7 audio-descriptions in the final of the Audio-Description of the Year 2025 competition – Polish Film Festival

We are announcing the list of seven audio-descriptions that will be in the running for the Grand Prize in the Audio-Description of the Year 2025 competition!

In this competition, we recognise the creators of audio-description – scriptwriters and consultants. From the thirty-seven audio-descriptions shortlisted for the first stage of the competition, the jury has selected seven finalists, which will now be put to a public vote. From 10^th August to 10^th September, blind and partially sighted people registered on the Pociąg film portal can vote for the audio-description they think should win the competition.

The following audio-descriptions for films have been shortlisted for the public vote:
13 Days Till Summer (script: Bartosz Wokan, consultation: Magdalena Dudowicz)
Franz (script: Izabela Künstler-Zawisza)
Where Do We Begin (script: Alicja Maciejewska, consultation: Magdalena Dudowicz)
Under the Grey Sky (script: Anita Fidyka)
Challenge of the Bow (script: Remigiusz Koziński)
The Crossroads (script: Alicja Maciejewska, consultation: Magdalena Dudowicz)
Szkoda, że nareszcie (script: Julia Chętkowska, Ewa Ćwiek)

We would like to congratulate the creators of the audio-descriptions that have made it into the final seven. We would like to thank the distributors and producers for making the films available for the public vote – this is a gesture that plays a significant role in promoting accessibility in cinema.

Entrusting the selection of the Grand Prize winner not to experts and professionals, but specifically to an audience with visual impairments, proves that cinema can captivate not only through its images, and that a love of film can be born from the dialogue between the soundtrack and audio-description. It is precisely thanks to audio-description – that is, a verbal description of the world depicted on screen – that blind and partially sighted people can watch films, experience them, interpret them and discuss them with other viewers. Audio-description meets the real needs of the audience, and its creation should be an integral part of the filmmaking process.

What was the deciding factor in selecting the final seven?

The final audio-descriptions were selected by a professional jury comprising Katarzyna Anzorge, Radosław Czerniakiewicz, Roman Roczeń and Artur Zaborski. The jury chose the audio-descriptions that best demonstrated how a description of the image can become an integral part of a film.

The jurors assessed not only the accuracy of the text, but also the overall effect created by the audio-description in conjunction with the visuals, dialogue, music and sound. The following factors were taken into account: the precision of the description, the apt choice of details, the literary quality of the language, the use of pauses between dialogue, as well as the voice and the narrator’s interpretation. Good audio-description should blend with the rhythm, tone and style of the film – it must not sound like a separate commentary superimposed on the finished work.

The jury appreciated descriptions that help to build a picture using concrete details, whilst at the same time not overloading the film with information or explaining what can be deduced independently from its soundtrack. Audio-description should not impose an interpretation – each viewer forms their own, based on their knowledge, experiences and understanding of cinematic language. It was also important to preserve the emotional power of the scenes. Audio-description should not name emotions or tone down difficult images. It should convey the essential elements of a scene so that a blind person can experience the emotion, tension, fear, delight or amusement for themselves.

Now the choice is up to the audience. The voices of blind and partially sighted people matter: they show filmmakers which solutions really work, set the direction for the development of audio- description, and help to build accessible cinema of the highest standard. This isn’t just a vote for one film – it’s a vote for quality, for treating audiences with respect, and for their right to fully experience cinema.

The awards ceremony will take place on 25^th September 2026 during the Young Gala at the 51^st Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. The Main Audience Award, worth PLN 5,000, and the Jury’s Special Mention, worth PLN 2,500, will be presented.

The Audio-Description of the Year competition is organised by the De Facto Association and the Accessible Cinema Foundation, in partnership with the Pomeranian Film Foundation in Gdynia, the organiser of the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. The competition is organised with the support of the Polish Film Institute.

More information at audiodeskrypcjaroku.pl