The opening ceremony of the Festival at the cinema Kino Kijów and the screening of the documentary “Polański, Horowitz. Hometown” by Anna Kokoszka-Romer and Mateusz Kudła began on Sunday evening at the 61st Krakow Film Festival. The official opening, chaired by Krzysztof Gierat, the director of the Festival, was attended by Robert Piaskowski, Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of Krakow for Culture , members of the jury and film protagonist: Ryszard Horowitz and his sister, Bronisława Horowitz-Karakulska.
The Krakow Film Festival is one of the oldest and the most important events in the world, dedicated to documentary, animated and short feature films. This year, in the programme there are 170 films from all over the world, including over 100 international and Polish premieres, and the festival will be held simultaneously at the cinemas and on the Internet!
The special guest of this year’s edition is Norwegian cinematography. Within the frames of the series Focus on Norway, the latest documentary and short films from Norway as well as a program for children and youth will be presented. The representatives of the film industry from Norway and Poland will have the opportunity to establish contacts dealing with co-production during the festival meetings. The partners of the series are the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Poland and the Norwegian Film Institute.
This year’s Dragon of Dragons award for his contribution to the development of the international animated film will go to Piotr Dumała – the master of international animated film and the creator of original film techniques, on Monday, May 31 in the Małopolska Garden of Arts
The opening Ceremony of the 61st KFF, ph. A. Fiejka 
The opening Ceremony of the 61st KFF, ph. A. Fiejka 
The opening Ceremony of the 61st KFF, ph. A. Fiejka 
The opening Ceremony of the 61st KFF, ph. A. Fiejka 
The opening Ceremony of the 61st KFF, ph. A. Fiejka 
The opening Ceremony of the 61st KFF, ph. A. Fiejka
The outdoor screenings of the section Sounds of Music at Kino pod Wawelem are a treat for the viewers yearning for good music, outstanding cinema and beautiful landscapes. From Tuesday to Friday (from the 1st to the 4th of June), under the starry sky, with a view of the Wawel Castle, on the big screen, you will have a chance to watch the most interesting film adaptations of music documentary films. PGE Energia Ciepła is the partner of the series.
The screenings at the open-air Kino pod Wawelem were opened on Sunday, the 30th of May, by the international premiere of the film “River Sisters” by Cecylia Malik, preceded by workshops and artistic happenings. On Monday, the 31st of May, the viewers of the open-air cinema will have the opportunity to see the film by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald “Life in a Day 2020” created from over 300 000 amateur recordings from all over the world.
Traditionally, in the festival programme, there is the section Docs + Science – the screenings of fascinating science documentary films and meetings under the common title SOLARIS, this time will be inspired by the works of Stanisław Lem. Traditionally, there are also screenings of the films awarded at partner festivals – Festival Award Winners. The most interesting Polish documentary films by both young filmmakers and recognised directors will be shown within the frames of Panorama of the Polish Documentary Film. Kids&Youth. Films for the Young is a film review dedicated to the youngest viewers. In the programme, there are also the most famous documentary films of the past year from various corners of the world – World Stories and fascinating European productions in the section Somewhere in Europe.
An important part of the Festival is the KFF Industry – the largest meeting platform for the documentary and animated film industry in Poland. Every year, almost 1000 guests from all over the world participate in conferences, debates, workshops, presentations of projects at various stages of production processes and in the film market. The programme, for the seventh time, includes, among others, a session of the DOC LAB POLAND, co-organised with the Władysław Ślesicki Film Foundation.
The Krakow Film Festival is accredited by FIAPF and included on the prestigious list of film events qualifying for the Academy Awards in the short film competition (feature film, animated film, documentary film) and feature-length documentary film, and it also recommends the films to the European Film Awards in the same categories.