There are only three weeks left to go until the 52nd Krakow Film Festival kicks off.
There are only three weeks left to go until the 52nd Krakow Film Festival kicks off. Throughout the seven day festival we will be screening much anticipated premieres of critically acclaimed films, as well as almost 250 established titles from around the world.
The festival will run from May 28 to June 3 in Krakow, in cinemas including The Kijów.Centrum, The Pod Baranami Cinema, The Mikro Cinema, The Agrafka Cinema and The Wyspiańskiego Stage at Krakow National Drama School (PWST) at 21 Straszewskiego street, which makes its debut appearance at the festival.
The Pod Wawelem open-air cinema will be festival’s primary location for the second time hosting, together with The Pod Baranami Cinema, the most popular festival section outside of the main competition: The Sound of Music. Situated at the foot of Wawel Hill The Pod Wawelem Cinema will feature the most recent documentary from Martin Scorsese, "George Harrison. Living in the Material World"; as well as the portrayal of the aetherial post-rock Icelandic band Sigur Ros documenting their work on the album "Inni" in the British-Icelandic film by Vincent Morisseta "Sigur Rós: Inni"; and, continuing on a theme we will show "Hit Me with Music" by Miquel Galofré who, after opening the festival to the reggae beat will keep us in Jamaica for a while. The entrance to the open-air screenings will be free of charge.
In this section we will present eleven films, in two parts. The Pod Wawelem Cinema will host titles shown in Poland as their only screening in this country, and The Pod Baranami Cinema will show the big premieres, says Krzysztof Gierat, the festival’s director.
The competition screenings have attracted large and expanding audiences over the years, and this year the organizers will be using the largest festival’s cinema Kijów.Centrum, and The Mikro Cinema for the screenings. This year we will be screening one hundred and four films from around the world, all of them competing for three prestigious awards: the Golden Dragon, the Golden Hobby-Horse and the Golden Horn.
As always the festival will be centered on The Kijów.Centrum Cinema, where the Opening Gala will be hosted on Monday May 28. It will include the Polish premiere of "Marley" by VIP guest of the festival, Kevin Macdonald, the Academy Award winner for "One Day in September". He will attend the screening in person. Another evening to look forward to – the world premiere of "Vera Gran" by Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz as well as a special award ceremony of on Wednesday May 30 when we will award The Dragon of Dragons to the great Czech documentary film-maker, Helena Třeštíkova. The award ceremony will be accompanied by a screening of one of her best known films, "René", the result of twenty years hard work which was rewarded with The European Film Award. The following evening at The Kijów.Centrum Cinema will include a screening of "The Flat" by Arnon Goldfinger, which is just now being marketed through the most important film festivals in the world. On Friday there will be a special screening of the "Man at War" by Jacek Bławut, a rare opportunity to see the film on the big screen, and on the penultimate evening of the festival we will enjoy seeing the Polish national team in the documentary competition.
The Closing Gala, accompanied by the award ceremony and special screening presentations to the winners of this year’s festival edition will be held on Sunday June 3.
Screenings outside of the competition will take place in The Pod Baranami Cinema, The Agrafka Cinema and in the second-largest theater we have, The Wyspiańskiego Stage in PWST, where the majority of the screenings of The Krakow Documentary Premieres will be held. This is one of the most important non-competitive festival’s sections. There also will be a part of The Film Festivals Award Winners showcase presenting films internationally acclaimed at the biggest film festivals around the world, appreciated by the audiences and critics.
The majority of the screenings outside of the competition will be shown at The Pod Baranami Cinema. There we will screen films included in The Short Matters! section, presenting short films nominated for The European Film Award including "The Wholly Family" by Terry Gilliam and "Paparazzi", one of the most controversial Polish documentaries of 2011. The Pod Baranami Cinema will also host the majority of screenings included in The Focus on Italy, a showcase recent documentaries of the festival’s special guest, Italian cinematography, films presented as part of The Panorama of the Polish Film, as well as our acclaimed Sound of Music section.
The Agrafka Cinema will host screenings jointly with The Pod Baranami Cinema, and these will include The Focus on Italy, The Film Festivals Award Winners and Somewhere in Europe, presenting unusual stories of ordinary Europeans, documentaries that will take us to near and far corners of the continent intriguing with tales of an unknown Europe.
The 52nd Krakow Film Festival will be accompanied by events aimed at industry professionals the Krakow Film Market (from the 29th of May) and the Dragon Forum (from the 31st of May to the 4th of June). This year the Industry Zone returns to the International Cultural Centre at the Market Square, where we will also host workshops and pitching sessions of the Dragon Forum.
Finally, we will have the online festival cinema at the Kinoplex platform, where you can see 12 films online including "Goodbye Nicaragua. The Last Charter", a recent film from the acclaimed Swedish documentary director Peter Torbiörnsson, and "The Brussels Business", a great documentary about lobbying and its influence on politics of the European Union by the Austrian film-makers Friedrich Moser and Matthieu Lietaert; "Solar Eclipse", directed by Martin Mareček, which tells a tragicomic story about a Zambian village after it was connected to mains electricity. Worth recommending, too, is the sensational music documentary "Anda Union", which tells the story of an the extraordinary group of Mongolian musicians.
The Closing Gala will be available to watch online at the festival’s website.