Polish Film Festival: Guides on Entry Submission
Introduction
The Polish Film Festival is a yearly film festival held in Gdynia, Poland. It has been held annually since 1974, with the exception of the years 1982 and 1983 when the country was under martial law. It has become the festival’s tradition to promote the best and latest Polish films. Different film festivals depicting the best in Polish filmmaking have also been set up in different parts of the globe like Los Angeles, New York, Michigan and Seattle. The film festival is usually held in the month of September and has sponsors such as the Polish Film Association and Ministry of Culture.
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Qualifications for Entries
The film festival accepts films that are produced in Poland from June 1 of the recent year to April 30 of the festival year. In submitting film festival entries, all submission should be original with a running time of at least 70 minutes. For entries to be accepted, it should pass the technical and artistic criteria set by the festival. Films belonging to other genres like animated movies and documentaries that have less than 70 minutes of running time may be accepted, depending on the decision of the festival committee and its artistic director.
Awards
The top award in the festival is the Golden Lions given to both the film producer and director of the best film entered in the festival. The Golden Lions Award also comes with a cash prize of 100,000 PLN with an option for the director to hike up financial support to his next project under the rules specified in the operational program of the Polish Film Institute.
Other prizes include Silver Lions while Special Jury Award prizes are also given to noteworthy entries. The Silver Lions award is also given to the director of the second best film, with a cash prize of 50,000 PLN. It also comes with an option for the winning director to increase financing for his next film according to specified rules of the Polish Film Institute.
There are individual prizes for winners in various categories like best screenplay, direction, directing debut, leading performance of an actor, leading performance of an actress, art direction, music, cinematography, supporting performance of an actor, supporting performance of an actress. Other individual prizes are for editing, sound, and costume design.
Cash Prizes
The individual awards also come with cash prizes such as 20,000 PLN for the winner in best directing and screenplay; 15,000 PLN for best directorial debut, leading actress and actor, acting debut, cinematography, art direction and music. Meanwhile, 12,000 PLN await the winners in the best supporting performance by an actor and actress, sound, film editing, make-up and costume design.
How to Submit Entries
The Polish film festival is filmmaker-friendly. There are no fees to pay for filmmakers who would like to join the festival. The usual submission of entries begin on the first day of June and ends on the last day of the month. Entry forms are available on the Polish Film Festival’s official website.
