Although the festival has left Kraków’s arthouse cinemas, you can still watch selected competition films on KFF VOD. Among the titles available online until 16th June there are films awarded during this year’s closing gala of the 64th Krakow Film Festival.
The in-cinema edition of the 64th Krakow Film Festival was an enormous success. We are delighted to once again share part of the festival’s excitement with everyone in Poland. Until 16 June, the KFF VOD platform offers as many as 90 competition films, including several available with audio description and closed captions, – says Magdalena Walo, Head of the Press Office of the 64th Krakow Film Festival.
As in previous years, KFF VOD launched during the in-person edition of the festival. On 31 May, a total of 90 competition films were made available on the platform. The online selection includes both short films and full-length documentaries.
Award-winning Titles
The platform showcases selected competition films, so it naturally includes titles that left Kraków with the festival’s most prestigious awards.
This year’s Golden Horn went to the creators of Of Caravan and the Dogs by Askold Kurov and Anonymous Creators. It’s a powerful title that portrays the situation of the Russian opposition just before and during the war in Ukraine. Tomasz Wolski’s A Year in the Life of the Country does not shy away from political topics. The director of the documentary focuses on Poland 12 months before the introduction of martial law. Composed of archival recordings, the film earned the creator another festival statuette, the Silver Horn.
You can also catch up on the films which won the Golden Hobby-Horses. The documentary Tiger Soup by Kacper Świtalski is present in the online catalogue. It’s a beautiful story about love and achieving the American dream in times when you could only dream about it. Also available is the short fiction film Commes des Cowboys by Julia Sadowska, a tale about relationships between humans and other species. At the end of the day, it’s worth watching the animated film There Will Be No Other End by Piotr Milczarek, a reflection on man facing the end, with a pinch of unobvious humour.
KFF VOD also offers titles awarded in the International Short Film Competition. This year, the Golden Dragon was awarded to the creator of the beautiful yet poignant animation Kawauso. Akihito Izuhara created a minimalist, contemplative work of art. In stark contrast to the winning animation is the campy fiction film Diamond Beauty by Anna Korom. This expressive, seemingly kitschy story about the need for love and closeness won the hearts of the jury, who awarded the director the Silver Horn. The short documentary Don Benjamin takes its viewers on a raw and poetic journey to the endangered regions of the Amazon. Ivan Zahinos received the Silver Horn for this film. The winner of the competition’s final trophy is also available on the platform. Dark Cloud Memories is a futuristic animation by Seung-hee Jung. The film’s protagonist loses all her memories and images from the past, which she stored in a virtual cloud.
The remaining awards cannot be overlooked, especially those chosen by the attendees. The audience-awarded documentary Everything Needs to Live (dir. Tetiana Dorodnitsyna and Andrii Lytvynenko) is available on the platform until 16th June together with Grzegorz Brzozowski’s documentary Only Day And Night, which received the Maciej Szumowski Award. Both titles are available with audio description, and the latter also with closed captions. And these aren’t the only titles available in such formats!
The KFF VOD platform also features titles honoured by the FICC jury, such as the fiction film Buzz of the Earth (dir. Greta Stocklassa) and the animated film On the 8th Day (dir. Agathe Sénéchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavie Carin, Théo Duhautois), as well as the winner of the award for best cinematography – the medium-length documentary Koka (dir. Aliaksandr Tsymbaliuk). The highly topical An Orange from Jaffa is also present on KFF VOD. This Polish-Palestinian-French fiction film by Mohammed Almughanni received the Jury Award for the Best European Film and is the Krakow Film Festival’s candidate for the European Film Award in the short film category.
