Polish Cultural Institute New York and Anthology Film Archives present a 2021 Oscar hopeful animated movie Kill It And Leave This Town / Zabij to i wyjedź z miasta directed by Mariusz Wilczyński. This is a North American premiere on the film and a two-week streaming run in the USA required to submit a movie to the Academy Awards. The last Polish contender in the Best Animated Feature category was Loving Vincent nominated in 2017.

This movie has already won the Jury Distinction Award at Annecy International Film Festival, the Grand Prize for Feature Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and a FIPRESCI Award at the 2020 Viennale and toured many other festivals. It is a hauntingly surreal meditation on aging, mortality, and loss. Adopting an intentionally threadbare visual style that makes visible the traces of its own creation, Wilczyński transmutes heavily autobiographical elements into a radically shape-shifting form in which outer reality and inner consciousness collapse into each other, and in which the laws of time, space, and identity are constantly in flux. The mood is set with music by the famous Polish bluesman Tadeusz Nalepa.

Polish artist Mariusz Wilczyński has been making visually striking, deeply personal short animations, as well as unique live animation performances, for twenty years, a body of work that has won him widespread acclaim in Poland and tributes at institutions around the world, including MoMA, the National Gallery in London, and many others. Kill It And Leave This Town is Wilczyński’s first feature-length film.

Additional dimension of the movie is added by voices behind animations. The voice cast reads as who is who of the Polish cinema – from Andrzej Wajda and Krystyna Janda to Andrzej Chyra and Magdalena Cielecka.

The streaming ticket allows for 48 hrs. to watch the feature film also to watch nine short animation movies by the director. Full list can be found here.

Additional attraction: Live Q&A with the director at 1 pm PST on December 3, 2020. More details and a Zoom link can be found here.

More: Wilczynski bio

Update: Due to high demand, this program has been extended until December 31, 2020.