Krakow Film Festival is one of the oldest events in the world. It is evidenced by the fact that this year will be the 62nd edition of the event, which is strictly dedicated to documentaries, animated films and short feature films. It is based on three equal competitions: documentary, short and Polish.
This is a great alternative when you have already seen the most important sights in Krakow and taken advantage of the organized tours of its surroundings.
During the festival, which usually lasts as long as 8 days, viewers can see up to 250 films not only from Poland, but also from around the world. They are shown as part of the competition or special screenings. The whole event is accompanied by various exhibitions, large concerts, meetings with filmmakers, and rich outdoor screenings. According to the collected data, each year the festival is visited by over 900 guests of various nationalities, including directors, producers, festival programmers, and the local Krakow audience.
Because this is already the 62nd edition of the festival, its program has been changing and enriched over the years through experience and suggestions of people participating in it. The position of the festival itself has also changed. Its uniqueness and specificity among other festivals is the fact that it belongs to the honorable and limited group of festivals accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers (FIAPF), European Film Academy (EFA) and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Due to this, Krakow Film Festival is the only one among all the events of this type organized in Poland, which has the honour to be among the festivals qualifying for an Oscar in the category of full-length documentaries, and as one of two Polish festivals in the category of short films. What’s more, this 62nd Krakow Film Festival is also in the prestigious group of festivals recommending short films and feature-length documentaries for the European Film Awards. Thanks to these distinctions there is no doubt that it is one of the most important events on the international scene.
It was in Kraków, the capital of Malopolska, that some of the most exceptional Polish documentary filmmakers began their careers: Krzysztof Kieślowski, Wojciech Wiszniewski, Andrzej Fidyk and Marcel Łoziński. It was also here that the great creators of Polish animation worked and opened themselves to the world: Ryszard Czekała, Jerzy Kucia, Julian Antoniszczak, Piotr Dumała, and Academy Award winner Zbigniew Rybczyński for Tango.
Many of the participating filmmakers, with well-known names, widely known in the feature film world, have taken part in international competitions and won awards alongside other renowned documentary and animation filmmakers: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Werner Herzog, Zoltan Huszarik, Jaromil Jireś, Claude Lelouch, Patrice Leconte, Mike Leigh, and Academy Award winner Jan Svěrák.
Since 2007, apart from the two regular competitions, i.e. the national and international one, there has been an idea for a third competition comprising ten best feature-length documentaries. Currently, it has evolved to 10 medium-length and 10 full-length films taking part in it. Meanwhile, the great popularity of the “Sounds of Music” section inspired the organizers to hold another competition – music documentaries DocFilmMusic – between 2013 and 2020. Over the years many new and interesting proposals have appeared in the festival programme. Since 2006 the Festival has been accompanied by the Krakow Film Market, which involves professionals from the film industry as well as film lovers. Every year the festival also hosts numerous non-competition shows, which have already become a must-see event, such as “Tales from the World”, “Somewhere in Europe”, “Festival Winners”, “The Sound of Music”, “Panorama of Polish Film”, “Shorts Matters!”, “Music Video Night”, “Night of Student Etudes”, “Kids&Youth”, “Docs+Science”.
For fans of films, but also music, we recommend a list of the most interesting musical events in Krakow. Every year numerous festivals and concerts of world-famous performers take place here. You can read more about it here: https://krakowdirect.com/news/best-music-events-krakow-2022/
On the occasion of the festival, numerous concerts and interesting exhibitions are also held, as well as numerous debates and meetings with artists and representatives of other festivals in the industry, who come here in large numbers from all over the world for this event. According to the organizers, this year Krakow will be dominated by Czech film! The program of the Krakow Film Festival will include, among others, a film about synchronized gymnastics exercises, in which athletes took part. This is one of the last films by Helena Třeštíková, the master of Czech documentary filmmaking and winner of the Dragon of Dragons award, as well as cult Czech cartoons. And all this as part of the “Focus on the Czech Republic” series.
