The Seattle Polish Film Festival is back! The festival turns thirty this year, as it was created in 1992 by Michal Friedrich and Tom Podl with the help of Christopher Kamyszew and the Polish Film Festival in America in Chicago. This is the second oldest Polish film festival in the United States, after the Chicago festival. The festival starts with the “Vodka and the Drop of Art” event on October 13, 2022. Screening will be
Another tradition comes back! The Seattle Polish Film Festival presents its kickoff party, and a festival fundraiser event, Vodka and a Drop of Art. On the art side, this year you will get the chance to discover the originality and creativity behind the SPFF posters throughout the years. They will be available this night only, along with the photos from previous festivals. See if you can find yourself in any of those and reminisce about
If you missed it earlier, this is a reminder that Polish Cultural Institute New York and MUBI still present a selection of Stanisław Lem centennial movies. The series can be viewed on the movie platform MUBI, with a 30-day free trial period and different availability in different countries. In United States, the movies can be watched till July 31, 2022. For me, The Congress was hands down the best movie to watch. The Congress (2013,
Seattle Internation Film Festival presents the famous Three Colors trilogy by the Polish master Krzysztof Kieślowski. The movies, inspired by the French tricolor of blue, white and red are intricate riffs on the motto of Liberté, égalité, fraternité that the colors symbolize. The movies, starring Juliette Binoche, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy and Irene Jacobs, have been newly remastered to the 4k quality. All three movies screen at SIFF Cinema Egyptian. The movies were set to
The 2022 New York Polish Film Festival has an online edition for viewing selected movies in the contiguous United States running from June 7 to June 28, 2022. Online watching is $9. The streaming program includes the following movies: Leave No Traces / Żeby nie było śladów (2021, 154′) dir. by P. Matuszyński. the Grzegorz Przemyk story Back Then / Zupa nic (2021, 154′), dir. by Kinga Dębska, satire on Communist Poland Reflection / Odbicie
The Seattle Polish Film Festival presents a special screening at SIFF Cinema of the movie The Wedding Day / Wesele (2021), directed by Wojtek Smarzowski and starring Robert Więckiewicz, Agata Kulesza, Andrzej Chyra and Arkadiusz Jakubik. The movie takes on some fundamental issues related to the Polish national character and skeletons in the closet, both in the subject matter and in the symbolism. The Polish title Wesele is of course loaded, as it is the
The Polish Cultural Center and the Seattle Polish Film Festival present the movie Battle of Warsaw 1920 / 1920 Bitwa Warszawska (115′), directed by Jerzy Hoffman and starring Daniel Olbrychski as Józef Piłsudski. In Polish with English subtitles. This 2011 film depicts the pivotal moment of the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1918-1921. After initial Polish successes, the Red Army got the upper hand in Ukraine and Belarus and invaded newly independent Poland. The country seemed on
The Seattle Gdynia Sister City Association presents the movie Pilot Pirx’s Inquest / Test Pilota Pirxa (1978, 95′), dir. by Marek Piestrak and based on the short story by Stanisław Lem The Inquest from the Tales of Pirx the Pilot / Opowieści o pilocie Pirxie series. The movie is about “finite non-linears,” robots that closely resemble human beings but are even more perfect than humans. They are intended to eventually replace humans in space flights. Somewhat apprehensive
The 29th Seattle Polish Film Festival returns after the pandemic induced hiatus in 2020. The SPFF is the second oldest Polish film festival in the USA, after the Polish Film Festival of America in Chicago, running since 1992. The festival is produced by the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association. As usual, the movies will be screened both at SIFF venues and at the Polish Cultural Center. All movies with English subtitles where necessary. The schedule as
To celebrate the Year of Stanisław Lem, the UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee and the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association present the movie Hospital of the Transfiguration / Szpital przemienienia, directed by Edward Żebrowski. This 1979 film is a haunting WWII drama based on Lem’s novel of the same title. There will be an introduction to this movie by Dr. Dawid Junke of the Institute of Cultural Studies, University of Wroclaw in Poland. Dr. Junke will
