In 2013, Polish documentary films were invited to take part in the festivals around the world almost 480 times, winning over 50 awards, including such prestigious ones as Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance festival. Polish documentary cinema was also the special guest at the Hot Docs festival in Canada, and its latest achievements were shown at the Sunny Side of the Doc market. Below you can find the summary of 2013 in Polish documentary.

2013 brought Polish documentary cinema many reasons to rejoice. How many? Once again, the editors of Polish Docs made a summary of festival screenings and awards won by Polish documentaries in order to learn about it. We present the results of our calculations below.

In the last twelve months, over 140 Polish documentary films were invited to take part in film festivals almost 480 times. Over 300 out of the aforementioned 430 shows were competition screenings. To sum up, audience around the world had the opportunity to watch Polish documentary films at over 250 film festivals – beginning with the neighbour countries like the Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, through France, Italy, Spain, the USA and Canada, to far-away Australia and exotic New Caledonia.

The feature-length doumentary "Fuck for forest" by Michał Marczak, shown at nearly 50 foreign festivals, competed in 2013 for the title of the record-breaking film as far as the frequency of being shown at festivals is concerned against two short documentaries : "The Whistle" by Grzegorz Zariczny, shown at 31 international festivals and "Rogalik" by Paweł Ziemilski, with 30 festival screenings to its credit. Also, the following films boast a large number of screenings: "My House Without Me" by Magdalena Szymków – with 19 screenings, last year’s winner "Written in Ink" by Martin Rath, shown 17 times this year, "Freestyle Life" by Adam Palenta – 16 times, "Father and Son" by Paweł Łoziński – 15 times, animated "Paperbox" by Zbigniew Czapla – 12 times and "Exit Point" by Jagoda Szelc – 11 times. "Argentinian Lesson" by Wojciech Staroń and "Camp" by Tomasz Jeziorski have 10 screenings each.

Last year was particularly successful for Polish documentary film as far as awards are concerned – our films won over 50 trophies in 2013. The most frequently awarded Polish documentary film in 2013 was "The Whistle" with 7 awards. "Entangled" by Lidia Duda boasts six awards, "Rogalik" – four, "Father and Son" and "Freestyle Life" – three each.

One of the most important awards in 2013 was undoubtedly Grand Jury Prize given to "The Whistle" in the Short Competition at the Sundance festival. It was the beginning of the winning streak of Zariczny’s documentary, which was chosen the best film at the festivals ZINEBI and Documenta Madrid in Spain, Open City Doc Fest in London, Febiofest in Slovakia and at the Vilnius International Film Festival.

Polish documentary films conquered the DOCSDF festival in Mexico, where "God’s Lake" by Diana Aszyk was named the Best International Short Documentary, and "Entangled" by Lidia Duda – the Best Television Documentary, and Cinema Verite festival in Iran, where "Abu Haraz" by Maciej J. Drygas was chosen the Best Full-Length Documentary, and "Father and Son" by Paweł Łoziński got the Jury Special Award. "Entangled" and "Father and Son" were awarded quite often this year. The film by Lidia Duda won, among others, TRT Documentary Award, and the documentary by Paweł Łoziński was chosen the best film at the Moscow Film Festival and the "Listapad" International Film Festival in Minsk.

One of the frequency record-breakers – "Rogalik" – won the Spanish festival Alcine, and the film by Aneta Kopacz, "Joanna" – was awarded with the Young Jury Award at the DOK. Leipzig festival and with the Silver Eye award at the East Silver market. It is also worth mentioning that "Argentinian Lesson" by Wojciech Staroń got the prestigious Spotlight Award, and that "Our Curse" was nominated for IDFA Award.

So much for foreign awards. In Poland, for the first time documentaries were included in the competition for Polish Film Awards "Eagles." The first Eagle award for the Best Documentary went to Jacek Bławut for "Man At War."

In 2013, thanks to the promotional actions of Krakow Film Foundation, it was possible to organise two reviews of Polish documentary cinema – at the Hot Docs festival in Canada and Dokubazaar in Slovenia, as well as retrospective of the films by Marcel and Paweł Łoziński at the Dei Popoli festival in Italy.

Polish presence at the Hot Docs Festival, taking place at the turn of April and May in Toronto, was marked in two ways: by the programme of the latest Polish documentary films, "Made in Poland," which included 11 films, and by the participation of the delegation of Polish film producers at the Hot Docs Forum – the professional part of the festival. The members of the Polish delegation had a chance to take part in various events at Hot Docs Forum, among others, Hot Docs Deal Maker, or the International Coproduction Day.

A few months later – at the turn of September and October – special programme of the latest achievements of Polish documentary filmmakers, consisting of 12 films, was shown during the Slovenian festival Dokubazaar.

The organisers of the Dei Popoli Festival in Florence decided to honour Marcel and Paweł Łoziński, preparing the retrospective of their work. In the retrospective, there were over 30 films, including 20 by Marcel Łoziński and 13 by his son – Paweł Łoziński.

Last year, for the seventh time Krakow Film Foundation organised the national Polish Docs booth at the Sunny Side of the Doc in La Rochelle – the largest documentary film market in Europe. As every year, the latest Polish documentary films were promoted at the Polish Docs booth, and accredited producers had a chance to look for funding of their projects and widen their international contacts.

