Polish Days at the New Horizons Festival

by Dorota Hartwich

24/07/2012 - This new initiative, which is taking place as part of the Wrocław event, allows international professionals to keep abreast of news from the Polish production sector

New items featuring at Wrocław New Horizons Cinéma T-Mobile International Film Festival, which runs unil July 29, is Polish Days, an event organised for international professionals interested in Polish cinema and in films in production. Today, the initiative is in its third day.

"Each year, the festival attracts professionals from various countries. Last year, we had more than 400 representatives from the international film industry. This is why we decided to create a specific framework so that they can follow the Polish production industry from close," Jan Naszewski explained to Cineuropa at the festival.

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The programme line-up features films already produced, as well as projects still under way. Features already screened include new films by Leszek Dawid (You Are God/Jesteś Bogiem), Piotr Trzaskalski (My Father's Bike/Mój rower), Jacek Bławut (Man at War/Wirtualna wojna), while films still in production include Maciej Pieprzyca’s The Will To Live / Chce się żyć, Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze’s Papusza, and Tadeusz Król’s Last Floor / Ostatnie piętro.

"The films that attract the most attention from professionals are films by well-known direcors, such as Andrzej Wajda, who is currently preparing Wałesa, a film on the leader of the legendary movement Solidarnosc, Andrzej Zuławski. Wajda who is presenting his new production, Dark Matter / Czarna materia. The young generation of filmmakers stands out for its professionalism and dynamic nature. Projects such as Ari Folman’s The Congress / Kongres or Magnus von Horn’s The Here After / Po śmierci are very successful," Naszewski said.

Guests at the 2012 Polish Days include festival programmers such as Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam, Tribecca, Karlovy Vary, Edinburgh, Hong Kong and Gothenburg, sales companies such as Wild Bunch, Les Films du Losange, Hanway, MK2 and LevelK, distributors such as Epicentre, Soda Pictures, Neue Visionen, Urban Distribution and Gutek Film, and television channels such as TVP and Polsat. Polish production outfits present at Wrocław include Opus Film, Akson Studio, SF Kadr, Skorpion Arte, WFDiF, Metro Films, Federico Film and Prasa & Film.