

The 2012 PLUS CAMERIMAGE competition jury heads are:

●    Legendary director, producer and writer Joel Schumacher (“St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Batman Forever,” “Batman & Robin” “Falling Down,” “Phone Booth”) will serve as Jury President overseeing the Main Competition.

●    Two-time Academy Award® nominated director, writer and producer Alan Parker (“Evita,” “Angel Heart,” “Angela’s Ashes,” “Mississippi Burning”) will be the Jury President overseeing the Student Edudes Competition.

●    Primetime Emmy nominated director and producer Roger Spottiswoode (“Tomorrow Never Dies,” “The 6^th Day,” “Turner and Hooch,” “And the Band Played On”) will serve as Jury President of the Directors’ Debuts Competition.

●    Two-time Primetime Emmy nominated director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (“Let It Be,” “The Object of Beauty,” “Marsalis on Music”) will oversee the Music Videos Competition.

●    Award winning director Paweł Łoziński (“Birthplace,” “100 Years of Polish Cinema,” “Chemo”) will serve as Jury President of the Feature Documentary Films Competition.

●    Academy Award® winning director Steven Okazaki (“Day of Waiting,” “Mushroom Club,” “Unfinished Business,” “The Conscience of Nhem En”) will preside as the Jury President overseeing the Short Documentary Films Competition.

●    Academy Award® winning film editor Alan Heim (“Network,” “The Notebook,” “American History X,” “Alpha Dog”) will serve as the Jury President for the Polish films competition.

●    Cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub (“Independence Day,” “Stargate,” “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” “Black Book”) Cinematographer’s Debuts Competition.

It was previously announced that Keanu Reeves will open the Festival with his new documentary “Side by Side” on November 24^th.

Four-time Academy Award® nominated director, writer and producer David Lynch (“Mulholland Dr.,” “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet”) will be the recipient of the Festival’s prestigious ‘Lifetime Achievement Award for Directing’ at this year’s Festival.

In addition, Academy Award® winners Alan Heim (“All That Jazz,” “Network,” “The Notebook,” “American History X”) and Steven Okazaki (“Day of Waiting,” “The Mushroom Club,” “Unfinished Business”) will be honoured at the event with the Festival’s ‘Award to Editor With Unique Sensitivity’ and the Festival’s prestigious ‘Award for Outstanding Achievements in Documentary Filmmaking’ respectively

About the Jury Presidents

Joel Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He cemented his status as a serious filmmaker after the success of drama “St. Elmo’s Fire” and horror “The Lost Boys” in the 1980s. His other notable credits include Warner Bros’ “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin”; crime thriller “8MM” starring Nicholas Cage; the comedy “Flawless” with Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman; drama “A Time to Kill” featuring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock and Samuel L Jackson; “Phone Booth” starring Colin Farrell; and the three-time Oscar® nominated drama “The Phantom of the Opera.”

English director, writer, producer and actor Alan Parker has been active in both British and American cinema and was a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain. His film career began through his association with producer David Puttnam, when he wrote the screenplay for the feature “Melody.” Puttnam would later produce a number of Parker's films including “Midnight Express,” which earned Parker his first Oscar® nomination. He was later nominated for another Oscar® for his drama “Mississippi Burning.” In addition, Parker has directed a number of musical films including “Bugsy Malone,” “Fame,” “Pink Floyd — The Wall”, “The Commitments” and “Evita.” Other notable credits include the Oscar® nominated drama “Angela’s Ashes”; “Angel Heart” starring Robert De Niro; “The Life of David Gale” featuring Kate Winslet and Kevin Spacey; and “Shoot the Moon” with Diane Keaton.

Canadian film director, writer and producer Roger Spottiswoode began his career as an editor in the 1970s. He has directed a number of notable films and television productions, including “Under Fire,” “Tomorrow Never Dies” starring Pierce Brosnan and the TV movie “And the Band Played On,” which earned Spottiswoode a Primetime Emmy nomination. He was part of the writing team responsible for “48 Hrs.” starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. In 2000, he directed the science fiction action thriller “The 6th Day” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Other notable credits include the drama “Shake Hands with the Devil” and “Spinning Boris.”

