Organisers of the 64th Krakow Film Festival announced May 15 the seven films selected for the non-competitive Polish Documentary, as well as the jurors who will deliberate across all competition sections.
“The creators behind the documentaries invited to the popular non-competitive Panorama section journey beyond country borders or settle on its outskirts, escaping temporality and delving into archives to retell the stories of people who have made history,” write organisers.
Polish Documentary Panorama:
- 1953. Fight for Hope by Marek Jagielski, Poland, 75’, 2023. The film tells the story of Poland’s first post-war world championships in boxing – a universally loved sport at the time. In ruined Warsaw, the legendary coach Feliks Stamm must rebuild the Polish boxing team to face the most powerful team in the world – the USSR.
- Jews by Choice by Justyna Gawełko, Tomer Slutzky, Poland, Israel, USA, 74’, 2024. recounts the story of a synagogue in Krnov. Before the war, this Czech town was home to a Jewish community of 450 people, but none of them remained after the war. Decades later, the town was struck by another catastrophe – the flood of the century. The Jewish temple was among the damaged buildings. In order to prevent further damage, a group of residents decided to restore it to its former glory, or perhaps even to initiate a new Jewish community in the town.
- When Harmattan Blows by Edyta Wróblewska, Poland, 82’, 2024. The film takes us all the way to Ghana. Barbara, 25, resides in Accra. At the age of eight, she shared the fate of thousands of Ghanaian children forced into slave labour by their own parents. For years, her world was rife with abuse, violence, and fear. Despite her anger, she supports her parents financially, but their expectations continue to grow. She returns to their hometown together with her brother to find a solution. Before that happens, Barbara must make a final confrontation with her parents.
- Kuba by Marcin Strauchold, Poland, 88’, 2023. A portrait of the acclaimed Polish film director Janusz Morgenstern, woven from interviews, broadcasts, photographs, and his own films, which were giving him a chance to escape from the trauma he had experienced during the Second World War.
- Flowers of Ukraine by Adelina Borets, Poland, Ukraine, 70’, 2024. In the Polish/Ukrainian film, Natalia owns a charming plot of land located right in the middle of a housing estate in Kyiv. It’s a high-value target for real estate developers, with whom she has been struggling for a long time. She isn’t interested in the millions on offer but remains steadfast in defending her small homeland. And when the larger homeland is attacked by Russia, her resistance grows even stronger. Natalia’s personal struggle becomes a beautiful metaphor for the efforts of an entire nation.
- Forest by Lidia Duda, Poland, Czechia, 88’, 2024. Protagonists Asia and Marek bought an old house near Poland’s eastern border, in the oldest forest in Europe. It’s their little paradise – a place for their children to grow up far away from the troubles of the modern world. However, one day, Others appear in their green enclave – refugees, unwanted in Poland and Belarus…
- The Last Expedition by Eliza Kubarska, Poland, Switzerland, Nepal, India, Italy, Austria, 80’, 2024. Eliza Kubarska delves into the past to tell the story of a pioneer of Himalayan mountaineering, Wanda Rutkiewicz, while Lidia Duda ventures to the eastern border to explore a family experiencing the theme of migration on a micro scale.
Jury of the 64th Krakow Film Festival: International Documentary Film Competition
- Nick Read (United Kingdom, Chair). A multi-award-winning director of documentary films, Emmy and BAFTA nominee, as well as producer, author, and director of over 80 films.
- Margje de Koning (Netherlands). Director, producer, teacher at the University of Amsterdam, and artistic director of the Movies That Matter festival since 2019.
- Dragan von Petrovic (Serbia). A multiple-award-winning editor and director of documentary and fiction films.
- Eliza Kubarska (Poland). An award-winning director, artist, and mountaineer. She’s a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Wajda School in Warsaw. Winner of the International Alliance for Mountain Film Grand Prix for outstanding achievements in filmmaking.
- Monica Lazurean-Gorgan (Romania). An experienced producer, documentarian, member of AMPAS/Oscar, and EFA. She produced Acasa, My Home by Radu Ciorniciuc, winner of the Sundance Cinematography Award and over 40 other international awards, as well as Between Revolutions by Vlad Petri, winner of the FIPRESCI award at the Berlinale.