Musical Tales
KFF VOD also boasts a substantial selection of five excellent stories about music and musicians for music documentary enthusiasts. Abebe – Butterfly Song (dir. Rosie Jones) tells the story of the friendship between two performers from completely different worlds, Stay Homas. The Band That Shouldn’t Exist (dir. Oriol Gispert, Nick Bolger, Ramon Balagué) narrates the story of a pandemic phenomenon that survived COVID-19, Don Lewis and the Live Electronic Orchestra (dir. Ned Augustenborg) gives voice to an African American artist and inventor, Blues Run the Game: the Strange Tale of Jackson C. Frank (dir. Damien Aimé Dupont) reminds the world of the existence of a mysterious folk musician, while Berchidda Live – A Journey Into Time in Jazz Archive (dir. Gianfranco Cabiddu, Michele Mellara, Alessandro Rossi) transports viewers to a Sardinian music festival.
Unique Stories
Through KFF VOD, audiences have the opportunity to see titles that are hard to find outside the festival circuit. From the comfort of their homes, viewers can enjoy excellent Polish and international shorts, as well as full-length documentaries.
Don’t miss the powerful, 18+ portrait of a rebellious artist. Baldiga – Unlocked Heart (dir. Markus Stein) is a queer story about West Berlin, art, passion, freedom, and the price one pays when the AIDS epidemic breaks out. The documentary Monogamia (dir. Ohad Milstein) also deals with sexuality. This time, the director points the camera at himself and his loved ones. The Slamdance-winning Inheritance is a watch you won’f forget. Two filmmakers, Matt Moyer and Amy Toensing, spent several years with a family from Appalachia, whose lives have been marked by poverty, addiction, and opioids. To balance things out, there’s a warm family portrait in the film Lili (dir. Sylwia Rosak). The protagonist is an eight-year-old girl who tries to maintain good relationships with both parents after they split up.
Fans of documentary portraits have plenty to choose from. In The Gospel According to Ciretta (dir. Caroline von der Tann), you learn about the life of a street singer and follower of a local Marian cult in Naples. Son of the Mullah (dir. Nahid Persson) tells the story of the son of a high-ranking cleric from Iran who fled with his family to France to become an anti-regime activist. Alice On & Off (dir. Isabela Tent) attempts to find an answer to the titular question, while Life is Beautiful (dir. Mohamed Jabaly) follows a Palestinian director trying to survive in a foreign country when he can no longer return home. How do you cope in a world where life without electricity seems impossible, yet you are allergic to it? The Peter Plan (dir. Grzegorz Pacek) shows the reality of a man struggling with electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome (EHS).
The platform also features biopics of famous artists. I, Rosiński (dir. Piotr Kielar) is not only for comic book enthusiasts and Thorgal fans. The Andersson Brothers (dir. Johanna Bernhardson) is a must-see for film buffs who enjoy the works of Swedish director Roy Andersson, but it also appeals to those curious about complex family histories. We cannot forget the iconic Kraków-based DJ who became the subject of his nephew’s film. Are You There? (dir. Xawery Deskur) shows the blind Edward Gil-Deskur, who enters into an intriguing relationship with artificial intelligence.
Finally, two stories revolving around Russia which resonate perfectly with the award-winning Of Caravan and the Dogs. In Putin’s Playground director Konrad Szołajski and his producer Małgorzata Prociak embark on a journey through Central and Eastern Europe to investigate the threats posed by Putin’s regime. In turn Otherland (dir. Piotr Wysocki) explores the daily lives of Polish residents originating from the Russian region of Ingushetia. Each of its protagonists deals with life in Poland in their own unique way.
You can watch films on KFF VOD from 31st May to 16th June in all of Poland.
Watch all the films presented on KFF VOD and purchase a ticket or a festival pass.
The Krakow Film Festival is on the exclusive list of qualifying events for the Oscars® in the categories of short film (live action, animated, documentary) and documentary feature, as well as a recommending event for the European Film Awards in the same categories.
The Kraków Film Festival is organised with the financial support of the Municipality of Kraków, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the European Union’s Creative Europe program, the Lesser Poland Province, the Polish Film Institute. The festival is co-organised by the Polish Filmmakers Association.