The films of the 61st edition of the Krakow Film Festival will be evaluated by the juries consisting of outstanding filmmakers from around the world, representatives of international festivals and the world of culture, as well as the award-winners of the Krakow Film Festival. The meetings will be chaired by Anca Damian, Mark Cousins, Jan P. Matuszyński.
At this year’s Krakow Film Festival, 170 films will be shown, including 100 international and Polish premieres. The jury (including FIPRESCI) will evaluate documentary, short and animated films in three competitions: two international ones and the national one. The winners will receive awards with a total value of over PLN 250 000.
The chairperson of the Jury of the international documentary film competition is Mark Cousins (UK) – director, film critic, cinema enthusiast. Cousins has hosted television shows about the film, was a university lecturer and a long-standing art director of the Edinburgh Film Festival. His most famous 15-hour project, “The Story of Film. An Odyssey” tells the history of over 120 years of international cinema. Cousins is the winner of the European Film Award for 2020.
The documentary film jury also includes Margreth Olin (Norway) – documentary film director, incl. the co-author of “The Self-Portrait”, awarded at the 60th KFF, Radu Ciorniciuc (Romania) – director, cameraman and investigative journalist, his film “Acasa, My Home” got the award for the best documentary film at the 60th KFF, Peter Kerekes (Slovakia) – director, screenwriter, producer and consultant, Anna Wydra (Poland) – producer, the founder and the CEO of the Otter Films – a Warsaw-based production company focusing on artistic feature films and documentary films.
Mark Cousins 
Margreth Olin 
Anna Wydra 
Radu Ciornicuc 
Péter Kerekes
This year, the Jury of the international short film competition is headed by Anca Damian (Romania), director, screenwriter and documentary film producer. Her feature-length animated documentary “Crulic – The Path to Beyond” (2011) won over 35 international awards. “Magic Mountain” (2015) was shown at over 60 festivals around the world, and “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” (2019) premiered at Annecy and was nominated for the European Film Awards.
The short documentary, feature and animated films will also be evaluated by: Felipe Montoya (Colombia) -– programme director of the BOGOSHORTS – Bogotá Short Film Festival, Laura D’Asta (Great Britain) – producer, director and programmer, Darya Bassel (Ukraine) – head of the industry at the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Kyiv, Maciek Bochniak (Poland) – director and screenwriter, author of feature films (“Disco Polo”, “Magnesium”) and documentary films (“One Billion Happy People,” “Ethiopiques: Revolt of the Soul” ).
Anca Damian 
Laura D’Asta 
Felipe Montoya 
Darya Bassel 
Maciek Bochniak
The chairman of the Jury of the Polish competition is Jan P. Matuszyński – director of feature and documentary films. For his documentary film “Deep Love” he got the Silver Hobby Horse at the Krakow Film Festival, and his feature-length feature film debut “The Last Family” brought him numerous awards in Poland and around the world. His latest feature film “Leave No Traces” about the case of Grzegorz Przemyk will have its premiere in October 2021.
The other members of the Polish jury are Piotr Bernaś – director and cameraman, two-time winner of the Golden Frog at the Camerimage, for “Paparazzi” (2011) and “The Whale from Lorino” (2020), Adriana Prodeus – film and art critic, lecturer and curator, Katarzyna Janowska – press, TV and Internet journalist, Krzysztof Czyżewski – writer, animator of intercultural dialogue programmes, co-founder of the Centre “Borderland of Arts, Cultures and Nations” in Sejny.
Jan P. Matuszyński 
Piotr Bernaś 
Katarzyna Janowska 
Krzysztof Czyżewski 
Adriana Prodeus
The FIPRESCI Jury includes Vladimir Seput (Croatia), Dieter Wieczorek (France) and Piotr Czerkawski (Poland).
The Krakow Film Festival is included on the prestigious list of events qualifying for the Academy Awards in as many as three short film categories (feature film, animated film, documentary film) as well as in the feature-length documentary film category. The winners of the Golden and Silver Dragons have a shortened path to the Academy Award selection. The KFF also recommends films to the European Film Award in the same categories.
The Krakow Film Festival is organised with the financial support of the co-organiser – the Polish Filmmakers Association and the City of Krakow, the Polish Film Institute, the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport and the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.