NCBJ and Polish Film Institute (PISF) have signed intention letter on sponsorship of Polish filmmakers. They will gain access on preferential terms to rendering services offered by the Renderownia Świerk centre in NCBJ.

NCBJ and PISF have jointly established the Programme to Sponsor Polish Filmmakers. Beneficiaries of the programme i.e. film producers supported by PISF will be offered preferential terms to access rendering services available in the Renderownia Świerk centre. The offered discounts may reach several dozen percentage points.

– We are convinced that NCBJ activities need not be limited to pure science or science applications, but may also bring wider socioeconomic benefits. Our activities of such nature include development of state-of-the-art methods/tools for cancer oncology, or science education/popularization – pointed out Prof. Krzysztof Kurek, NCBJ Director General. – I’m glad that our Renderownia Świerk centre may soon bring similar added value in the course of cooperation with PISF on creating a better work environment for the Polish cinematography.

The Renderownia Świerk centre was put into operation last October. All profits accruing from their activities are used to finance either NCBJ current scientific activities or to cover maintenance costs of the Świerk Centre research infrastructure.

– Modern film producers widely use both special effects and 3D animations. We in PISF care to help Polish filmmakers to access these new technologies. We gladly acknowledge NCBJ’s initiative to bring power of their supercomputer closer to Polish filmmakers and are convinced that the filmmakers will benefit from access to better animation/postproduction capabilities. So far large film projects had to use foreign servers; now they can use excellent Świerk infrastructure. Besides, some technical details may now be negotiated even in the course of rendering, which was often not possible if the server was located abroad – said Magdalena Sroka, PISF Director.

The Renderownia Świerk is capable to generate 3D animation movies and to produce special effects for feature films. NCBJ management has declared that Renderownia Świerk will be constantly upgrading the provided services, adopting them to the evolving needs of professional film producers.

The currently reached NCBJ-PISF cooperation agreement may be traced down to earlier contacts of NCBJ with the community of Polish filmmakers. At the beginning of 2013 the team accomplishing then the Świerk Computer Centre (CIŚ) project supported production of the “Warszawa 1935” movie. Successful rendering of majority of film scenes made possible to speed movie premiere date up. In return, NCBJ staff acquired practical experience and know-how regarding processing of large numbers of graphical files. That helped to more precise specify requirements in the that-time opened tender proceedings to supply a key part of the computational infrastructure for the CIŚ project.

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National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) in Świerk with its about 1,000 employees is the largest research Institute in Poland. NCBJ profile combines supporting the programme to develop the first nuclear power plant in Poland with pure research in various fields of sub-atomic physics (elementary particle physics, nuclear physics, hot plasma physics etc.) and practical applications of nuclear physics methods in various sectors of science and national economy, including medicine. NCBJ operates MARIA, the sole in Poland research nuclear reactor (used to produce radio-pharmaceuticals, irradiate engineering materials, and conduct research with the use of neutron beams) and one of the four largest in Poland supercomputers (its theoretical computing power is 1 petaFLOP i.e. 10¹⁵ floating-point operations per second). The Centre actively participates in international research projects and works on modern nuclear technologies. Technologies developed in NCBJ will be commercialized in the Świerk Science & Technology Park.

Polish Film Institute (PTSF), a state-owned institution established in 2005, is responsible for development of Polish cinematography and promotion of Polish films abroad. The Institute financially supports the entire audiovisual market in Poland (production of films, film-based education, popularization of film culture, development of cinema-theatres) and promotion of Polish cinematography abroad. The financial support is granted within framework of some Operational Programmes.

More info:

Ma­rek Siecz­kow­ski
National Centre for Nuclear Research spokesman
mobile +48 512 583 695
e-ma­il: rzecz­nik@ncbj.gov.pl

Ra­fał Jan­kow­ski
Pol­ish Film Institute spokesman
phone +48 22 42 10 189
e-ma­il: rzecz­ni­k@pisf.pl