With the current research for a new director to direct the Polish cinema institute, after the departures last year of two institutes in the space of only six months, Polish professionals say that their industry is at the crossroads.
First, the good news: many heavyweights in the industry have long awaited lined up features, notably the winner of the Oscars Paweł Pawlikowski (“Ida”), which should be produced on “Fatherland”, a biopic on the German Prize Nobel Prize Thomas Mann, and the triple Oscar Nominee Agnieszka Holland (“Green Border”) Is Agnieszka Have looking at a berth from the Fall Festival.
Meanwhile, the nomine with the Oscars Jan Komasa (“Corpus Christi”) prepares “Good Boy”, featuring the star of “Adolescence” Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough, while the Darling Agnieszka Smochzyńska festival (“The Silent Twins”) will come back to the Science Thriller ” Spot.
This year’s programming includes a pair of Polish minority co -productions – “A Pale View of Hills” of the Japanese filmmaker Kei Ishikawa, losing in the UN in some respects, and “that my will” by Julia Kowalski “by Julia Kowalski” by Julia Kowalski.
“Poland is very strong on co -productions. We have big talents to attach to projects, “notes Jan Naszewski, from the sales outfit based in Warsaw, New Europe Film Sales, which is associated with Stop Gap films in Ireland on” a few kilometers to the south “, the first British director Ben Pearce who will be raised by” Babadook “Dop Radek ładczuk.
“We are an attractive partner for European and Anglo-Saxon countries thanks to talents, the selective fund and tax delivery, as well as experienced and well-trained producers,” adds Naszewski.
This combination has led to critical applause and a series of Oscar’s heads for Polish co -productions, including the “Interest Zone of Interest” by Jonathan Glazer, “A Real Pain” and “The Girl with the Equare” by Jesse Eisenberg and “The Girl with the Aedle” by Jesse Eisenberg and Magnus von Horn.
Many fear, however, that the industry becomes more and more heavy, Naszewski noting that “apart from a few established directors, Poland does not make theatrical films strong enough to travel internationally.
Part of this is a by-product of inflation, the increase in production costs and continuous economic uncertainty in the world, with fears of a global recession which is turbo by the administration of saber-flash of US President Donald Trump. But professionals in the Polish industry also highlight the structural weaknesses of the industry and its dependence on a funding system that has trouble keeping the rate of production.
“What we face is a crisis of diversity of sources of funding for the film in our country,” explains Mariusz Włodarski of Lava Films, co -producer of “A Pale View of Hills” and “The Girl With The Needle”. “We have to try to make this ecosystem a little more durable.”
The cash recovery of 30% of Poland has an annual budget of 108 million Złoty (approximately $ 28.7 million) to support national and international productions, with competition for the fierce incentive this year that the servers crashed shortly after the opening of the online application platform. The total budget was allocated in a few hours.
“You cannot base your funding on Polish recovery,” said Krzysztof Solek of film Polar, which recently completed the production of the limited series “Parallel Me” for Gaumont and Paramount +. Solek says he has lost two big budget American productions this year because “money is already gone”, adding: “We need a new system equal to the needs of Poland”.
“May my will be made” first in Cannes ‘Directors’ Fortnight.
With the kind authorization of Orka
This should have been a record year for the Polish cinema institute, which celebrates its 20th anniversary, a period that has experienced the remarkable growth of the Polish industry in one of the most daring and dynamic in Europe.
Instead, the research to replace the former director Karolina Rozwód – who resigned last October, only six months after being appointed to replace the head of the Longtime Institute Radosław śmigulski – has left many expectations with expectations and hoping that the Institute could again provide a stability measure to the industry. As a award -winning producer who asked to remain anonymous, “for me to be able to do [high-quality] Films, I need to be able to use the PFI. “”
At the credit of the Institute, he was appointed a committee of industry personalities to help the selection process, and Solek insists that there is a “great political will” of the government and industry to revise the country’s besieged incentive program.
“We work in close collaboration, all associations, guilds, as well as the government,” he said. “It seems that there will be a new system that will be much more attractive than our current.”
