On the 20th of September, during the 41 Film Festival in Gdynia, Polish Film Institute hosted an award ceremony. The jury decided that the award for the best educational project of the year goes to Polish Cinema for Beginners!

Wroclawska Fundacja Filmowa was nominated in two categories of the Polish Film Institute awards: film event (together with Culture Centre in Świdnica for “Okiem Mlodych 8.”) and film education, in which Polish Cinema for Beginners was hailed the winner. Polish Film Institute Awards are very important in the film industry, as they recognise the hard work or people and institutions unrelated to film production. These are Poland’s only awards for great achievements in promoting Polish cinema and widening the audience of Polish films. These awards have been around since 2008. Candidates can be nominated by cultural institutions, film schools, NGOs connected to culture and other people and institutions working in the field of culture.

Video from the gala (film education category starts in the 37’s minute): https://vimeo.com/183639353

A list of all winners: http://www.pisf.pl/aktualnosci/wiadomosci/laureaci-9-nagrod-pisf

Organised since 2012, Polish Cinema for Beginners is a first project of its kind in Poland, which caters towards the non-Polish speaking audience, who up until now did not have the opportunity to watch Polish film classics and cult classics on the big screen. Screenings of Polish Cinema for Beginners always start with an introduction from an expert, who explains the contexts and a theme of each film. After a screening a discussion is held for everyone to ask questions, find out more about the film or just share their opinions on it.

Up until this point our audience had an opportunity to watch such films as “Mother Joan of the Angels” by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, “Man of Marble” by Andrzej Wajda, “Reverse” by Borys Lankosz and Agnieszka Holland’s “In darkness”

The upcoming, 7th season of Polish Cinema for Beginners will kick off on the 6th of October in Nowe Horyzonty Cinema. This time we will focus on the topic of POLISH YOUTH and for the next couple of months we will look at how the young people of Poland were portrayed by the directors over different decades. For the opening screenings our audience will watch “Illumination” by Krzysztof Zanussi and have an opportunity to talk to the director himself.

Clip from the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4_lKYqAsHc

See you in the cinema!