Jury of the International Short Film Competition
- Corina Schwingruber-Ilić (Switzerland, Chair): Since 2010, she has worked as an independent director and editor. She co-founded PRO SHORT (the Swiss Short Film Association) and is a member of the Swiss and European Film Academies.
- Heinz Hermans (Germany). Founder and director of interfilm Berlin, one of the world’s largest short film festivals. He has been the director of numerous film festivals, including Pollicino (1992-1997) in Catania, Sicily, the Going Underground super-short film festival on subway trains in Berlin and Seoul (2001-2012), and Short Visions in Ningbo, China (2014).
- Toril Simonsen (Norway). For over 30 years at the Norwegian Film Institute, she has been promoting Norwegian short and documentary films. She is a co-founder Nordisk Panorama.
- Tomek Popakul (Poland). A graduate of the Łódź Film School, specializing in animation. He is the director of award-winning animated films such as Zima, Acid Rain, and Ziegenort, as well as a composer of cacophonous music.
Jury of the International Music Documentary Competition DocFilmMusic
- Matej Bobrik (Slovakia, Poland, Chair). A graduate of the directing department at the Łódź Film School and the DOK PRO documentary course at the Wajda School. His debut documentary The Visit, produced by Munk Studio, won the Silver Eye award at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.
- Michał Fojcik (Poland). A sound designer with more than 100 features, docs and animated films in his portfolio. He received the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing in a Documentary Film for his work on Pianoforte.
- Ana Sofia Fonseca (Portugal). A multiple-award-winning director with Cape Verdean roots who loves to tell fascinating and inspiring human stories. Her feature-length documentary Cesária Évora (2022) was screened in cinemas in France and the Netherlands and shown at over 60 international festivals, including the 62nd Krakow Film Festival.
Jury of National Competition for Medium/Feature films
- Piotr Śliskowski (Poland, Chair). A graduate of the Cinematography Department at the Łódź Film School, he returned there as a lecturer in 2016. The President of the Polish Society of Cinematographers. He has worked as a cinematographer on documentaries, series, and feature films.
- Joanna Ostrowska (Poland). Academic, lecturer, film critic, playwright, and author of acclaimed books on topics related to World War II. Since 2019, she has been a programmer for the LGBT+ Film Festival in Warsaw.
- Marta Minorowicz (Poland). A graduate of the Andrzej Wajda Film School and Theatre Studies at the Jagiellonian University. Her debut feature Illusion won the Grand Prix at the International Film Festival in Tirana, and her full-length hybrid between documentary and fiction film Zud was nominated for the Crystal Bear Award at the Berlin IFF.
Jury of National Competition for Short films
- Jacek Borcuch (Poland, Chair). A director and screenwriter, his film All That I Love was the first Polish film to be screened in Sundance main competition. His later films Lasting and Sweet End of the Day returned from the American festival with awards.
- Joanna Łapińska (Poland). Since September 2016, she has been the program director of the Transatlantyk Festival. In 2021-2022, she was the head of Gdynia Industry at the Gdynia Film Festival and in 2023 she received a nomination for the position of its Artistic Director.
- Julia Orlik (Poland). A graduate and lecturer at the Łódź Film School. A resident of Krupski Młyn, where all her student films were made in the family garage. In addition to animation, she is interested in blood FX, film makeup, and conducting film workshops with children and teenagers. Her student film I Am Here was shortlisted for the GSA BAFTA Student Film Awards 2021 and won numerous prestigious awards at major international festivals.
The 2024 FIPRESCI Jury (all competition films) will consist of the film critics: Ziva Emersic (Slovenia), Hannes Wesselkaemper (Germany), Rafał Marszałek (Poland).
The FICC Jury (all competition films) will include representatives of film discussion clubs: Paweł Herman (Poland), Holger Twele (Germany), Cristina Rius Sanclimens (Spain).
For the 20th time, festival films will also be evaluated by the Student Jury. The anniversary jury will be composed of: Zuzanna Adamowicz, Aleksandra Bester, Wiktoria Gornowicz, Artur Guzik, Jędrzej Kościński, Agnieszka Kozera-Kotowska, Roman Kraiński, Sandra Meyer, Kinga Modzelewska, Paula Olszańska, Mariia Pechenizka-Tkachova, Krzysztof Strumiński.
