Top industry representatives from around the world, including selectors from Sundance, Cannes, and the most important international animated and documentary film festivals, will be guests at this year’s 19th KFF Industry – the largest event for the international documentary and animated film community in Poland. As usual, the programme includes workshops, pitches, presentations, networking meetings, and a digital online video library. Next time we organize events focusing on VR production, as well as V4 Co-pro Meetings – co-production meetings for the Visegrad Group countries.
We now know the programme of this year’s KFF Industry – an event for the film industry that has been organised for nearly twenty years during the Krakow Film Festival. Creators, producers, and international industry members involved with animated and documentary films will come to Kraków at the turn of May and June. The KFF Industry is a place where they present their projects (at three pitching sessions), meet with experts, make new collaborations, or seek funding for their productions.
Selectors from Sundance, Cannes, and the most important international animated and documentary film festivals, including IDFA, CPH:DOX, DOK Leipzig, Doclisboa, FIPADOC, Docs Barcelona, Thessaloniki IDFF, Kaboom Animation and Fest Anca, will come to Krakow, along with leading sales agents and distributors, representatives of funds and producers from around the world.
For Animators
Animated in Poland is an integral part of KFF Industry – a section of the program focusing on animated films. It includes panel discussions, presentations of animation projects and studios, and one-on-one individual meetings. The animation events are planned for 27 and 28 May.
On Monday, 27 May, Maarten van Gageldonk – the program director of the Kaboom Festival, the largest animated film festival in the Netherlands – will host consultation and pitching technique workshops.
The Talent Market will be held on the same day. It’s a meeting of experienced producers with young animation creators, prepared in cooperation with SPPA – Polish Animation Producers Association. Scriptwriters, animators, directors, and producers seeking co-producers will have the opportunity to meet with producers and owners of Polish animation studios looking for new ideas and film projects. Talent Market will also be preceded by the workshop “What software is worth knowing when you work in the animation industry?” prepared by GS Animations. The day will end with KFF Industry Meetings – individual meetings with programmers of animated and short film festivals and global short film sales agents.The Talent Market will include public presentations of the studios and one-on-one meetings.
However, Animated in Poland is primarily an international pitch. On Tuesday, 28 May, representatives of seven animated projects that have been selected for pitching will be able to present the films they are working on to specialists: distributors, sales agents, festival programmers, and representatives of film institutions. On the same day, project representatives will have the opportunity to speak in individual meetings with festival selectors, sales agents, distributors, and commissioning editors from TV stations.
For Documentarians
A program for documentary filmmakers is planned for the second part of the week. One of the permanent elements of the KFF Industry programme is the workshops co-organised with the Władysław Ślesicki Film Foundation that conclude DOC LAB POLAND – the largest program in Poland aimed at documentarians. This year, participants will be preparing for presentations during pitches under the guidance of tutors – international experts: Rada Šešić – head of documentary program at Sarajevo FF and co-head of the Docu Rough Cut Boutique, Peter Jaeger – the founder of the one of the world’s leading sales agents for creative docs Autlook Filmsales and a consulting company – Jaeger Creative, Adriek van Nieuwenhuiyzen – head of the IDFA Industry, Guevara Namer – curator of the DOK Co Pro Market at DOK Leipzig and Ove Rishoj Jensen – for many years working for EDN, now head of the FIPADOC Industry Forum and his own consulting company – Paradiddle Pictures.
The culmination of the workshops will be two pitch sessions: Docs to Go (Wednesday, 29 May) and Docs to Start (Thursday, 30 May). Docs to Start is a presentation of Polish projects in the development phase, while Docs to Go is a presentation of Polish documentaries in the editing or post-production phase. Each of them will end with individual meetings between participants and experts – potential co-production partners, festival programmers and sales agents. Additionally – once again as part of the DOC LAB POLAND & UKRAINE project – Polish creators will be joined by artists and producers from Ukraine. A total of 22 projects will be presented at both pitches.