Michael Lindsay-Hogg is an American film, television and stage director and writer. A pioneer in music video, Lindsay-Hogg directed clips for The Rolling Stones for fifteen years, for The Who and The Beatles, and also their final film “Let it Be.” In 1996, The New York Film Festival chose Mr. Lindsay-Hogg’s never before seen “The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus” as a Special Event for the Festival. Some of his notable films include “Nasty Habits,” “The Sound of Murder,” “The Object of Beauty” with Andie MacDowell and John Malkovich,” Frankie Starlight” and “Waiting for Godot.” Off broadway, he helmed Larry Kramer's AIDS drama “The Normal Heart,” produced at “The Public Theater” by Joseph Papp in 1985. For broadway, he directed both the original 1979 production (for which he was nominated for a Tony Award) and revival of “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” “Agnes of God” and “The Boys of Winter. Much of Lindsay-Hogg's work has been in television, most notably the first six installments of the Granada Television's highly acclaimed eleven-part series “Brideshead Revisited,” which aired in the U.S. on PBS in 1981. Other credits include “Professional Foul” by Tom Stoppard, Anton Chekov's “The Seagull,” “Simon and Garfunkel/The Concert in Central Park,” “Master Harold...and the Boys” with Matthew Broderick “As Is” (1986), “Paul Simon, Graceland: The African Concert,” the series “Marsalis on Music,” and an adaptation of Horton Foote's “Alone.”

Paweł Łoziński is a Polish documentary director, who gained experienced from assisting his documentary filmmaking father, Marcel Łoziński. The documentary “Birthplace” marked Łoziński’s directorial debut in 1992. He went on to make “100 Years of Polish Cinema,” “Kratka” and documentary short “Siostry” in the mid to late 1990’s. Other credits include “Taka historia,” “Chemo” and “Inwentaryzacja.”

Steven Okazaki is an American director, producer and screenwriter of Japanese origins. During his career, lasting for over three decades, he has been acclaimed as an uncompromising filmmaker in revealing the truth about the world. He has devoted his skills to many subject matters, especially the American-Japanese relations in the 20th and 21st century given his Japnese heritage. In "White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he told the story of the first nuclear bombings from both viewpoints of their survivors, and some of its American participants. In "Unfinished Business,” which earned him his first Academy Award® nomination, Okazaki challenged a shameful period of American history – the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. His Oscar® winning short documentary "Days of Waiting” revolved around the same theme, this time, however, from the perspecitve of a Caucasian woman named Estelle Peck Ishigo, who had chosen life by her husband’s side in the internment camp. With this decision, she lost, like all others, her civil rights and was subjected to physical suffering. Okazaki earned his third Academy Award® nomination for the short documentary "The Mushroom Club” in 2006 and his fourth Academy Award nomination for "The Conscience of Nhem En” in 2009.

Alan Heim is an award-winning American film editor with over 35 feature film credits. In 1977, he won an Oscar® in the “Best Film Editing” category for the critically acclaim drama “Network.” He was nominated for his second Academy Award for “All That Jazz” in 1980. Heim began his career in 1968 with the romantic drama “The Sea Gull” featuring James Mason, Vanessa Redgrave and Simone Signoret. His other notable credits include “Lenny” starring Dustin Hoffman; “Hair” featuring John Savage”; “Valmont” starring Colin Firth”; “Dennis the Menace”; “American History X” starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong; “The Notebook” with Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling; “My Sister’s Kepper” starring Cameron Diaz; “Alpha Dog” starring Justin Timberlake; and “Janie Jones” starring Abigail Breslin. Heim is currently working on the upcoming comedic drama “Gods Behaving Badly” starring Christopher Walken, Sharon Stone and Alicia Silverstone.

German cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub is best known for working on the sci-fi action film “Independence Day” starring Will Smith, “Stargate” featuring Kurt Russell, the family film “The Chronicles of Naria: Prince Caspian” and the Dutch drama “Black Book.”  Other notable projects include “Ninja Assassin,” “The Jackal” starring Bruce Willis and Richard Gere, “The Princess Diaries” with Anne Hathaway,” “City by the Sea” featuring Robert De Niro and “Dolphin Tale” with Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd.

It was previously announced that Keanu Reeves will open the Festival with his new documentary “Side by Side” on November 24^th. Director Chris Kenneally, cinematographer Chris Cassidy, producer Justin Szlasa, and producer/host Keanu Reeves – will come to Bydgoszcz to present the film. Reeves visited Bydgoszcz two years ago to attend the 18th edition of Plus Camerimage Festival and, apart from presenting the viewers with his last film, Reeves set another important task before himself – to interview the eminent festival guests for the sake of his new documentary.

Four-time Academy Award® nominated director, writer and producer David Lynch (“Mulholland Dr.,” “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet”) will be the recipient of the Festival’s prestigious ‘Lifetime Achievement Award for Directing’ at this year’s Festival.

In addition, Academy Award® winners Alan Heim (“All That Jazz,” “Network,” “The Notebook,” “American History X”) and Steven Okazaki (“Day of Waiting,” “The Mushroom Club,” “Unfinished Business”) will be honoured at the event with the Festival’s coveted ‘Lifetime Achievement Award to the Editor’ and the Festival’s prestigious ‘Outstanding Achievement Award as a Documentary Filmmaker” respectively.