Krakow 26

The Golden Horn for Best Film went to Tristan Forever (Switzerland), while the Silver Horn for the film with high artistic value was won by Silent Flood (Ukraine, Germany). The Silver Horn for the film on social issues went to If Pigeons Turned to Gold (Czech Republic, Slovakia). The FIPRESCI Prize went to The Tale of Sylian. The Golden Hobby Horse (Polish Competition) was won by Tickling the Devil, which also won the Audience Award, together with Where Music Grows by Katrine Philp. All winners…

Poland’s vibrant documentary sector, and that of Ukraine, will once more be in the frame at KFF Industry, the professional arm of Krakow FF, with attention again focussed on the Docs to Start and Docs to Go presentations of 21 new and ambitious projects. “It seems only natural that, since Ukrainian filmmakers have been cut off from opportunities for artistic and professional development, we should help if we are in a position to do so,” Industry boss Katarzyna Wilk tells BDE of KFF’s solidarity with neighbouring Ukraine.

Tristan da Cunha may be the most remote inhabited island on the planet, but it is nevertheless the place where Loran Bonnardot, a piano-playing doctor from Paris, is determined to settle. His existentialist journey, part-fictionalised, is chronicled by Swiss director Tobias Nölle. “I saw in Loran a castaway from our hyper-competitive society, seeking an authenticity we’ve lost, on an island secluded from our war-torn world; a dream I wanted to transform into a cinematic experience,” he says. The film won The Golden Horn for Best Film in International Competition at Krakow 2026.

Polish filmmaker Paweł Łoziński speaks to Business Doc Europe before the presentation of the inaugural Marcel Łoziński International Documentary Award, devised by Kraków Film Festival and the Polish Documentary Film Directors Guild in honour of his late, great father. Paweł is Marcel’s son, and sat on the jury which will hand the new prize June 3 to Cuban filmmaker David Bim for his debut effort To the West in Zapata. “It is a documentary about the power of love, something essential that allows the protagonists to endure the hardships of their lives,” says Paweł of Bim’s film.

Silent Flood, which has just won the Silver Horn for High Artistic Value at Krakow, isn’t a film in a hurry. Ukrainian Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk is telling the story of a closed religious community based in rural west Ukraine. Life is quiet and peaceful - or at least would be if it weren’t for the constant floods and the wars that have bedevilled the area. And then came the full-scale Russian invasion… The director talks to BDE.

In her short film Hidden, Polish director Monika Kotecka examines the emotions of fear and anxiety, using archive culled from the Educational Film Studio in Łódź, and the application both of polyphonic voices and a soundscape derived from bodily sounds, such as breathing and heartbeat. Severe anxiety, we are told, affects 4.4% of the world’s population. “I didn't want to make an autobiographical film,” Kotecka tells Business Doc Europe. “But of course my own experiences were, let's say, an important starting point.”

On June 5, the Industry awards of Krakow Film Festival were handed out. A total of 23 awards and honourable mentions were presented: seventeen for documentary projects and four for animated projects. The documentary prizes were awarded to projects in the DOCS TO START and DOCS TO GO section. Two honourable mentions went to participants in the Animated in Poland Talent Market.

In Polish Siarhei Marchyk’s new project, at rough cut stage and presented at Krakow Industry, Cameo, a young Ukrainian soldier, eager to fight, learns he is about to become a father, and must decide whether or not to desert, choosing between duty and the future of his family. “I spent six months embedded with Cameo's mortar unit,” director/producer Marchyk tells BDE. “The camera was present not only during combat operations but also during moments of vulnerability, boredom, fear, friendship and love. This level of access is one of the film's greatest strengths.”

While working on a book about ageing, Poland's most beloved linguist, Professor Jerzy Bralczyk, embarks on a cruise with his beloved wife Lucyna. The journey becomes a reflection on love, growing old, shared dreams and the art of enjoying life until the very end. “Their love is mature, funny, tender and completely unsentimental,” producer Marta Dużbabel tells BDE. “They still argue, tease each other, laugh together and support one another. We see many films about falling in love. We rarely see films about staying in love.”

"The funniest jokes are those told with a serious face," producer Ivanna Khitsinska tells BDE of Ivan Sautkin’s deeply ironic, anthropological investigation into the sense of kinship felt by some Ukrainians with Taras Shevchenko, esteemed poet and Father of the Nation. “Today, international audiences often encounter Ukraine almost exclusively through news about war, destruction, and geopolitics. DNA of the Nation offers a completely different way of seeing the country — through humour, intimacy, absurdity, and deeply human everyday situations.”