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By Gyula Somogyi 

The old port

The festival itself is (not a big surprise since this is an underwater festival) actually under the green park in a very spacious exhibition space accommodates almost all exhibitors.

Being a filmmaker myself, I must also mention that the main cinema is grand and performs its duty. When I sat down in this room I felt like tonight I would in fact see the best underwater films. Of course, I always check the screening rooms, and if you are also a filmmaker, you will be happy to know that in this Festival your film is presented well and with respect, not just as a complimentary act to a trade show.

The images are the main actors here are there are some big names -- this year the BBC, NHU and the NHK from Japan are also competing.

I got to chat with a good old fellow and talented filmmaker, Bruno Van Herck, who has already won several prizes in this Festival. He owns a Gold Palmares in Category B, and his new film, Ondinesia is a marvelous one – again.

Since the festival was one day shorter than usual, Saturday came very fast. To start off the award ceremonies Cathy Church, the president of this year's jury, presented a very funny slideshow with her personal remarks.  It was a great way to introduce this years still image winners. They were amazing as usual, and here a few of the big winners. 

A sample of four of the ten images from the winning portfolio of Adriano Morettin. (Plongeur d'or 2009 Portfolio) 

Gold Medal winner for the color print category (Plongeur d'or 2009 Photo couleurs) went to Dennis Vandermeersch

After the still images award ceremony, the attendees had some time to watch films in the three screening rooms. This was a busy time for us, running from one room to the other so we could check out our friend latest films. Deborah showed her beautiful films about free diving and Zsolt Sásdi, one of the winners of this years Our World Underwater Competitions showed his "Earth Resistant" short film.

 
There were many fantastic films and you can find a list of the winners of both the still and film categories at the Festival's website.

As you can see, there were many deserving award winners in this years festival. I would like to congratulate all the winners and competitors.

This marks the start of the film festival season, so if you want a first look at all the news films, come to the World Festival of Underwater Images and see them for yourself! Many thanks to Mr. Daniel Mercier, the father and spirit of this event, for organizing this festival.

See you next year! We will be here, as always...