Play Poland Film Festival, the biggest event promoting Polish cinema in the UK, has won the hearts of British cinemagoers. From September to December, during the second four month edition of the festival, over ten thousand viewers attended screenings of the best Polish films of recent years.
“We are extremely happy that we have managed to attract such a huge audience to festival events as this means that our goal to promote Polish films has been accomplished,” said Mateusz Jarza, the creator and main organiser of the festival, who is also head of Polish Art Europe, a non-profit organisation which promotes Polish culture and art abroad.
The mobile film festival began on September 28 and was held in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford, Sunderland, London, Liverpool and Newcastle. 75 days of screenings, with both features and shorts, were accompanied by special screenings, exhibitions of Polish film posters and popular meetings with filmmakers.
This year's films included 80 Million by Waldemar Krzystek, Joanna by Feliks Falk, Fear Of Falling by Bartosz Konopka, The Canadian Dresses by Maciej Michalski and Elles by Małgorzata Szumowska, plus films and animations created by the National Film School in Łódź, Wajda School, Munk Studio and Platige Image Studio.
The exhibitions of film posters allowed cinemagoers to see the work of famous Polish designers such as Andrzej Krajewski, Andrzej Pągowski and Eryk Lipiński.
“Special screenings were watched mainly by young people and students, while feature films were attended by a more mature audience and connoisseurs of world cinema,” said Jarza. “It seems that our idea for the festival continues to perform well. There is an increased interest in ambitious cinema in the UK and such films are created in Poland.
“Next year we are also going to organise training led by filmmakers. There are going to be more concerts and exhibitions, too. We are planning to ask even more British and Canadian cities to cooperate with us. We are also holding talks with Shanghai, Malta and Lisbon, and we hope that they will support us... Our patrons and partners have already promised to participate in the next year’s edition, which means one thing – there will be more good Polish movies in the UK.”
