The 62nd Krakow Film Festival begins on 29 May. After online and hybrid editions, this year we finally return to cinemas! The accompanying KFF Industry, starting on 30 May, will also be held in person. Be sure to read our program.
We start with animation – Monday and Tuesday are dedicated to both Animated in Poland and Talent Market.
Talent Market – a meeting between experienced producers and young animation creators will be held on 30 May – in cooperation with SPPA – Polish Animation Producers Association. Writers, animators, directors, and producers who are looking for co-producers will get the opportunity to meet producers and owners of Polish animation studios searching for new ideas and film projects. The Talent Market will include public project presentations and face-to-face meetings.
Animated in Poland is first and foremost an international pitch session, preceded by an intensive preparatory workshop for participants, led by Wim Vanacker – member of the Selection Committee for the Official Short Film Competition of the Cannes Film Festival. Pitches of the 9 selected animated projects will take place on 31 May. This year, we will see projects by artists who are already well-known among festival audiences, including Marta Magnuska, Adela Kaczmarek-Siwińska, Natalia Krawczuk, and Ewa Borysewicz. The entire event will conclude with one-on-one meetings with selectors from the world’s major film festivals and international sales agents.
In addition, screenplay workshops aimed at creators who’d like to develop their storytelling skills for animated films or producers in need of tools to evaluate stories and communicate with scriptwriters will be organised in cooperation with SPPA. The workshop will be held on 30 and 31 May and led by director and screenwriter Artur Wyrzykowski.
From Wednesday on, KFF Industry will focus on documentary filmmakers. Some of them will be preparing their project presentations for the second Doc Lab Poland session from the beginning of the week. DOC LAB POLAND is a workshop and advisory session for directors and producers of Polish documentaries with foreign tutors, organised by the Władysław Ślesicki Film Foundation. This year the tutors who will advise the participants include Tracie Holder (USA), Adriek van Nieuwenhuiyzen (IDFA), Martin te Pas (e u R O P E doconsultancy), and Rada Sesic (Sarajevo FF).
The workshop will conclude with two pitching sessions – DOCS TO GO! (Wednesday, June 1) and DOCS TO START (Thursday, June 2). Each of them will be concluded with one-on-one meetings between participants and experts, potential co-production partners, festival programmers, and sales agents. DOCS TO START is a presentation of Polish projects in the development phase, and DOCS TO GO! is a presentation of Polish documentaries in editing or post-production.
CEDOC – Central European Documentary Co-Production Market focuses on producers looking for production partners: it’s Poland’s only such series of individual co-production meetings with international film industry decision-makers and foreign producers who are open to cooperation with Poland. The one-on-one and round table meetings will be held on Friday, 3 June.
The special feature of the 62nd Krakow Film Festival is Czech cinematography. During the festival, it will be able to watch documentaries from the Czech Republic, whereas Czech Focus during KFF Industry is a Polish-Czech roundtable meeting (Thursday, the 2nd of June) prepared in cooperation with the Polish Audiovisual Producers Chamber of Commerce and Audiovisual Producers’ Association, Meet Czech Industry panel with participating representatives of East Doc Platform, Ex Oriente, dok.incubator, Emerging Producers, and the One World in Prague and Ji.hlava IDFF (Thursday, 2 June) festivals, as well as the presentation “Production and Financing of Documentary Films in the Czech Republic” with the participation of producers and the Institute of Documentary Film in Prague (Friday, 3 June).
On Thursday and Friday, the Potocki Palace will host Meet the Festival Programmers and Meet the Sales Agents presentations with the participation of representatives of international film festivals and foreign sales agents, as well as a legal panel combined with consultations concerning screenplay deals in animation, documentary and feature films, which will be moderated by Marcin Lassota from Lassota Krawiec sp.j. law firm. On Friday, also at Potocki Palace, Tracy Holder – an American director, producer, as well as consultant and specialist in the field of American film funds – will talk about effectively obtaining funds from the US for documentary film production in Europe.
The programme wouldn’t be complete without KFF Industry Meetings – individual consultation meetings with film festival programmers intended for filmmakers, producers, and people involved in film promotion. You can make an appointment for the meetings
At the end of KFF Industry, on Saturday (4 June), there will also be a special B2B Doc Launch Pad pitch event, which exceptionally this year does not take place in Kiev, Ukraine, but in Krakow during our festival. B2B Doc Launch Pad is one of the most effective co-production events for projects produced in the region between the Baltic and the Black Sea. Also on Saturday, as usual, there will be the Documentary and Animation Forum prepared by the Polish Filmmakers Association in cooperation with the Krakow Film Foundation and the Documentary Directors’ Guild.
KFF Industry also includes KFF Video Library – a digital video library, where – throughout the festival week – you will be able to watch the latest international films which are looking for cinema, festival, and TV distribution. This year’s catalogue features approximately 230 documentaries, shorts, and animated films, carefully selected by our partners from: DOK Leipzig, East Silver, Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival, and Festival dei Popoli. What’s important, KFF Video Library will allow participants to watch all the films from the entire programme of the 62nd KFF.Detailed KFF Industry program and full schedule.