Polish Cultural Institute New York and MUBI present a selection of Stanisław Lem centennial movies that have been showing at other places as well. This series spotlights mostly sci-fi movies based on Lem’s work with the haunting WWII drama Hospital of the Transfiguration added to the mix later. The series can be viewed on the world-wide movie platform MUBI, with a 30 days free trial period. The centennial movies from the list below can be
The SIFF virtual cinema presents the Polish movie Never Gonna Snow Again / Śniegu już nigdy nie będzie (2020, 113′) directed by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert and starring Alec Utgoff, Maja Ostaszewska and Agata Kulesza. The streaming is available from August 13, 2021. Never Gonna Snow Again is a subversive comedy that tells a story of an Ukrainian man, Zhenia (played by the Ukrainian actor Alec Utgoff), who moves to Poland to work as
The Seattle International Film Festival streaming presents the 2020 film Charlatan directed by Agnieszka Holland and starring Ivan Trojan. This fascinating 2020 movie tells a true story of Jan Mikolášek, a very well-known traditional healer in post WWII Czechoslovakia, who with his uncanny diagnostic skills and herbal mixtures to treat people draws crowds but attracts the attention of the Communist regime and gets arrested and put on trial. The film has won five 2021 Czech
Polish Public Television TVP and its U.S. film distribution partner, Fathom, present a nationwide screening of the 2019 documentary movie Of Animals And Men directed by Łukasz Czajka. Fandango shows that the film is available at multiple cinema theaters in Seattle, on Eastside and other local cities and towns on June 22, 2021. Of Animals and Men tells the true story behind the 2017 feature film, The Zookeeper’s Wife. This fascinating documentary sheds new light on the story from that
The Cinematheque in Vancouver, BC presents another Stanisław Lem (1921, 2006) movie retrospective that includes the first biographical documentary about the famous writer: Author Solaris / Autor Solaris directed by Borys Lankosz. Borys Lankosz, of the Reverse / Rewers fame, presents a thorough biography addressing many of the less discussed aspects of Lem’s life, starting with his Jewish roots and surviving WWII in then Polish Lwów, subsequent relocation to Kraków and starting his journalist and
Update: online screening extended again, this time till June 30. This year, the New York Polish Film Festival is also presented virtually! The 16th edition will take place from May 26 – 29, 2021 at the Scandinavia House Theater, New York, and from May 29 to June 6 – online. Special presentations include: Charlatan / Szarlatan (2020), dir. Agnieszka Holland Converstations with Kieslowski (1995), dir. Andreas Voigt The program includes the following movies: Corpus Christi
Austin Polish Society presents the Pola Negri Film Festival – “Early Years”. Pola Negri (1897-1987), the famous silent film star was born Barbara Apolonia Chalupiec in Poland and started her career in Warsaw theatres. She made her first movie in Poland in 1914, with eight other by 1917. Then she reinvented herself as a film actress in Germany. From 1917 to 1921 she made 24 movies there and her international career took off for good.
PFF Miami presents a movie program celebrating the centennial of the famous Polish sci-fi writer, essayist, philosopher and futurist Stanisław Lem (1921-2006). Perhaps best known worldwide as the author of the 1961 novel, “Solaris,” Stanisław Lem produced dozens upon dozens of novels, stories and essays throughout his nearly 60-year career. Renowned particularly for his work in the realm of science fiction, Lem’s artistic output covers a plethora of genres, encompassing memoirs, accounts of his wartime
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York presents Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema, bringing together the best new works from Poland’s boundary-pushing filmmakers. The series, starting on Friday, April 30 through Thursday, May 6, features seven films, including the New York premiere of the Venice Film Festival hit Never Gonna Snow Again / Śniegu już nigdy nie będzie (2020, 113′). Director Malgorzata Szumowska (whose Berlinale prizewinner Mug screened in the 2018 iteration
The 2021 Seattle International Film Festival is all virtual. This year, only one Polish feature movie is in the program; it is Sweat directed by Magnus von Horn and starring Magdalena Koleśnik. This 2020 movie was featured at the Cannes Film Festival, among others. The film recounts three days in the life of a fitness guru and social media celebrity Sylwia Zając. Sweat starts out light, pink, and fluffy and then turns into a high-energy