The Marcel Łoziński International Documentary Award has been presented for the first time in the history of the Kraków Film Festival. The inaugural prize has gone to the debut film To the West, in Zapata, directed by David Bim.
The award, established jointly by the Kraków Film Festival and the Polish Documentary Film Directors Guild, celebrates creative ambition in documentary cinema – filmmaking that is bold, honest, resistant to convention, and committed to expanding the artistic boundaries of non-fiction film. It bears the name of Marcel Łoziński, one of Poland’s most distinguished documentary auteurs, whose body of work has left a profound mark on both Polish and international non-fiction cinema. The distinction is intended to honour his legacy and to demonstrate that a genuinely creative approach to cinematic language continues to find successors across the world.
The winner was selected by a jury comprising María Campaña Ramia, curator and programmer for festivals including IDFA; Sergei Loznitsa, one of the most significant contemporary directors working in both documentary and fiction; and Paweł Łoziński, artistic heir to the award’s patron. In their statement, the jury wrote:
“The jury – María Campaña Ramia, Sergei Loznitsa, and Paweł Łoziński – is proud to present the Marcel Łoziński Award for the first time in the history of the Kraków Film Festival. We have chosen to honour a film whose rawness and truth have stayed with us long after the screening. It is a remarkable documentary – one that unites beautiful, painterly imagery and precise dramatic construction with genuine emotional force. With remarkably restrained means, and never transgressing the boundaries of his protagonists’ intimacy, the young director speaks about the matters that give meaning to our lives – love, family and work. We are certain that Marcel, as we remember him, would have agreed with our decision. The Marcel Łoziński Award goes to the debut film To the West, in Zapata directed by David Bim”.
The winning film transports viewers to the swamplands of the Zapata Peninsula, where its protagonist hunts alligators alone, cut off from his family and in unrelenting confrontation with nature. We follow his preparations, his hard work, and his journey home with mounting tension. David Bim’s austere black-and-white debut emerges as a meditation on labour, responsibility, and the kind of love that enables people to surpass their own limits.
The other nominated films include My Stolen Planet by Farahnaz Sharifi and Remake by Ross McElwee. The former is a personal diary by an Iranian filmmaker born during the Islamic Revolution, who weaves together private recordings, archival material, and her own lived experience to construct a film about memory, freedom, oppression, and the struggle against erasure – rendered all the more urgent in the wake of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. Meanwhile, Remake is Ross McElwee’s intimate reflection on the passage of time, grief, and the relationship between a father and his son, created from footage the two have accumulated over many years. All three documentaries will be screened during the festival.
The nominated titles enter the competition through recommendations from prominent figures from the world of documentary cinema – filmmakers, curators, and programmers from Poland, Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Denmark, and the United States. Among those contributing recommendations were Marcin Borchardt, Sergio Fant, Emilie Bujès, Marek Hovorka, Amir Labaki, Katrine Kilgaard, Tomasz Wolski, Anita Piotrowska, Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła, and Debra Zimmerman.
The Marcel Łoziński Documentary Award is funded by the Polish Film Institute, with DAE serving as the award’s partner and Business Doc Europe as its media partner.
Films Nominated for the Marcel Łoziński Documentary Award:
- To the West, in Zapata, dir. David Bim, 74’, Cuba, 2025
- My Stolen Planet, dir. Farahnaz Sharifi, 82’, Germany, Iran, 2024
- Remake, dir. Ross McElwee, 116’, USA, 2025
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.