Three productions by Polish state television TVP are among the recipients of the prestigious International Television and Film Festival awards in New York.

They were among the entries from twenty nine countries which were selected to the finals by the grand jury comprised of award-winning television and film professionals.

The documentary film An American in Communist Poland (directed by Piotr Morawski and Ryszard Kaczyński) won the Gold Medal in the History/Society category. Based on archival footage of Senator Robert Kennedy’s visit to Warsaw in 1964, several months after the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, it shows the dual face of the event: a genuinely enthusiastic welcome accorded to the US politician by Poles and the hundreds of communist secret police agents monitoring his every single movement and infiltrating the welcoming crowds.

Another documentary - Chemo by Paweł Łoziński – won the Gold Medal in the Health Category. It is a one-hour film about patients in an oncology clinic undergoing chemotherapy treatment. Last year it won the Prix Europa for Best Television Documentary.

The TVP series Days of Honour, set in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, won the Silver Medal in the Action/Adventure category. It is directed by Michał Kwieciński, Michał Rosa and Wojciech Wójcik.

The gala award presentation ceremony in the American Airlines Theatre in New York’s Times Square was attended by over 150 most influential producers and representatives of TV stations from around the world. (mk)