Here are a few facts: it was held for the first time under the name of the Polish Short Film Festival in 1961, it is one of the festivals qualifying for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature and Best Short Film (fiction, animation, documentary) categories, and it attracts the most important filmmakers from around the world to the city with Wawel Hill. The 65th edition of the Krakow Film Festival is ahead of us! As many as 2,570 films have been submitted for participation this year (a new record!). The Golden Hobby-horse, Golden Horn, Golden Dragon and Golden Hejnał awards will go to filmmakers in four competitions: three international ones – Documentary, Short Film and DocFilm- Music – and a Polish one. We already know the first titles from the international documentary competition: we will see Fermina de la Serna’s Lovers in the Sky, Finn and Martin Walther's Pet Farm or Lina Vdovîa’s and Radu Ciorniciuc’s Tata). The Dragon of Dragons will be awarded to Jean-François Laguionie (winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the César) – on this occasion, the filmmaker will give a master class, and there will also be a retrospective of his animations. Other films will be screened in non-competition series, including Focus on Ireland, Docs+Science, Short Matters and Docs4Teens – Building Bridges (Ciaran Cassidy’s Housewife of the Year, Moritz Riesewieck’s Eternal One, Szymon Ruczyński’s There Are People in the Forest or Lesi Diak’s Under the Wing of a Night). The festival will open with a bittersweet documentary Baltic directed by Iga Lis. The festival films will also be available on KFF VOD (30th May – 15th June).

"Karnet" 5/2025