On May 27, Sunday, starts the 58th edition of Krakow Film Festival, one of the oldest and the most recognisable events dedicated to documentary, animated and short films.
During the 8 festival days, the audience will have a chance to see around 250 films from Poland and the whole world, presented in 4 competitions and 12 non-competing sections, often shown in Poland for the very first time. The screenings will be complemented with Q&As, workshops and exhibitions, concerts and KFF Industry events for the film industry, including presentations of new Polish documentary and animated projects.
The festival will open with the screening of a documentary film “Concerto for Two” by Tomasz Drozdowicz – the colourful story of an outstanding conductor, pianist and composer Jerzy Maksymiuk, as well as an intimate description of a special relationship he has with his wife Ewa. The film will take part in the international music documentary films competition DocFilmMusic and in the national competition. The festival opening ceremony and the world premiere of the film, which will be attended by the filmmakers and the main film characters themselves, will take place on May 27th in the Kijów.Centrum theatre.
This edition’s special guest is Estonian cinema. In the “Focus on Estonia” section the festival will present the latest documentary and short films from Estonia and a special programme for kids and teenagers, as well as a selection of student films. The representatives of the film industry from Estonia and Poland will meet at the special conference. The section will be inaugurated on May 28th in the Kijów.Centrum theatre with a daring documentary “Rodeo” showing the process of breaking free from Soviet regime.
This year’s Dragon of Dragons award will go to Sergei Loznitsa, an outstanding documentary filmmaker, who have won awards in Krakow many times before. The programme includes the retrospective of Loznitsa’s films and his master class. The official Dragon of Dragons award ceremony will take place on May 29th in the Kijów.Centrum theatre.
What is more, Krakow will be visited by one of the most famous and popular Israeli writers, a master of short fiction, screenwriter and lecturer – Etgar Keret. The documentary about the writer will be shown as a part of “World Stories” section, and both the filmmakers and the protagonist confirmed their participation in the festival. They will meet with the audience on May 30th in the Kijów.Centrum theatre.
For the fifth time, in cooperation with the Foundation for AGH, the festival will organize a special section Docs+Science – the screenings of the most interesting scientific films and meetings with the experts. Among many films in this section there is a documentary film “Jane” (dir. Brett Morgen know for the previously awarded in Krakow film “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck”) – the story of an exceptional researcher Jane Goodall, who spent most of her life among chimpanzees. The screening will take place on May 31st in the Kijów.Centrum theatre.
The special event of this year’s edition will be the Friday film evening (June 1st) “Raise Your Glass to Rzeczpospolita“, during which the following films, accompanied by unique music performances, will be presented: “Rzeźbiarz z kamerą” (“Sculptor with the Camera”), edited by Marcin Giżycki from the footage made in the 1920’s by the count August Zamoyski, and an incomplete copy of a 35mm film “Polonia Restituta 1928” discovered in the National Film Archive. Two bands – The Beat Freaks and SALK – will be performing. The organizers of this special screening are: National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute, Silent Film Festival and Krakow Film Festival.
The filmmakers coming back to the festival this year are: Talal Derki (“Return to Homs”) with his latest film “Of Fathers and Sons” (awarded at Sundance), Till Schauder, the last year’s winner of the DocFilmMusic competition, who will present his film “The Reggae Boyz”, Kaleo La Belle, the winner of the KFF documentary competition in 2010, who will bring his new documentary “Fell in Love with a Girl” and Zosya Rodkevich, the Golden Horn winner for her film “My Friend Boris Nemtsov”, who will show her documentary “White Mama”.
Among Polish filmmakers we will see: Marta Prus, the author of the widely known documentary “Over the Limit”, that secured her a place on the prestigious Variety magazine list; Marta Pajek, last year’s winner for her animation “Impossible Figures and Other Stories II”, whose latest film “III” was selected to the competition in Cannes and Grzegorz Zariczny, the director behind the film “The Whistle” which was awarded at Sundance, who comes back to the festival with his film “The Last Lesson” about high school graduates from the Krakow district of Nowa Huta.
As always the festival prepared the screenings of music films in the open air cinema at the foot of Wawel Castle (Sound of Music), films awarded in the befriended festivals (Festival Awards Winners), Polish documentary, animated and short films directed both by the young filmmakers and recognised directors (Polish Panorama), Kids&Youth – cinema for the young, last year’s most widely discussed documentaries from different parts of the world (World Stories) and films made in European countries (Somewhere in Europe).
The tickets will be available on the festival website www.krakowfilmfestival.pl and in the festival theatres (Kijów.Centrum, Mikro cinema, Kino Pod Baranami, Krakowskie Centrum Kinowe ARS).
During the festival all the tickets will be available in the Festival Centre in Małopolski Ogród Sztuki.
Festival Newspaper
Programme of the 58th Krakow Film Festival: