Monday at 44th PFF

The Monday offerings will mostly treat you to a plateful of films jousting in the Festival’s Main Competition, and a handful of gems shown in Polish Film Panorama. Some seats are still available for many of the Monday screenings.

Bookings may be made online at www.festiwalgdynia.pl, and at the local box office of each of the festival venues (with the exception of the Polish Navy Museum). You are welcome to call the box office at the Helios Cinema (58) 712 46 10; and Gdynia Film Centre (58) 712 46 14.

Festival Bus

Each of the 44th PFF days offers a free bus service linking the Musical Theatre and the Helios Cinema at Riviera Shopping Centre. You just need to produce your festival ID or a ticket for a festival screening on boarding the bus. The service departs every 30 minutes (Plac Grunwaldzki) 9:00-14:00 and 21:00-23:00, and every 20 minutes 14:00-21:00. The service route follows the street of Władysława IV. Customers may also hop on or get off the bus at a mid-route stop, which is a short walk from the City Theatre Gdynia.

We have also scheduled additional morning and evening services along a route calling at selected hotels in Gdynia and Sopot, and – on Monday – at Gdynia Main Railway Station. For more details on schedules, visit the dedicated newsletter on the Festival website: HERE.

Online bookings

All holders accreditations and passes must book seats online. On Monday bookings may be made for Monday and Tuesday screenings as of 7:30. The same rule applies for the following days: as of 7:30 on Tuesday bookings may be made for Tuesday and Wednesday, on Wednesday – for Wednesday and Thursday, and so on.

To book a seat online, visit www.system.festiwalgdynia.pl, and log on to your account. Od This year bookings may also be made via a free Festival appavailable for download at Google Play and Sklep Play. The app is dedicated to accreditation and pass holders.

Should you change your arrangements and find yourself unable to use your reservation for a festival screening, you are kindly requested to cancel your booking in the system, no later than 15 minutes prior to the screening. If you fail to do so, we will endorse your account with 4 penalty points. A word of reminder: one point equals a single film you can see in the course of the Festival.

All the film screening Festival venues have dedicated computer stations where you are free to make your bookings. Our volunteers are also on hand to oblige with support and information whenever you need it.

Festival Reception Desk

To accommodate the many quests who have already come to Gdynia over the pre-Festival weekend, we launched the Festival Reception Desk on Sunday afternoon. On Monday, 16 September, the Festival Reception Desk opens at 8:00. On all the remaining days, the working hours are 9:00-21:00. Traditionally, both the Festival Reception Desks are located at the Musical Theatre in Gdynia. Please, follow the New Stage entrance, which faces Plac Grunwaldzki.

Main Competition and Polish Film Panorama

Two films which have already been shown in cinemas, and a feature-length director’s debut, the first one of four in this year’s Main Competition, are the opening press screenings at the 44th PFF. The Monday film performances include: The Messenger directed by Władysław Pasikowski, Dolce Fina Giornata by Jacek Borcuch, and All for My Mother by Małgorzata Imielska. All the press screenings are shown at Gdynia Film Centre’s Warszawa Screening Room.

Festival press conferences, hosted by Łukasz Maciejewski, have been scheduled immediately after the screenings. A live video feed of those is provided on the PFF YouTube channel. The seats at press screenings may be booked by holders of the following accreditation types: Media, International Guest, and VIP.

At the Musical Theatre’s New Stage and Chamber Stage, and at all the remaining Festival venues, including 6 screening rooms at the Helios Cinema, you are welcome to see the films above and some other titles selected for this year’s Main Competition: Interior by Marek Lechki, Bird Talk by Xawery Żuławski, Proceder by Michał Węgrzyn, Supernova by Bartosz Kruhlik, Pilsudski by Michał Rosa, and Mr. Jones by Agnieszka Holland.

Today we also begin the screenings making up Polish Film Panorama, i.e. feature-length productions which did not make Main Competition selection. The Monday screenings include: Perfect Strangers by Tadeusz Śliwa, Rotten Ears by Piotr Dylewski, Dariusz by Jerzy Gruza, Nothing Is Lost by Kalina Alabrudzińska, Fighter by Konrad Maximilian, Advocat by Piotr P. Gołębiowski, and Rock’n’Roll Edie by Tomasz Szafrański. After the screening of the last of the films at City Theatre Gdynia, a meeting with the film crew is scheduled at the venue.

