DECEMBER FESTIVALS
In December film festivals are normally organized only during the first two weeks of the month. Later on the holiday season starts. During these two weeks nearly thirty Polish documentary films will be screened at ten film festivals.
Some of the December festivals, like Festival dei Popoli in Italy, Cinema Verite in Iran or Olympia in Greece, started on the last days of November. Each of them screen several Polish documentaries. “Super Unit” by Teresa Czepiec and “15 corners of the world” by Zuzanna Solakiewicz were invited to take part in the competitive section of Festival dei Popoli, taking place in Florence. Italian audience alos had chance to watch “6 degrees” by Bartosz Dombrowski, “Walking under water” by Eliza Kubarska and “Werka” by Paweł Łoziński in the non-competitive screenings.
The programmers of Cinema Verite Iran International Documentary Film Festival seem to truly appreciate Polish documentary films. They invited as much as twelve Polish films to take part in this year’s edition of the festival. “Left side of the face” by Marcin Bortkiewicz, “Leaders” by Paweł Ferdek, “The man who who made angels fly” by Wiktoria Szymańska and “The promise of a happy childhood” by Piotr Morawski and Ryszard Kaczyński had a chance to compete for awards in the competition of the festival. Eight other Polish productions were screened in the non-competitive sections: “Seven men at different ages” by Sławomir Witek, “When I am a bird” by Monika Pawluczuk, “You’re gonna be a legend, man” by Marcin Koszałka, “Deep love” by Jan p. Matuszyński, “Sati” by Bartłomiej Świderski, “To fly or not to fly” by Aniela Gabryel, “A diary of a journey” by Piotr Stasik and “The governance of love” by Adela Kaczmarek. The last two titles were also shown in the competition of Olympia Film Festival.
This year’s festival favourite, “Our curse” by Tomasz Śliwiński, will have three festival screenings this month. The film has been invited to take part in the competitive sections of The Other Film Festival in USA, Bogoshorts in Colombia and Signes de Nuit in France. “Sati” by Bartłomiej Świderski can boast two festival screenings: apart from Cinema Verite, it was also shown at International Mountain Film Festival in Autrans in France. “Where I can be found” by Arjun Talwar took part in the competition of International Student Film Festival Kinoproba in Russia.
In the middle of the month the audience of the Chinese IDocs festival will have a chance to watch three Polish documentaries that were very successful at film festivals by now. “What happened on Pam island” by Eliza Kubarska, “Phnom Penh Lullaby” by Paweł Kloc and “Argentinean lesson” by Wojciech Staroń were selected to take part in the non-competitive screenings.
A wide selection of the newest Polish documentaries will be presented at Watch Docs Film festival in Warsaw. “Solidarity according to women” by Piotr Śliwowski and Marta Dzido will have chance for awards in the competition of the festival. The non-competitive Polish programme will feature “Domino Effect” by Piotr Rosołowski and Elwira Niewiera, “Children calling” by Andrzej Mańkowski, “Rodnik” by Marcin Sauter, “Rebellion” by Małgorzata Kozera-Topińska, “Werka” by Paweł Łoziński, “Shepherd’s song” by Vahram Mkhitaryan and “Aleppo. Notes from the darkness” by Wojciech Szumowski and Michał Przedlacki.