Festival started as an audience festival in 2001 and since then, as it grew, it introduced more and more industry events and enjoyed the presence of a few hundred film professionals every year. In 2009 we organized a Polish-Swedish co-production forum, in 2011 a Polish-Norwegian co-production forum and in November 2011, we started the US in Progress initiative at our other event – the American Film Festival. This year the festival is launching a new long-term initiative – Polish Days. Polish Days is a presentation of latest Polish films to an international industry at closed screenings. Similar events in Romania, Sweden, UK and France have helped to promote films from these countries and now their film industries are booming. We wish for the same with Polish films, although Polish Days are just starting. We have gathered strong partners for the event: the city of Wrocław, Polish Film Institute and Film Commission Poland, and with their support, we are hoping to grow.

Around 40 films are produced in Poland annually. In recent years, Polish productions by established masters and exciting new directors played in Venice (Essential Killing, Ki), Berlinale (Sweet Rush, Suicide Room, Secret), Toronto (In Darkness, Rose), San Sebastian (Christening), Rotterdam (It looks Pretty From a Distance) and many other festivals.

For the first edition of Polish Days, we have prepared closed screenings of seven completed films and eight works in progress as well as eight pitchings of projects in development. 150 Polish and international professionals are expected to attend. Among them: programmers from Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam, Tribeca, Karlovy Vary, Edinburgh, Hong Kong and Gothenburg; sales companies such as Wild Bunch, Les Films du Losange, Hanway, MK2 and LevelK and buyers, i.e. Epicentre, Soda Pictures, Neue Visionen, Urban Distribution, Gutek Film, TVP and Polsat. Some of the Polish producers attending include: Opus Film, Akson Studio, SF Kadr, Skorpion Arte, WFDiF, Metro Films, Federico Film and Prasa & Film.

A group of German producers will also be present during the event. Wrocław, with its unique location, has a potential of becoming a regular meeting place for Polish and German producers. The festival is keen to explore this possibility further. This year’s event can be the first small step towards that.

The first edition of Polish Days will showcase, among others, latest films by Leszek Dawid (You Are God), Pior Trzaskalski (My Father’s Bike) and Jacek Bławut (Man At War) and works in progress of Andrzej Wajda's Wałęsa, Ari Folman's The Congress and Maciej Pieprzyca's The Will to Live. Particpants will also hear pitchings of new films by Andrzej Żuławski (Dark Matter), Bartek Konopka (The Mute) and Marcin Wrona (Demon).

We’re very excited about the first edition of the event and happy that the festival can use its international position and contacts to make sure Polish cinema enters the world stage with even more success. Fingers crossed!

Jan Naszewski
Head of Industry T-Mobile New Horizons IFF