SECTION: POLSKIE HORYZONTY: The Female Gaze

In the last few years, films by female directors from Poland have increasingly made a name for themselves on the international festival scene. Most recently, two Polish women, Agnieszka Holland and Małgorzata Szumowska, were represented in the main competitions in Venice. Recent successes at other international A-list film festivals confirm this trend.

Agnieszka Smoczyńska's THE SILENT TWINS wowed the critics at Cannes 2022. For her first English-language film, she was able to win British superstar actress Letitia Wright for one of the leading roles, which shows the good reputation Polish female directors enjoy in the international industry. In addition, the increasing number of national awards for productions by Polish women directors also testifies to a positive trend in the industry as a whole, even if the struggle of female filmmakers for promotion and recognition continues to be determined by numerous and variously motivated obstacles.

The FFC is showing an exemplary selection of very different films by Polish women directors, most of which focus on female identification figures; among them are all three films by Agnieszka Smoczyńska. IMAGO, the new film by Olga Chajdas, is a remarkable and unusual film by another renowned Polish director in this year's FFC competition.

The series is supported by the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation.