INDUSTRY ZONE AT THE 54th KRAKOW FILM FESTIVAL - SUMMARY

This year, the events of the Industry Zone - a section of Krakow Film Festival dedicated to film industry professionals - were held from 26 to 31 May. The programme of the Industry Zone included, among others, Krakow Film Market, the presentations Docs to go!, Animated in Poland, Dragon Forum, masterclass by Bogdan Dziworski and the Focus on the UK conference.

Just like last year, Industry Zone was located in the building of Małopolski Ogród Sztuki, where the Reception Hall and the Krakow Film Festival Office as well as two of the festival cinemas were also located. Locating the Industry Zone and the Festival Centre in the same building allowed the festival guests to quickly and efficiently move between the video library of Krakow Film Market, presentations and conferences as well as film screenings.

There were 950 films submitted to participate in Krakow Film Market, which was organised already for the ninth time. Out of the 950 productions, after a careful selections, the organisers chose 290 films. As every year, our partners - East Silver, DOK Leipzig, Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival, Swiss Films and Visions du Reel - prepared a selection of the most interesting and recommended by them documentary films arranged in special sections.

All qualified films are included in the market catalogue, and during the Festival, they can be watched in the digital video library. This year, the films in the Video Library were watched by 198 accredited guests, and the users of Krakow Film Market include, among others  festival programmers: DOK Leipzig (Germany), DOCS DF (Mexico), Visions du Reel - Doc Outlook Market (Switzerland), DocuDays (Ukraine), Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival (Czech Republic), Molodist International Film Festival (Ukraine), Sleepwalkers Film Festival (Estonia), THE Festival dei Popoli (Italy), Plus Camerimage Film Festival (Poland), CineEast - Central and Eastern European Film Festival (Luxembourg), Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Nordisk Panorama (Denmark), International Short Film Festival Leuven/Docville FF (Belgium), Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen (the Netherlands), True False Film Fest (USA), International Film Festival Message To Man (Russia), Festival Look&Roll (Switzerland), Trieste Film Festival (Italy), Filmfest Dresden – International Short Film Festival (Germany), IDFF Listapad (Belarus), Doc Point (Finland), International Festival of Film and Urbanism 86 (Ukraine), distributors and sales agents:  Other Voices (Italy), Deckert Distribution (Germany), Future Shorts (United Kingdom), Wide House (France), Taskovski Films (United Kingdom), MusicFilmWeb (United Kingdom), as well as  film experts and representatives of television channels: ARTE G. E. I. E. (France), AVRO (the Netherlands), RBB online (Germany), TVP Kultura (Poland), DOK.Incubator (the Czech Republic), British Council (United Kingdom), Cinema Art. Network (United Kingdom).

The films included in the video library were watched a total of 2 515 times. Over 100 films were watched more than 10 times. The most frequently watched film is the documentary "Werka" by Paweł Łoziński, which was watched over 50 times.

The most frequently watched Polish films at Krakow Film Market:

- "Werka," dir. Paweł Łoziński
- "The Domino Effect," dir. Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosołowski
- "Knife in the Wife," dir. Vita Drygas
- "Survey about men," dir. Mateusz Głowacki
- "Fragments,", dir. Aga Woszczyńska
- "House on its head," dir. Adam Palenta
- "Six Degrees," dir. Bartosz Dombrowski
- "New Warsaw,", dir. Bartosz Konopka
- "Deep love," dir. Jan P. Matuszyński
- "Co dalej Karolinko – Norwid i Nicole," dir. Karolina Bendera

The most frequently watched foreign films at Krakow Film Market:

- "Borders," dir. Jacqueline van Vugt
- "Once my mother," dir.  Sophia Turkiewicz
- "A Separation," dir. Karin Ekberg
- "Garden Lovers," dir. Virpi Suutari
- "Do you Believe in Love?", dir. Dan Wasserman
- "Two Raging Grannies," dir. Håvard Bustnes
- "Killing Time," dir. Jaap van Hoewijk
- "Blood," dir. Alina Rudnitskaya
- "The Agreement," dir. Karen Stokkendal Poulsen
- "The Square," dir. Livia Gyarmathy

The majority of Polish films, shown in the video library, have been included in Krakow Film Market Online Video Library. This is an online platform, available all year round, which works in a similar way to the traditional film market. The Online Video Library gives the registered film industry professionals access to the latest Polish documentary, animated and short films - from any place in the world and at any time. It is also a perfect opportunity to get acquainted with the achievements of Polish filmmakers for film industry professionals who could not  be present at Krakow Film Festival.

