Jurors of the 50^th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia

MAIN COMPETITION JURY

• Magnus von Horn – Chairman
• Bartosz Chajdecki
• Magdalena Dipont
• Łukasz Gutt
• Magdalena Kamińska
• Łukasz M. Maciejewski
• Grażyna Szapołowska

SHORT FILM COMPETITION JURY

• Kasia Adamik – Chairwoman
• Mirosław Baka
• Monika Majorek

PERSPECTIVES COMPETITION JURY

• Milenia Fiedler – Chairwoman
• Olga Chajdas
• Mariusz Włodarski

DIRECTING DEBUT OR SECOND FILM AWARD JURY
inter-competition section

• Borys Lankosz – Chairman
• Sonia Bohosiewicz
• Mara Tamkovich

BIOGRAMS:

MAIN COMPETITION JURY

Magnus von Horn – Chairman

Magnus von Horn is a film director, born in Göteborg in 1983. He’s been living and working in Poland for twenty years. A  graduate of the Łódź Film School, he’s taught directing there for ten years. His narrative feature debut, The Here After, premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and won three Guldbagge Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, as well as a Polityka Passport. His second film, Sweat, was selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival and went on to win the Silver Lions at the 2020 PFF in Gdynia and the grand prize at the 2020 Chicago IFF. In 2024, The Girl with the Needle premiered in the Main Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s been sold worldwide, received the Silver Lions at the 2024 PFF in Gdynia, eleven Eagles, and nominations for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

Bartosz Chajdecki

Bartosz Chajdecki is a composer for film and television, born in Kraków in 1980. He began composing at twelve and, four years later, started working with the Akne Theatre in Kraków, including the production A Little Requiem for Kantor. He has worked at the Yale School of Drama, the New York School of Visual Arts, and the Samuel Beckett Theatre in London. In 2004, he graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Kraków. He has been composing music for film and television since 2000. His collaborators include Kinga Dębska, Łukasz Palkowski, Maciej Pieprzyca, Greg Zglinski, Jan Kidawa-Błoński, Adrian Panek, Juliusz Machulski, Jan Komasa, Kordian Piwowarski, and Arkadiusz Jakubik. He is a winner of the Transatlantyk Oceans Award, the Bo wARTo! Special Award, the Polish Soundtrack of the Year Award, the Komeda Grand Prix, and the MocArt RMF Classic Award.

Magdalena Dipont

Magdalena Dipont is a production designer. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She started working in the filmmaking industry in 1978 as assistant designer on Andrzej Wajda’s Without Anesthesia. She is responsible for the set design and production design in Wajda’s many subsequent films (incl. The Maids of Wilko, Man of Iron, Katyn, Walesa. Man of Hope). She also collaborated with Janusz Zaorski (The Baritone, Sons and Comrades), Krzysztof Kieślowski (No End, Dekalog, The Double Life of Véronique, Three Colors: White), Krzysztof Krauze (Street Games, The Debt, My Nikifor), Michał Kwieciński (Let’s Go to the Movies Tomorrow), Borys Lankosz (The Reverse), Marcin Krzyształowicz (Mister T.). The most recent production design she created is for Sławomir Fabicki’s Anxiety.

Łukasz Gutt

Łukasz Gutt is a cinematographer, director, and visual artist. He graduated from the Radio and Television Faculty of the University of Silesia in Katowice. He made his debut in 2011 with Ki (dir. Leszek Dawid), presented at the Venice IFF. Earlier, with Paweł Ferdek, he shot the documentary Scrap Odyssey, shown at festivals worldwide. He was a cinematographer for numerous award-winning productions, including The Butler, Damaged, Performer, A Heart of Love, Broad Peak, as well as the series The Tunnel and Becoming Elizabeth. With Łukasz Ronduda, he co-directed All Our Fears, which won the Golden Lions at the 2021 PFF in Gdynia and the 2022 Eagle for Discovery of the Year. He is also an active visual artist. He displayed his works at Kunsthalle Basel, the Foksal Gallery Foundation, and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. He is a member of the Polish Society of Cinematographers, the Polish Film Academy, and the European Film Academy.

