The Krakow Film Festival is Poland’s premier celebration of documentary, short, and animated film. It’s a space where renowned filmmakers from all over the world can meet newcomers, and where the audience can get up close and personal with both the creators and the protagonists of these films. It’s a festival of grand premieres and a launchpad for international careers, but above all, it’s a meeting place for those who love cinema – in the cosy screening rooms of Krakow’s legendary arthouse cinemas and in the virtual world of online screenings. The heart of documentary and short film beats in Kraków!
This year’s program features more than 190 films from around the globe, including over 100 world and Polish premieres. The festival is held in cinemas (from 28 May to 4 June) and online on the KFF VOD platform (on 2–18 June)! Films will be presented in 4 competitions: 3 international ones (documentary, short film, and DocFilmMusic), in the National Competition, as well as numerous out-of-competition series and during special screenings.
The visual theme of this year’s festival clearly states that everyone can become an Insider. Through the films, we’ll gain an intimate look at fascinating situations and learn unknown facts from history, visit distant places, and peek into inaccessible regions, but above all, we will stand face-to-face with extraordinary characters and witness their incredible stories. It’s human beings and their own unique stories who are at the heart of the films shown at the Kraków Film Festival.
The festival will open with Margreth Olin’s latest documentary film – Songs of Earth. Thirty years ago, the director left her family home. Today, she visits the mountainous regions of western Norway with her camera to follow in the footsteps of her parents and ancestors and answer the question: where am I from? It will be an encounter with local history, but primarily with the region’s pristine nature and the unending cycle of birth and death. Here, family history transforms into a breathtaking visual and auditory poem. The film is a co-production between the BBC and SWR in collaboration with ARTE, and its executive producers are Wim Wenders and Liv Ullmann. The festival’s opening ceremony will take place on 29 May (Monday) at 7:00 pm at the Kijów Cinema.
The special feature of this year’s edition is Spanish cinema. Focus on Spain will showcase the latest documentaries from Spain, as well as a program for children and adolescents. The series will be inaugurated with the latest and, sadly, the last film from Carlos Saura, who passed away this February: the documentary Walls Can Talk. Representatives of the Spanish and Polish film industries will have the opportunity to establish co-production connections at meetings held during the festival. The series’ partners are AC/E Acción Cultural Española, the Embassy of Spain, and the Cervantes Institute in Kraków.
We also know the recipient of this year’s Dragon of Dragons award for outstanding contribution to the development of animated film. This year, it has been awarded to Michael Dudok de Wit, Oscar winner and recipient of numerous prestigious awards at international festivals, and the creator of The Red Turtle – a beautiful fairy tale for adults, and the famous animated film Father and Daughter. Michael Dudok de Wit will be present in Kraków in person. The award ceremony will traditionally be accompanied by a retrospective of the winner’s works and a master class open to filmmakers and enthusiasts of animated film. The program’s partner is the Embassy of the Netherlands.
Sound of Music. Timeless Voices is a treat for viewers craving good music, outstanding cinema, and beautiful scenery. In the world’s most stunning open-air cinema, Pod Wawelem, and at Nowa Huta’s Łaźnia Nowa, this time we’re celebrating timeless female and male voices, and iconic vocalists. They are no longer with us, but their work has not aged at all and will continue to inspire, energise or soothe for many years to come. The featured filmmakers include winners of numerous awards, including the Oscars, such as Asif Kapadia (Amy), and guests of our festival from years ago, e.g., Kevin MacDonald (Whitney) and Brett Morgan (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck). The partner of the series is PGE Energia Ciepła and Radio Kraków.
As every year, the Festival’s program will include the Docs+Science section – screenings of fascinating science documentaries. The theme of this year’s edition is utopia, inspired by Wisława Szymborska’s poem of the same name. Utopia is a word that echoes with betrayed revolutions, millions of trampled lives. Written in the language of ideology, it fluttered above fields of death and extermination camps. As the experiences of the 20th century have shown, it’s a synonym for the unattainable state of universal justice. This series is curated by Karol Jałochowski and co-organised by Projekt Pulsar.
The Polish Documentary Panorama also has an exceptional program this year. It’s a panorama of artists and artistic trends, starting from those closest to us, in Kraków. We’ll get to see – among others – portraits of the Dragons Dragons winner, the outstanding animator Jerzy Kucia, as well as everybody’s favourite Martin Scorsese, and visionary filmmaker Wojciech Jerzy Has. We’ll also explore unique creative environments – the legendary National Stary Theatre in Kraków and its artists, Grupa Kaliska and their happenings, and the community gathered around the guru of Polish fantasy and comics, Maciej Parowski. We’ll also see the works of Natalia LL and Witold Kaczanowski, all genius pieces by these extraordinary artists.ystów.
Kids&Youth Fest is a film review for our youngest viewers. Its program includes some of the most acclaimed documentaries of the past year from various corners of the world, as well as captivating European productions. The series is free of charge for organised school and pre-school groups. The program will also feature Retro-cartoons for the Youngest, prepared in collaboration with the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute.
Another important part of the Festival is KFF Industry – Poland’s largest platform for meetings for the documentary and animated film industry. Each year, over 1000 guests from around the world participate in conferences, debates, workshops, presentations of projects at various stages of completion, and film markets. The program will include, among others, the broad Doc Lab Poland program and CEDOC Market, co-organised by the Władysław Ślesicki Film Foundation.
The new series, KFF TALKS, will be continued, featuring fascinating meetings and discussions with distinguished figures from outside the world of film. These are conversations at the intersection of philosophy, hard science, natural sciences, and humanities about the state of the world and the place of man in contemporary reality. This year, we invite you to two meetings: “Utopia. An Uninhabited Island?” and “Will Art Save the Planet?”
The Festival’s closing gala and the awards ceremony will take place on 3 June at the Kijów Cinema.
The detailed program of the Festival is available on www.krakowfilmfestival.pl.
The Krakow Film Festival is on the exclusive list of qualifying events for the Oscars® in the categories of short film (live action, animated, documentary) and documentary feature, as well as a recommending event for the European Film Awards in the same categories.
The Krakow Film Festival is organised with the financial support of the European Union as part of the “Creative Europe” program, the City of Kraków, the Polish Film Institute, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the Lesser Poland Province. The co-organiser is the Polish Filmmakers Association, and the main organiser is the Krakow Film Foundation.
The 63rd Krakow Film Festival will be held in Kraków’s cinemas from 28 May to 4 June and across Poland at the KFF VOD online streaming platform between 2 and 18 June.
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