About festival

Krakow Film Festival is one of the oldest events in the world dedicated to documentary, animated and short feature films. Its core consists of three competitions of equal rank: documentary film competition, short film competition and national competition. During the eight festival days, the viewers have a chance to watch about 250 films from Poland and from around the world. They are shown in competition sections and in special screenings. The festival is accompanied by exhibitions, concerts, open-air shows and meetings with artists. Every year, the festival is visited by approximately 900 Polish and international guests: directors, producers, festival programmers and numerous Krakow audiences.

OUR MISSION

Since its beginnings, the Krakow Film Festival has been a platform for exploring the world through film. Our mission is to bring audiences closer to important issues, discover new talents and boldly present artistic cinema. The festival showcases documentaries, short animations and short feature films that not only analyse our reality, but also highlight individual destinies and global challenges. It is a gateway to lesser-known cinematographies, offering an insight into the cinematic diversity of more than just our continent.

That is why, from 2022 onwards, we have used the word INSIDER to describe the essence of the festival. INSIDER is not just a descriptor, it is an identity – one that reflects our commitment, our personal perspectives and the fostering of a community of film lovers, filmmakers and the film industry that not only observe the world from the outside, but become an internal part of the film experience.

In addition to presenting films, the festival actively contributes to the development of the Polish and European film market. Through co-production initiatives, networking events and industry discussions organised as part of KFF Industry, we facilitate collaboration between filmmakers, producers and distributors, ensuring the further development of documentary and short film across platforms and territories.

Educational activities that promote filmmaking skills and raise awareness of documentary, animation and short films are also important objectives. These initiatives target young audiences, helping to create future generations of cinema-goers, while also reaching out to the general public who have limited access to documentaries and short films.

The festival builds a strong community of INSIDERS – people who are engaged and eager to discover the stories that shape our world. In addition to our loyal audience, regular festival visitors include film industry professionals from around the world who attend KFF Industry, where they have the opportunity to discover new films and invite them to their own events or for presentation on television or platforms.

HISTORY

Archive of the Krakow Film Festival since 1962.

For us, the festival’s rich history is the foundation that guides our future activities and makes our event a strong and powerful brand.

Over the years, not only the event’s programme changed, but also the standing of the festival itself. The importance of the Krakow Film Festival is asserted by the fact that it belongs to a prestigious group of festivals accredited by, among others, International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), European Film Academy (EFA) and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Thanks to this, it is the only festival in Poland that qualifies for the Academy in four categories: feature documentary, short animation, short live fiction and short documentary. The festival is also among renowned festivals recommending short films and feature documentary films for the European Film Awards and short films to British Academy Film Academy Awards BAFTA.

It is in Krakow where the eminent Polish documentary filmmakers began their careers: Krzysztof Kieślowski, Wojciech Wiszniewski, Andrzej Fidyk and Marcel Łoziński. It was here where the great authors of Polish animated films made themselves known to the world: Ryszard Czekała, Jerzy Kucia, Julian Antoniszczak, Piotr Dumała and Zbigniew Rybczyński, the winner of the Academy Award for his film “Tango.” In the international competitions, apart from recognised documentary and animated film makers, many other artists participated and won the festival laurels, including the ones whose names are widely known in the world of feature film: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Werner Herzog, Zoltán Huszarik, Jaromil Jireś, Claude Lelouch, Patrice Leconte, Mike Leigh, as well as the winner of the Academy Award —Jan Svěrák.

The history of Krakow Film Festival reaches back to 1961, when it was still called Polish Short Film Festival, and presented the achievements of the native cinema. Three years later, the international festival was added to the Polish festival, and the event changed from a nation-wide one into an event of international standing. In 1998, for the first time the award for lifetime achievement in documentary and short film, called the Dragon of Dragons award, was given. In 2001, the festival’s name itself was changed, and since then, it functions as Krakow Film Festival, whose subsequent editions are held at the turn of May and June.

In 2007, in addition to the two existing competitions – national and international, a third competition was introduced for the first time – the competition for feature-length documentaries. However, the popularity of the “Sounds of Music” section inspired the organisers to launch a new competition in 2013 – the DocFilmMusic for music documentary films.

Over the years, a number of new proposals have been added to the festival programme. In 2006, the Krakow Film Market for film professionals was launched, which has since evolved into KFF Industry, Poland’s most important industry platform for documentary and short filmmakers. Numerous out-of-competition screenings, retrospectives of filmmakers and presentations of cinematography from European countries take place every year. Sections that have become an integral part of the festival programme include ‘Docs+Science’, which presents scientific documentaries, ‘Panorama of Polish Documentaries’, ‘Short Matters!’, which presents European short films nominated for the EFA, ‘Sounds of Music’ in the open-air Kino Pod Wawelem, or ‘Kids&Youth’, a section aimed at young audiences.

The festival also includes concerts and exhibitions, as well as numerous debates and meetings with filmmakers.