Magdalena Kamińska

Magdalena Kamińska is a film producer and founder of Balapolis company. She produces films and series. She received a Special Mention from the Polish Producers Alliance for artistic courage at the 2016 OFF CAMERA International Festival of Independent Cinema in Kraków for Baby Bump (dir. Kuba Czekaj) which was granted the Queer Lion Award at the 2015 Venice IFF. Her film Werewolf (dir. Adrian Panek) is a Polish, German and Dutch coproduction and received awards including for Best Directing and Best Music at the 2018 Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, and the Ecumenical Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2018 Black Night Film Festival in Tallinn. The documentary The Hamlet Syndrome (dir. Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski) won the Grand Prix of the Semaine de la Critique section at the 2022 IFF Locarno and the Golden Hobby-Horse at the 2022 Krakow Film Festival. Her latest productions include White Courage (dir. Marcin Koszałka), Simona Kossak (dir. Adrian Panek), the Strange Angels series for Canal+ and Aniela.

 Łukasz M. Maciejewski

Łukasz M. Maciejewski is a film and television screenwriter and a member of the Polish Screenwriters’ Guild. He co-wrote Marcin Koszałka’s narrative feature debut, The Red Spider, and his second film, White Courage (awarded for the screenplay at the 2024 PFF in Gdynia). He also wrote screenplays for two films directed by Mateusz Rakowicz – The Getaway King (awarded for the screenplay at the 2022 Koszalin Debut Film Festival) and Mother’s Day – as well as Broys (dir. Marcin Filipowicz), The Hidden Web (dir. Piotr Adamski), and Colours of Evil (dir. Adrian Panek), the latter of which entered Netflix’s Top 10 in ninety countries. He was the lead writer for the series The King of Warsaw, based on SzczepanTwardoch’s novel and directed by Jan P. Matuszyński (Eagle for Best TV Series). In 2025, Polityka included him on its list of the 12 most talented screenwriters in Poland.

Grażyna Szapołowska

An outstanding Polish film, theatre, and television actress, as well as a director and writer, she graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. She began her stage career at the Wrocław Pantomime Theatre, and, for many years, was associated with the National Theatre in Warsaw. Her film roles brought her enormous popularity. She made her debut in the 1970s, but her breakthrough came with her performance in the Hungarian film Another Way. She has worked with some of the greatest directors of Polish and European cinema and appeared in such films as A Short Film About Love, No End, The Magnate, Pan Tadeusz, Medium, Home Chronicles, and Belcanto, among others. She has received numerous awards, including the Eagle and the Golden Hugo, as well as distinctions for lifetime achievement. In addition to acting, she is active as a director, having staged operas such as Halka and La Traviata in Wrocław. She is also the author of several books, including autobiographical works, such as Pocałunki, Poza mną, Ścigając pamięć, and Zapomniałam o tobie. For her contributions to culture, she has been awarded the Golden Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

PERSPECTIVES COMPETITION JURY

Milenia Fiedler – Chairwoman

Milenia Fiedler is a film editor and a graduate of FAMU in Prague. She has contributed to dozens of documentaries, narrative films, TV series, and TV plays, and has received two awards for editing at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. She has collaborated with directors such as Andrzej Wajda, Mariusz Treliński, Janusz Majewski, Filip Bajon, Krzysztof Zanussi, Urszula Antoniak, and Bodo Kox. Since 1999, she has been a lecturer and, since 2020, rector of the Łódź Film School. She is a member of the Polish Film Editors Association (PSM), the Polish Film Academy, and the European Film Academy.

