A dedicated platform for emerging Polish female screenwriters and an ideas development workshop are among the highlights of the industry events at the 25th BNP Paribas New Horizons International Film Festival (New Horizons IFF).
They will be complemented by the prestigious Polish Days 2025 event, held in Wrocław, Poland, from July 20-22.
For the first time, the festival is hosting the final session of Scriptwriters on the Horizon, an initiative for emerging Polish female screenwriters, in partnership with Netflix, one of the festival’s key collaborators.
“Screenwriters applied with ideas for future-length films, developed the ideas for a few months and now come to Polish Days, to network and to present their ideas to the international film industry,” says Polish Days’ head of industry Weronika Czołnowska, who is also director of the Screenwriters on the Horizon programme.
The aim, she explains, is to boost female representation in the Polish industry.
For the 18 places, Czołnowska and New Horizons International Film Festival director Marcin Pieńkowski and their teams sifted through more than 300 applicants. “It’s proof of the growth and ambition in the Polish film industry,” says Pieńkowski of the high number of submissions.
“Our guests will have an opportunity to meet 18 talented, aspiring screenwriters who will be attending Polish Days,” adds Czołnowska.
The international guests at Polish Days will include leading German producer Jamila Wenske of Berlin-based Achtung Panda, Slovakian producer Katarina Tomkova of Kaleidoscope and Paulus Hagemeyer, from France’s Coproduction Office, as well as programmers from top festivals including Toronto, Sundance, Berlinale, Venice, Locarno and Tribeca.
The international sales sector will be represented by execs from companies including mk2, the Party Sales, Pluto, Reel Suspects and Alpha Violet.
Dynamic hub
The New Horizons International Film Festival, Poland’s biggest public film event, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Over the past quarter century it has become an increasingly dynamic hub bringing together the local screen sector with the international industry.
New Horizons is a member of the Smart7 network of European film festivals, along with Vilnius International Film Festival in Lithuania, Portugal’s IndieLisboa, Spain’s Filmadrid International Film Festival, the Transilvania International Film Festival in Romania, Iceland’s Reykjavik International Film Festival and Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Together, they host a series of workshops for festival organisers worldwide and run an international competition for emerging international arthouse filmmakers with a €5,000 cash prize.
Artistic director Pieńkowski says the festival works well as a platform for the full scope of Polish cinema. “From films in development through works in progress to completed films. It’s the heart of Polish cinema.
“Our aim is to connect Polish cinema – which is growing and becoming more experienced – with the international industry.”
The New Horizons Studio+ workshop is one of the strands that takes place within Polish Days to help to facilitate this, organised in collaboration with Creative Europe Poland and the Polish Film Institute. It is designed to showcase pairs of emerging directors and producers from Poland and other European countries, focusing on pitching, promotion, and project development.
Overall, some 25 feature projects at various stages of development will be platformed during Polish Days. The festival aims to support them at every stage of their evolution: Projects that take part in New Horizons studio + often go on to be presented at the development stage during Polish Days and once a film is in production, it may be invited to the Works in Progress session.
Many of the finished films will screen during the festival.
This year, works in progress is highlighting eight film projects including Julia Rogowska’s The Time That Never Came, which is being produced by Joanna Szymańska and Krystyna Kantor’s rising local outfit Shipsboy. Rogowska took part in 2022’s edition of New Horizons Studio +.
In the 10-project pitching line-up, 2023 New Horizons Studio+ participant Katarzyna Iskra returns to the festival with her drama The Crack.
Czołnowska is proud of how New Horizons and Polish Days showcase every aspect of the vibrant Polish industry, making the event a must-attend for the international film industry.
“As well as promoting well-established directors and production companies, we support newcomers and debutants, new companies, young filmmakers, first-time filmmakers,” she says. “The local and international film industry come here to check out what’s going on in our market and what’s new.”
Contact: Weronika Czołnowska, New Horizons International Film Festival
Find out more: www.nowehoryzonty.pl/
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