Thursday, 1 June, will see the Meet the Festival Programmers and Sales Agents presentations with the participation of representatives of international documentary film festivals and foreign sales agents, combined with KFF Industry Meetings – individual consultation meetings with invited guests. The meetings are aimed at festival creators, producers, or persons responsible for promotion and distribution, who are looking for potential venues for premieres and further screenings of their films worldwide. Also on Thursday, workshops focused on developing skills in self-promotion and networking in the audiovisual industry will be led by Anna E.Dziedzic from Crew United Polska. The program for all those interested in documentaries will be complemented by Master Classes of world-famous masters of documentary cinema, Godfrey Reggio and Jacek Petrycki – this year’s winners of the Dragon of Dragons award.
CEDOC – Central European Documentary Co-Production Market is organised for producers who are looking for foreign partners. It’s Poland’s only such series of individual co-production meetings with international decision-makers in the film industry and foreign producers who are open to cooperation with Poland. The meetings in one-on-one and round table formats will take place on Friday, 31 May. This year, V4 Co-Pro Meetings will also be part of the market – featuring co-production meetings for film professionals from the Visegrád Group countries. The aim is to encourage contacts between producers and filmmakers from the region to collaborate in film production. Those attending V4 Co-Pro Meetings will also meet with Ukrainian producers to discuss co-production possibilities. Meeting participants will take part in individual consultations with invited experts from television stations, platforms, production companies, and sales agencies.
For the second time during KFF Industry the set of panel discussions dedicated to virtual reality will be held – KFF VR #2. The event, prepared in cooperation with KIPA and vnLab operating at the Łódź Film School, is aimed at producers and creators in the field of immersive media. During the panels, they will share their experiences and talk about the financing of VR projects in Poland, distribution opportunities in local and global markets, and strategies for reaching audiences with innovative artistic projects.
As every year, KFF Industry will include Filmmakers’ Meetings prepared in cooperation with the Polish Filmmakers Association. This time divided into two events. On Wednesday, documentarians will meet to discuss the use of archives in documentary productions, and on Saturday, animators will discuss the best ways to distribute animated films, the use of AI in the process of creating animated films and waiting for the introduction of Internet royalties. On Saturday, there will also be a legal panel on remuneration models for filmmakers, prepared by the Lassota Krawiec law firm.
KFF Industry also includes KFF Video Library – a digital video library, where you can watch the latest films from around the world throughout the festival week, which are looking for cinema, festival, and television distribution. This year’s catalogue includes over 150 documentary, short and animated films, carefully selected by our partners from: DOK Leipzig, East Silver, Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival, and Festival dei Popoli. What’s more, KFF Video Library gives participants the opportunity to watch films from the 64rd KFF program.
Filmmakers presenting their projects at the Animated in Poland and Docs to Start and Docs to Go pitches will receive awards sponsored by Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych in Wrocław, Fixafilm, Sound Mind, Crew United Polska, Canal + Polska, MX35, FINA, Multilab KPT, IDFA, FIPADOC, Institute of Documentary Film, DOK Leipzig and Polish Docs PRO. The winners will be announced at the Industry Awards Gala on Friday, May 31.
Every year, about 800 industry guests from all over the world participate in KFF Industry. This year, we also expect a similar number of international creators, producers, experts, consultants, sales agents, distributors, representatives of film funds, television stations, and film festivals, who will come to Krakow at the end of May. KFF Industry events will take place at the Academy of Fine Arts – ASP, the Potocki Palace and the Krakow Technology Park.
Detailed KFF Industry program and full schedule.
Partners of KFF Industry 2024: Władysław Ślesicki Film Foundation, Polish Animation Producers Association, KIPA, KBF, Krakow Film Commission, ASP w Krakowie, Krakow Technology Park, DAE – Documentary Association of Europe, Institute of Documentary Film, DOK Leipzig , Thessaloniki IDFF, Festival dei Popoli, Wroclaw Feature Film Studio, Fixafilm, Sound Mind, Crew United, Lassota Krawiec
The project was made possible with financial support from: the Visegrad Fund, the Polish Filmmakers Association the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within a program Centrum Rozwoju Przemysłów Kreatywnych: Rozwój Sektorów Kreatywnych and the Municipality of Kraków.
Media patronage: Business Doc Europe, Modern Times Review, Film&TV Camera, Magazyn Filmowy SFP, Polish Docs, Polish Shorts, Polish Animations
KFF Industry is organised and produced by the Krakow Film Foundation. The event takes place during the 64th Krakow Film Festival.