The 45th Cracow Film Festival is almost upon us, and this year promises to be a cracker. As many as 1300 submissions from countries as varied as Lebanon, Korea, China, Israel, Uruguay, Mexico and Cuba have been chewed over by the gallant judges, and these have now been whittled down to about a hundred celluloid surprises.
Poland's oldest film festival champions short films, documentaries and animated features, and prizes will be awarded in both Polish and International categories. Young hopefuls will be competing for the cherished Silver Dragons, whilst this years Dragon of Dragons will go to feted Russian animator Yuri Nornstein, all of whose films will be shown in the festival.
As usual, the screenings are divided between the expansive Kino Kijow ( al. Krasinskiego 34) and the cult KIno Mikro (ul. Lea 5). Both are situated to the west of the Old Town centre. Kijow is about a five minute walk west of the Planty gardens, and Mikro about 10 minutes north-west by the Park Jordana.
The standard form is that there will be a press conference after each screening, so if you think you've discovered the next Kieslowski (who indeed kicked off his career at the festival) then stick around at the end and you can have a chin-wag with the director and some of the cast.
You can download complete programmes for each venue on the official website of the festival (www.cracowfilmfestival,pl). Click on the source link below to get straight there.
The 45th Cracow Film Festival opens at Kino Kijow on Wednesday 31st May with a screening of French short 'Le Souffle'. We'll see you there!
|