SEPTEMBER AT FESTIVALS
Though the peak of the autumn festival season falls in October and November, in September, after the holiday break, the number of festival screenings increases. This month, Polish documentary films will be shown in 22 screenings at 11 festivals.
Nancy-Lorraine International Film Festival in France, in whose competitive section the film, "Sometimes I Dream I'm Flying" by Aneta Popiel-Machnicka will participate, started on August 29th and will last until September 7th. Also, the audience in Asia will have the opportunity to watch this documentary, as it will be screened in the non-competitive section at the DMZ Docs festival in South Korea.
Also in Asia, the short documentary made by Tomasz Śliwiński, "Our Curse," will be shown. The film will compete for the awards in the competition of the CNEX Documentary Film Festival in Taiwan. In September, "Our Curse" will be the most frequently screened Polish documentary film abroad. Apart from the screening in Taiwan, it will participate in competitive sections of three European festivals: Raindance Film Festival in United Kingdom, where "The art of disappearing" by Bartek Konopka and piotr Rosołowski will also be screend, Look&Roll Film Festival in Switzerland and Jameson Cinefest Miskolc International Film Festival in Hungary. At Jameson Cinefest festival, two other Polish films will compete for the awards, namely, "Sati" by Bartłomiej Świderski and "Let Them Love, Let Them Dream" by Monika Nawrot and Dominik Górski.
"Abu Haraz" by Maciej J. Drygas can boast three festival screenings in September. The film has been invited to participate in the competitive sections of two Russian documentary film festivals - Saratov Suffering International Film Festival of Documentary Drama and International Documentary Film Festival “Flahertiana”. It will also be shown in the competition of the Szczecin European Film Festival, held on the Polish-German border.
The competitors of "Abu Haraz" for the best documentary film award at Szczecin European Film Festival include, among other, five other Polish films: "The Governance of Love” by Adela Kaczmarek, "When I am a Bird" by Monika Pawluczuk, the aforementioned "Sati," "The Brick" - made by five Burmese filmmakers, and "The Visit" by Matej Bobrik. "The Visit" also qualified for the participation in the competitive section at the "Love and Anarchy" Helsinki International Film Festival.
A comprehensive programme of Polish short films will be shown within the frames of the Drama International Short Film festival in Greece. Documentary films included in the programme are "Out of Reach" by Jakub Stożek, "Left Side of the Face" by Marcin Bortkiewicz and "Knife in the Wife" by Vita Drygas.