Official Opening Films

Goście The guests invited to the Official Opening Gala of the 44th PFF held at the Musical Theatre in Gdynia will see two films. The first one of those, Return of the Reveller, is a truly compact piece of work with quite a story to it.

A janitor sweeps the pavement outside an urban house. An open horse-drawn carriage pulls up outside the house, carrying a young gentleman, clad in tails and in a top hat, who is absolutely hammered after a night’s worth of revelry. He struggles, and fails, to rise on his own so the driver and the janitor come to his aid and help him off the carriage and to the gate. The scene is the complete plot of the 1902 film made by Kazimierz Prószyński, an inventor, whom Louis Lumière is said to have thus recognised: “Gentlemen, that man is the first name in cinematography, I am a mere number runner-up”. The pleograph, hand-crafted by the Polish inventor, was lost in the turbulent years of World War II. A similar fate was to befall the very short film.

In 2017 the National Centre for Film Culture in Łódź decided to rebuild Prószyński’s invention. Janusz Król, a production design and special effects wizard, was invited onboard the team tasked with the reconstruction effort. The project’s later stages set out to remake Return of the Reveller, with Piotr Szczepański in the director’s chair. The title part – delivered in the original production by Kazimierz Junosz-Stępowski, a then fledgling actor – was entrusted to Jakub Gierszał.

The main part of the opening night at the 44th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia is dedicated to the official screening of Mr. Jones.by Agnieszka Holland.

Gdynia for Children

Dedicated to pre-school and junior school pupils, it is one of the most popular and oldest sections of the Polish Film Festival. It is jointly organised by Polish Filmmakers Association and Pomeranian Film Foundation. The section this year’s impression, running at 16 and counting, brings into focus over 30 animated short stories, and as many as 11 feature-length films, including the latest productions – among those The Day of Chocolate by Jacek Piotr Bławut – and some classic titles, with Trip for One Smile by Stanisław Jędryka leading the pack.

The screenings are quite bound to see the rooms at the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park Conference Centre packed to the rafters with the youngest festivalgoers. Monday will see the section’s inauguration held at Gdynia Film Centre.

Outdoor screenings

As soon as Monday night onwards, the public are invited to see Polish films in the outdoor cinema in Plac Grunwaldzki. For starters: Panic Attack by Paweł Maślona, which made the Main Competition selection at the 42nd PFF. The night-time performances are organised courtesy of Telewizja Kino Polska. Free admission.

Exhibitions and installations

The Partners of the 44th PFF have laid on some outdoor exhibitions, which are well worth a look and available for viewing throughout the Festival week. One of the Legal Culture installations brings into focus the creative work of Krzysztof Zanussi, this year’s recipient of Platinum Lions for lifetime achievement. Another one pays tribute to the late Ryszard Bugajski. Other themed installations dwell on the tropes of Polish film schools, music in film, and the world’s leading museums.

The Adam Mickiewicz Institute kindly invites you to a temporary purpose-built pavilion beside the Musical Theatre, where you can see Gymnasia, a 3D animated production. The film is further complemented with a bespoke real theatre experience and an exhibition, all of which are bound into a whole with themes known form the works of Tadeusz Kantor.

Also in Plac Grunwaldzki, along the street of Armii Krajowej, you may snatch a look at the photography exhibition going by the title of ELLE Crystal Star. It presents the collective achievement of to-date winners winners of the accolade conferred at the Festival in Gdynia by ELLE, the largest-circulation fashion magazine on the planet.

As always, the cosy location on the side of the Mercure Gdynia Centre Hotel hosts Lightsensitive Poland’s light-sensitive spot. Visitors welcome. On offer, everyday accounts of film-based adventures across the land, meetings with filmmakers, Light Painting, 3D Painting in VR, and the like.

Press Office

The media personnel are kindly reminded of available exclusive booking options for Interview Zones, courtesy of this year’s Press Office team.

The Zones are made up of two comfy spaces at Gdynia Film Centre where the media may interview film artists away from the Festival hustle and bustle.

One room is particularly advised to press and radio correspondents while the other one, fitted with a Festival-themed set, will prove indispensable for TV crews.

Bookings may be made face-to-face at the Press Office or via the email at biuroprasowe@festiwalgdynia.pl

For more information on the Festival events, visit www.festiwalgdynia.pl.

44. The 44th Polish Film Festival takes place 16-21 September 2019 in Gdynia.