 Mariusz Włodarski

Mariusz Włodarski is a producer. He graduated in international relations and from the Łódź Film School, where he now teaches. He’s a member of AMPAS, the EFA, the PFA, EAVE, and ACE. He gained experience working on international co-productions at Opus Film. In 2010, he founded Lava Films, producing such films as The Here After and Sweat (dir. Magnus von Horn); The Harvesters (dir. Etienne Kallos); The Taste of Pho (dir. Mariko Bobrik); Never Gonna Snow Again (dir. Małgorzata Szumowska); Apples (dir. Christos Nikou); A Pale View of Hills (dir. Kei Ishikawa); Ugly Stepsister (dir. Emilie Blichfeldt); and The Things You Kill (dir. Alireza Khatami). He also produced The Girl with the Needle (dir. Magnus von Horn), which was Denmark’s Oscar submission. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and went on to win eleven awards at the PFF in Gdynia as well as eleven Polish Film Awards.

Olga Chajdas

Olga Chajdas is a theatre and film director. She made her debut in theatre in 2008 with a performance of Tuvia Tenenbom’s Last Jew in Europe in Teatr Na Woli. For television she directed e.g. the world-acclaimed Głęboka woda or the series The Border, which won an Eagle Award, and Netflix series 1983 or Cracow Monsters. She made the award-winning short films 3xLOVE and Morning Has Broken. Her cinema feature-length debut, Nina, received awards incl. the Grand Prix VPRO Big Screen at the 2018 IFF Rotterdam. And the Grand Prix of the Polish Films Competition at the 2018 International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography Camerimage. She was nominated for the 2018 Polityka Passports. In 2023 her film, Imago, had its premiere at the Karlovy Vary IFF. It received the FIPRESCI Prize and won the Silver Lions at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. Chajdas is the executive producer of the first Polish feature film production Erotica 2022 and the series Kabul for France TV. She co-produced the Golda Tencer documentary. She is a board member of the Directors’ Guild of Poland, a member of the Polish Film Academy and the European Film Academy.

DIRECTING DEBUT OR SECOND FILM AWARD JURY
inter-competition section

Borys Lankosz – Chairman

Borys Lankosz is a director. He graduated from the Film and Television Direction Department of the Łódź Film School. His debut, The Reverse, was a Polish submission for an Oscar in 2009. The film won the Golden Lions at the 2009 PFF in Gdynia and eight Eagles, including for Best Film. He’s a renowned documentary director, whose works include the award-winning Evolution and The Author of Solaris, the first film biography of Stanisław Lem. In 2015, A Grain of Truth was one of the most-watched Polish films. He’s the author of the experimental documentary Kobro/Strzemiński.A Fantastic Tale. His third narrative feature – Dark, Almost Night – was shown at the Munich International Film Festival and Raindance Film Festival in London, where he was nominated for the award for the best screenplay. He directed Pamiętnik pani Hanki for TV Theatre and created the series Erin, based on a novel by Marek Krajewski. He’s a member of the European Film Academy, as well as a co-founder of the Directors Guild of Poland, and served on its Main Board for a decade.

Sonia Bohosiewicz

Sonia Bohosiewicz is an actress. She graduated from the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków. In her second year, she made her debut at the Stary Theatre, where she performed until 2006. From 2005 to 2007, she acted at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. She made a splash by playing Hanka B. in Reserve (dir. Łukasz Palkowski), a role that brought her an Eagle, the Zbyszek Cybulski Award, an award for debut at the 2007 Koszalin Debut Film Festival, and an award for an actress in a supporting role at the 2007 PFF in Gdynia. She has collaborated with such directors as Xawery Żuławski (Snow White and Russian Red), Marcin Krzyształowicz (Manhunt), Janusz Zaorski (Siberian Exile), Grzegorz Jankowski (Polish Shit), Jerzy Stuhr (The Citizen), Aleksandra Terpińska (Other People), Waldemar Krzystek (The Photographer), and Łukasz Palkowski (Gods). She performs in TV and radio plays, as well as in theatre, in Domówka and 10 sekretów Marilyn Monroe, which she has written and produced.

