The emotions after the jubilee edition have barely subsided, and the Krakow Film Foundation has just announced a call for entries for the 61st Krakow Film Festival. As every year, at the beginning of October, the proposals of documentary, short and animated films will start pouring in from all over the world, which will compete for places in the program.
Krakow Film Festival all over Poland again
About 200 films will be waiting for viewers of next year’s Krakow Film Festival, which will be shown in Krakow cinemas and online throughout Poland. They will be presented in a dozen or so non-competition cycles and in 3 competitions: the international documentary competition, the international short film competition and the national competition. Almost all the films will be shown in Poland for the first time, and many of them will have their world premieres at the Krakow Film Festival.
We expect several thousand submissions of films from all over the world. We believe that despite the difficult pandemic reality, the creators will be able to finish their works before the deadline for recruitment. – says Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła, director of the programming office – Our selectors, as every year, will also look for film gems at the most important festivals in the world. We hope that we will again be able to impress viewers in Poland with a fascinating and diverse film program.
Krakow Film Festival opens the door to the international career
The Krakow Film Festival is on the exclusive list of film festivals qualifying for an Oscar in the short film (fiction, animation, documentary) and full-length documentary categories, and also it recommends films for the European Film Award in the same categories. It means that the winners have an opportunity to compete for the most important awards in the film industry.
The festival follows the current trends in the documentary and short film industry and tries to respond to the needs of the changing film market. In 2021 the KFF Industry for film professionals offering very interesting events will be held. Also, as the organisers of the oldest and the most important festival in Poland, we cooperate very closely to the local film industry, this is why we introduced an additional statutory prize in the national competition – for the director of the best documentary film (separately for short films and for films longer than 30 min.).
Despite the fact that the Krakow Film Festival is the oldest festival in the country and one of the oldest in the world, we are not afraid of changes and we react dynamically to signals from viewers and filmmakers. This was evidenced by the decision to transfer the entire jubilee edition of the festival to the Internet. It is also not the first time that we are introducing changes to the rules and regulations of the festival. Personally, I am pleased that we will be able to award Polish films even more at the upcoming edition! – explains Krzysztof Gierat, director of the Festival.
Traditionally, dragons – Gold and Silver – will be waiting for the filmmakers in the international short film competition. In the international documentary competition, Silver Horns will be awarded to directors of a film of high artistic value and to the director of a film on social issues. Golden Horn will go to the director of the best film in the competition. The total prize pool is PLN 300,000.
Best of the best
As in previous years, a team of 20 distinguished critics, film theorists and authors, led by the director of the Festival, Krzysztof Gierat, will select competition films from among several thousand that will be eligible for the qualification.
Acceptance of applications for film competitions will take place in two stages: November 30, 2020 for films made before October 31, 2020 and January 31, 2021 for foreign films made after October 31, 2020 and February 15, 2021 for Polish films made after October 31, 2020.
The Krakow Film Festival is one of the oldest and most recognizable events in the world devoted to documentary, animated and short feature films. The film screenings are accompanied by meetings with authors, workshops and exhibitions, concerts, events for the KFF Industry, including presentations of new Polish documentary and animated projects.
The special guest of the upcoming edition of the Festival will be Norwegian cinematography. The “Focus on Norway” section will feature the latest Norwegian documentary and short films.
The rules of film competitions and the application form are available at www.krakowfilmfestival.pl.