Traditionally, KFF prepared Polish Docs documentary film programme at the following documentary film markets: Doc Shop at the aforementioned Hot Docs festival in Canada, Docs for Sale at IDFA in the Netherlands, Doc Market at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece, Doc Outlook at Visions du Reel in Switzerland, East Silver in the Czech Republic and DOK Market at DOK Leipzig in Germany. Polish Docs Meeting With Decision Makers – a meeting with the most important representatives of the documentary film branch- was organised by KFF in cooperation with Wajda Studio for the third time within the frames of DOK. Leipzig festival.

All events were supported by Polish Film Institute.

THE LIST OF THE FOREIGN AWARDS FOR POLISH DOCUMENTARY FILMS IN 2013*

18kg, by Kacper Czubak
DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Canada – Short Documentary Award

3 Days of Freedom, by Łukasz Borowski
12th Euganea Film Festival, Italy – International Short Documentary Mention

Abu Haraz, by Maciej Drygas
Cinema Verite – Iran International Documentary Film Festival, Iran – Best Full-Length Documentary

Aleksander, by Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal
CPH:DOX, Denmark – Special Mention

Argentinian Lesson, by Wojciech Staron
Cinema Eye Honors, USA – Spotlight Award
Panazorean International Film Festival International Prize, Portugal- Best Long/Medium Feature-Length Film

Bad Boy. High Security Cell, by Janusz Mrozowski
13th Belfast Film Festival, Ireland – The Maysles Brothers Award

Castaways, by Sławomir Grunberg
Robinson International Short Film Competition, USA – Grand Prix
20th Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival, USA- The Ewa Pieta Award for The Best Non-Feature Film

Entangled, by Lidia Duda
TRT Documentary Awards, Turkey – Best Documentary Film
8th DOCSDF 2013, Mexico – Best Television Documentary
New York Festivals, USA – Silver Medal
25th Polish Film Festival in America, USA – Golden Teeth
Chicago International Film Festival, USA – Silver Hugo
One World – People in Need International Human Rights Film Festival 2013, the Czech Republic – The Best Director Award

Exit Point, by Jagoda Szelc
Bansko Filmfest 2013, Bulgaria – Special Jury Mention

Father and Son, by Paweł Łoziński
Minsk International FF "Listapad”, Belarus- Grand Prix for Best Documentary Film
Moscow Film Festival, Russia – Silver George for the Best Film of the Documentary Competition
Cinema Verite – Iran International Documentary Film Festival, Iran – Special Jury Award

Freestyle Life, by Adam Palenta
4th BCN Sports Film Festival, Spain –Best Short Film
31st Milano International FICTS FEST 2013, Italy – Special Mention
DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Canada – Youth Jury Honourable Mention

Fuck for forest, by Michał Marczak
Sheffield Doc/Fest – Sheffield Green Award Special Mention

God’s Lake, by Diana Aszyk
8th DOCSDF 2013, Mexico – Best International Short Documentary

I want (no) reality // Needcompany on life and art, by Ana Brzezińska
13th Festival du Film sur l’Art, France – Centre du Film sur l’Art Award

Joanna, by Aneta Kopacz
DOK Leipzig, Germany – Prize of the Youth Jury
East Silver Market, Czech Republic – Silver Eye Award

Left side of the face, by Marcin Borkiewicz
Festival dei Popoli – International Documentary Film Festival, Italy – Syracuse University in Florence Award

Love, by Filip Dzierżawski
25th Polish Film Festival in America, USA – Discovering Eye

Mundial. The Highest Stakes, by Michał Bielawski
14th Polish Film Festival in Los Angeles, USA – Hollywood Eagle Documentary Award

My House Without Me, by Magdalena Szymków
Festival of Migrant Film, Slovenia – Best Short Film

Our curse, by Tomasz Śliwiński
IDFA 2013, the Netherlands – Nomination for IDFA Award

Phnom Penh Lullaby, by Paweł Kloc
Cine-Doc Tbilisi, Georgia – Special Jury Prize

Previous Scenes, by Aleksandra Maciuszek
East Silver Market, the Czech Republic – Silver Eye Award

Rogalik, by Paweł Ziemilski
43rd ALCINE International Film Festival, Spain – 1st Prize European Competition
59th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany – Special Mention
9th International Documentary Film Festival ZAGREBDOX, Croatia – Special Mention
22nd DokumentArt Film Festival, Germany – The Award of the Student Union Greifswald

Survey about Women, by Mateusz Głowacki
6th Central and Eastern European Film Festival, Luxembourg – Audience Award

The Art of Disappearing, by Bartek Konopka, Piotr Rosołowski
17th Jihlava Documentary Film Festival, the Czech Republic – Silver Eye Special Mention
RIDM – Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal 2013, Canada – Special Mention

The Whistle, by Grzegorz Zariczny
Open City Docs Fest 2013, Great Britain – Best Short Documentary
18th Vilnius International Film Festival, Lithuania- Best Short Film
20th Febiofest International Film Festival, Slovakia – Best Short Film
10th Documenta Madrid, Spain – First Prize of the Jury
55th ZINEBI International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao, Spain – Golden Mikeldi for Documentary
Sundance Film Festival 2013, USA – Grand Jury Prize
43nd Molodist International Film Festival, Ukraine – Special Mention

We will be happy one day, by Paweł Wysoczański
Jameson Cinefest, Hungary – Best Documentary

Written in Ink, by Martin Rath
5th Annual Wallabout Film Festival, USA – Best Cinematography
Hot Media International Film Festival, USA – Best Documentary Short

* Data collected on the basis of the information received from producers, filmmakers and festivals by Polish Docs. If you know about foreign awards for Polish documentaries which are not mentioned in this summary, we kindly ask you to send a message to the editors of the portal: redakcja@polishdocs.pl

FEBRUARY 2014