Mara Tamkovich

Mara Tamkovich is a Polish-Belarussian director and screenwriter. She studied journalism at the University of Warsaw and film directing at the Warsaw Film School and the Wajda School. For almost ten years, she worked for independent Belarusian media broadcasting from Poland. Her short films have been shown at festivals in Poland and abroad, winning awards at the Chicago IFF, the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, the Minsk IFF, FEST in Espinho, the Linz ISFF, and many others. Her narrative feature debut, Under the Grey Sky, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival and received an award for the best debut at the 2024 PFF in Gdynia. She is a member of the Directors Guild of Poland and the Belarusian Independent Film Academy.

SHORT FILM COMPETITION JURY

Kasia Adamik – Chairwoman

Kasia Adamik is a director, producer, editor, and storyboard artist. Her debut, Bark!, was shown in the Main Competition of the Sundance Film Festival. Since then, she has directed narrative features (The Offsiders, Janosik: A True Story, Spoor, and Amok), TV dramas (1983, Warrior Nun, Cracow Monsters, Into Deep Water, Pitbull, The Border, Absentia), stage and TV plays, music videos, and numerous adverts. She has also worked as a 2^nd unit director, editor, and storyboard artist on over thirty-five American and European productions. She won the 2017 Silver Bear at the Berlin IFF for Spoor, which she co-directed with Agnieszka Holland. Her TV series The Border received two Eagles for Best Drama Series. She co-produced The Karamazov Brothers, a highly acclaimed film directed by Petr Zelenka, for Warsaw Pact Production. She recently directed No Escape — a TV series for Paramount+ produced by New Pictures in the UK, which premiered on the platform in 2023 — and this year, she directed Star City for Apple. Her new series Kabul, which she produced, premiered in late March in the International Competition of Series Mania in Lille. Her narrative feature Winter of the Crow, produced by Wild Mouse Production in collaboration with Iris Productions (Luxembourg), will have its premiere during this year’s Toronto IFF. 

Mirosław Baka

Mirosław Baka graduated from the Faculty of Acting of the Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Wrocław. Since 1988 he is associated with Teatr Wybrzeże where he has played dozens of roles. He also performed on the stages of Warsaw theatres: Polonia, Syrena, Komedia and 6.piętro. He’s played numerous roles in teleplays of Television Theatre. When he was still studying Krzysztof Kieślowski offered him the main role in A Short Film About Killing. Apart from many other awards this film won the Felix Award – the European Film Award, at that time granted for the very first time. Since then, Baka has acted in almost a hundred Polish and foreign film and series productions. He played in films directed by Andrzej Wajda (incl. Condemnation of Franciszek Klos, Walesa. Man of Hope), Władysław Pasikowski (Demons of War, Reich, Jack Strong, The Resistance Fighter, Psy 3), Wojciech Wójcik (The Last Mission, There and Back) and many others. He is also known to the tv audiences thanks to his appearances in series such as: Fala zbrodni, Time of Honor, Tancerze, Na krawędzi, True Law, The Teacher III, Profilerka. He received numerous prestigious awards. In 1996 he was decorated with the Silver Cross of Merit. His role in an action drama Amok(dir. Natalia Koryncka-Gruz) earned him an Eagle nomination. In 2014 he was decorated with the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. In a Radio RMF Classic MocArty listeners poll he was chosen Man of the Year 2023.

Monika Majorek

Monika Majorek is a director, screenwriter, and script consultant. Her short films (Inka, First, Off-season) have been screened at numerous international festivals and have won multiple awards. She has received the Panavision Film Award and the New Horizons Studio+ Award. Her feature debut, Where Do We Begin, won an Audience Award at the 2024 Warsaw Film Festival and two awards at the 2024 PFF in Gdynia: the Bravest Look and the Fresh Look in Polish Cinema. She also received the Jantar Award for directing at the 2025 Koszalin Debut Film Festival.