Two outstanding Polish titles have been selected for the International Documentary Competition. Their subjects – Christopher Morris and Piotr Sobociński – share something more than talent. One spent years documenting armed conflicts; the other helped shape the very language of cinema. In both cases, the camera becomes an instrument through which reality is experienced, yet each man must confront what is most difficult within himself.
Tickling the Devil by Piotr Małecki and Maciek Nabrdalik, and Magic Hour by Marcin Borchardt, tell the stories of two very different creative lives – artists for whom the image became both a consuming passion and a lifelong commitment, and for both it came with a heavy price.
The Postscript of War
The subject of Tickling the Devil is Christopher Morris, one of America’s most renowned war photographers. Over the years, he documented conflicts in Bosnia, Chechnya, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Today he lives in Florida, grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder. A calm family life does little to free him from the images and memories that keep returning. In an increasingly polarised and violence-scarred America, he recognises signs that summon experiences from front lines of old.
Having returned from yet another war, Morris attempts to sever himself from the past, and Małecki and Nabrdalik’s film captures the moment at which he must decide whether he is prepared to confront it once more. It is simultaneously a portrait of a man who possesses the extraordinary ability to read the signals of approaching crisis – someone who spent years viewing the world through the prism of violence, and who now, with mounting unease, sees its familiar language within his own country.
Out of Breath
Magic Hour, directed by Marcin Borchardt, is a film assembled from private archives and family video recordings, telling the story of Piotr Sobociński – one of Poland’s most distinguished cinematographers. It is at once a family saga and a generational narrative: a story of passion inherited from father to son, of learning to see, and of work that becomes a way of life.
Through his collaborations with Poland’s foremost directors, Witold Sobociński passed on that sensibility, and Piotr Sobociński developed it on his own terms – not least evidenced by his Academy Award nomination for the cinematography of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Red. The titular “magic hour” – that most beautiful light of the day, fleeting and demanding the full mobilisation of the entire crew – becomes something more than a technical term of the cinematographer’s craft. It is a metaphor for creative fulfilment, but also for the tension, the exertion, and the life lived perpetually at full tilt.
Selected titles from the International Documentary Competition:
- The Arctic Circle of Lust, dir. Markku Heikkinen, 97’ Finland, Germany, Sweden, 2026
- The Fabulous Time Machine, dir. Eliza Capai, 71’, Brazil, 2026
- Silent Flood, dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, 90’, Ukraine, Germany, 2025
- Redlight to Limelight, dir. Bipuljit Basu, 100’, India, Finland, Latvia, 2025
- Holofiction, dir. Michal Kosakowski, 102’, Germany, Austria, 2026
- Tickling the Devil, dir. Piotr Małecki, Maciek Nabrdalik, 82’, Poland, 2026
- Magic Hour, dir. Marcin Borchardt, 80’, Poland, 2026
Two previous announcements presenting the first titles invited to the International Competition have already been published – you can find them here and here. However, these are not all the productions that will be competing for the Golden Horn – more titles will be revealed shortly.
Insider passes for the 66th Krakow Film Festival are now on sale!
The Krakow Film Festival is on the exclusive list of film events qualifying for the Academy Awards® in short film categories (fiction, animation, documentary) and feature-length documentary, the European Film Awards in the same categories, and serves as a qualifying event for the BAFTA Awards.
The Krakow Film Festival is organised with financial support from the City of Krakow, the Polish Film Institute, the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme, and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state purpose fund. The Polish Filmmakers Association serves as co-organiser.
The 66th Krakow Film Festival will be held in cinemas from 31 May to 7 June 2027 and online on KFF VOD from 5 June to 19 June 2026.