PFF x FILMWEB | ZOOM: young film critics competition has just started – Polish Film Festival

The Polish Film Festival in Gdynia and Filmweb invite you to participate in the tenth edition of the film criticism competition “Zoom”. The competition aims to select and promote young people who will professionally write about cinema in the future. Winning this competition will be the first serious step in their professional career. The theme of this year’s competition are the winners of the Golden Lions award selected during the 50 years history of the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. An article submitted to the competition should focus on at least one of the Gdynia award winners. Nonetheless, the participants are free to choose how they explore the topic. The rules of the “Zoom” completion are as follows:

• the total length of the text should be 10-15 thousand characters (with spaces),
• the text must be not yet published,
• the competition is open to individuals under 30 years of age,
• by submitting the competition application, the participant gives his/her consent to the rules and regulations and the GDPR information clause

The deadline for submitting to the competition is 1st August 2025. Texts should be sent to: konkurs@filmweb.pl, and the body of the e-mail should include contact details (name, surname, phone number). The main prize in the competition is PLN 5,000, an accreditation to this year’s edition of the Gdynia festival and the publication of the awarded text at Filmweb website and in the festival newspaper of the PFF in Gdynia. The Jury reserves the right to give a special mention. Winners of the competition will be announced in August 2025. The rules and regulations of the competition can be found here. Information clause on personal data processing can be found here. This year, the jury of the competition is comprised of:

• Joanna Łapińska – Artistic Director of the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia,
• Korek Bojanowski – director of the film Loss of Balance (2024), the winner of best directing debut or second film award at the PFF in Gdynia,
• Jakub Popielecki – deputy editor-in-chief and head of the editorial section of Filmweb.

“Zoom”: best start for the world of tomorrow for film critics The winners of the past editions of “Zoom” have become pillars of Filmweb journalism and an important voice in Polish film criticism. The winner of the first edition, Radosław Osiński, the winner of the third edition, Marcin Stachowicz, and the winner of the fourth edition, Klara Cykorz, were later the winners of the Grand Prix award in Krzysztof Mętrak Competition. The Jury of “Zoom” competition was comprised of prominent figures of the world of culture, such as: Grażyna Torbicka, Michał Walkiewicz, Tadeusz Sobolewski, Joanna Kos-Krauze, Bartosz M. Kowalski, Marcin Wrona, Jakub Żulczyk, Marta Nieradkiewicz,Urszula Antoniak and Michał Oleszczyk.