In addition to the Film Market, the rich programme of Industry Zone included also discussion panels, individual meetings and conferences. The guests of the Industry Zone could also participate in the Dragon Forum pitching, which, as every year, was visited by commissioning editors and film experts. During the presentations, they had the opportunity to get acquainted with over a dozen documentary film projects from across Europe. The editors and experts present at this year's edition include the representatives of ARTE, HBO, Sundance Institute, AVRO, RBB, TVP Kultura and regional film funds. The best project award was given to "The Icon" dir. by Wojciech Kasperski.

For the second time, Animated in Poland - a presentation of Polish animated films at the production stage was organised (8 projects were shown - more information here). After the presentation, the participants had the opportunity to participate in the case study of the feature-length animated film "Loving Vincent." In the second edition of Docs to Go!, the presentation of Polish documentary films at the post-production stage, organized in co-operation with Polish Film Institute, 12 films, which are at the stage of looking for distribution fields, participated. In addition, this year, 6 film teams had a chance to work on their presentations under the guidance of specialists in editing, promotion and film marketing at the workshops DOK.Restart, organized in co-operation with Wajda Film School and Documentary Film Institute in Prague. Moreover, the best of the twelve projects was awarded ("The Road to K2,", dir. Eliza Kubarska) and will be presented at the final pitching at DOK.Incubator at this year's DOK.Leipzig (more information here).

The special programme of British films was accompanied by the Conference "Focus on the UK," the participants of which - the representatives of British audiovisual industry - talked about production, promotion and distribution of British documentaries and about film education in this country (more about the conference here). This year's Dragon of Dragons winner, Bogdan Dziworski delivered a master class about his method of work on documentary film, together with a spontaneous workshop on the basics of photography. Bogdan Dziworski (as DJ Dziwor) was also a DJ at the famous Industry Party, which was held in Klub Fabryka this year. KIPA Emerging Producers helped the Master to entertain the film industry.

At the presentation about new models of film distribution, Sigrid Dyekjær (Documentary Production) and Koby Shely (Distrify) talked about co-operation with platforms showing films online. The possibilities for film making in the region of Łodz was discussed at the meeting with the representative of Lodz Film Commission, whereas the panel on the "behind the scenes" matters dealt with the issues of using the image of the protagonist in a documentary film (Lassota i Partnerzy) and the selection the appropriate locations for shooting the film (Krakow Film Commission, Afilm). 

Traditionally, the FilmPro Magazine was the co-organiser of individual meetings with invited industry specialists at a week-long Video Pro Industry Meeings.  Filmmakers from around the world, visiting Krakow Film Festival, had the opportunity to meet distributors and sales agents, among others, Rise and Shine World Sales (Germany), Deckert Distribution (Germany), Other Voices (Italy), Wide House (France), Sideway Films (United Kingdom), Taskovski Films (United Kingdom), Future Shorts (United Kingdom), as well as film festival programmers, among others, Hot Docs (Canada), Molodist International FF (Ukraine), Sarajevo FF (Bosnia), IDFA (the Netherlands), Festival dei Popoli - International Documentary FF (Italy), DOK.Leipzig (Germany), Visions du Reel (Switzerland), DOCSDF(Mexico), Message to Man IFF (Russia), True False FF (USA) and many others. 

Contact:  Katarzyna Wilk - Industry Zone co-ordinator industry@kff.com.pl;www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

Industry Zone Producer: Krakow Film Foundation.

Partners:  Krakow Festival Office, Krakow Film Commission, Łodz Film Commission, FilmPRO, Wojewódzka Biblioteka Publiczna w Krakowie (Krakow Public Library), Małopolski Ogród Sztuki.

The project was made thanks to the financial support of: Polish Film Institute, Polish Filmmakers Association, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Kraków Municipality, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the MEDIA Programme. 

Media patronage:  Film PRO, TELE PRO, Film &TV Kamera , Polish Docs, Polish Shorts, Polish Animations.

Photography: Tomasz Korczyński, Klaudia Kolasa.