21st WARSAW INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
7-16 October 2005
The programme of this year’s Festival, which will last 10 days, includes 130 film premieres from 50 countries. The festival cinemas are the Relax, Luna (rooms A and B), Silver Screen (rooms 3 and 4), and Kultura.

PROGRAMME
Honouring the opening of the 21st WIFF with his presence will be Wim Wenders, one of the greatest artists of world cinema, president of the European Film Academy. He will present his latest picture, Don’t Come Knocking; distribution in Poland: Monolith Plus.
Wim Wenders makes films that combine a formal quest with stories of human passions. He gained international recognition for Paris, Texas, which won the Palme d’Or and the FIPRESCI award at the Cannes film festival in 1984. He won the best director award in Cannes in 1987 for Wings of Desire, and in 1993 - the Grand Prix of the Jury for Faraway, So Close!. He was nominated for an Oscar in 2000 for Buena Vista Social Club. He was awarded the Jury Prize at Berlin 2000 for The Million Dollar Hotel, and has received the European Film Award twice.
The chairman of the Jury is Polish-born British director Pawel Pawlikowski, and the members are Yesim Ustaoglu and Anna Maliszewska, and Cristi Puiu and Pjer Zalica. True to tradition, the international Jury is made up exclusively of film directors.

FILMS COMPETING
Anklaget / Accused by Jacob Thuesen
Como un avión estrellado / Like A Crashed Plane by Ezequiel Acuna
Crash Test Dummies by Jorg Kalt
Dallas Pashamende / Dallas Among Us by Róbert Adrian Pejó
Gypo by Jan Dunn
Hawaii, Oslo by Erik Poppe
Jazireh Ahani / Iron Island by Mohammad Rasoulof
Kaladan kelgen kyz / Rebirth Island by Rustem Abdrashov
Odgrobadogroba / Gravehopping, by Jan Cvitkovic
Oprosti za kung fu / Sorry for Kung Fu by Ognjen Svilicic
Perviyje na lune / First People On The Moon by Alexei Fedorchenko
Putevoditel / The Guidebook by Aleksandr Shapiro
13.SommerHundeSoehne / Slight Changes in Temperature and Mind by Cyril Tuschi.
Teraz ja / It’s me now by Anna Jadowska
Zralok v hlave / Shark in the Head by Maria Procházková

NOKIA MOBILE MOVIE COMPETITION
Together with Nokia, one of the festival sponsors, we have prepared the Nokia Mobile Movie Competition for young Polish directors, who were given the task of making a short film on the theme “A Minute From Life” using the new Nokia N90 smartphone, which includes a video camera module.
The films taking part in the Nokia Mobile Movie Competition will be presented on 12 October at 9 p.m. at the Luna cinema.
Starting on 7 October, the public can watch the films on the website www.nokia.com.pl/filmy, and vote for their favourite.
The films will be judged by a Jury that includes film director Juliusz Machulski, cartoon artist Andrzej Mleczko, and MTV programme director Monika Chojnacka.
The results of the Nokia Mobile Movie Competition will be announced on Saturday, 15 October 2005 during the 21st Warsaw International Film Festival’s official award ceremony.
The partners of the Nokia Mobile Movie Competition, organized by the Warsaw Film Foundation and Nokia, are MTV, Onet.pl, and Gazeta Wyborcza.
Detailed information on the Nokia Mobile Movie Competition can be found in a separate press release.

The CLOSING FILM of this year’s Festival will be the long-awaited latest project by Dorota Kędzierzawska and Arthur Reinhart, Jestem (I Am). The picture has already been invited to this year’s leading film festivals in Toronto, Pusan, and New York. At Gdynia 2005, the film won the awards for cinematography (Arthur Reinhart), music (Michael Nyman), and sound as well as the Silver Screen Audience Award. The film’s distributor is Kino Świat.
Screening outside the competition will be The Master by Piotr Trzaskalski, whose Edi won the NESCAFÉ Grand Prix in the first edition of the New Films, New Directors competition in 2002. The Master, which won the award for set design at Gdynia 2005, has been invited to the festivals in San Sebastian and Pusan. The part of the Master is played by Russian actor Konstantin Lavronenko (who co-starred in Zvyagintsev’s The Return). The film’s distributor is Interfilm.

The WIFF programme includes three Polish shorts: the comedy Kochajmy się (Let’s Make Love) by Karol Wasilka, shot at the Katowice film school and featuring Marcin Kwaśny, Borys Szyc, Monika Pikuła and Michał Piela, and two very short films by young Polish artists: New Game: Wojna (New Game: War) by Anna Maliszewska and Sen o pannie młodej (Dreaming About the Bride) by Miron Wojdyło.

Other SECTIONS of the 21st WIFF programme:
German Panorama
A Master’s Touch
Independent Spirit – independent, innovative, rebellious films
Discoveries – visions of the modern world; section under the patronage of Cinemax film channel
Feature-length documentaries
Icons of American Mass Culture - Feature-length documentaries
2005/2006 Premieres
Short films

FIPRESCI JURY
For the first time, the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Jury, comprising foreign journalists, will also be in session during the WIFF, presenting an award for the best film from Central and Eastern Europe. The FIPRESCI Jury will include: Borislav Andjelic (Serbia and Montenegro), Martin Blaney (Germany), Andronika Martonova (Bulgaria). For more information about FIPRESCI, visit www.fipresci.org.

GUESTS
SIR ALAN PARKER will be a special guest at the Festival. His Birdy won the first Audience Poll in 1987. His two classic musicals, Pink Floyd The Wall and The Commitments, are in the programme of this year’s WIFF.
BENT HAMER: after the excellent Kitchen Stories, his latest picture Factotum conquered Cannes this year. The film was made in the United States, with American actors. The protagonist is the literary alter ego of American writer Charles Bukowski. Bent Hamer has been at the WIFF before, presenting his debut picture Eggs.
Besides Wim Wenders, Alan Parker, the Jury members and the directors of the competition films, other guests at the Festival include:
Paul Cox from Australia (Human Touch)
Syd Field, the world’s leading screenwriting guru
Sławomir Grunberg, a Polish documentary director working in the United States (Michael and Svetlana, Borderline)
Rula Lenska, a star of Polish descent who lives and works in the United Kingdom (Gypo)
Stuart Samuels from the United States, documentary director (Midnight Movies), producer of Zbigniew Rybczyński’s films
Igor Strembitsky from Ukraine, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2005 for his short film Podorozhni (Wayfarers)
Martin Šulík, Slovakia’s greatest director (City of the Sun)
as well as Polish filmmakers:
Anna Jadowska (Now Me)
Dorota Kędzierzawska and Arthur Reinhart (I Am)
Piotr Trzaskalski (The Master)
MEETINGS WITH THE FILMMAKERS will be held immediately after the screenings of their pictures.

PROFESSIONAL EVENTS
OPEN WORKSHOPS for all those interested:
The Art of Editing – workshops for those interested in film editing, organized by the Polish Association of Film Editors. Jarosław Barzan, the outstanding Polish editor, will run the workshop on 11 October from 10 a.m. at the Kultura cinema (ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 21/23)
Presentation of the EKRAN programme, organized by the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing, at the Kultura cinema, 12 October 2005, from 12 noon.

CLOSED EVENTS FOR PROFESSIONALS
Scene Insiders – workshops for people who work with screenwriters (directors, producers, television journalists), organized by The Script Factory from London;
classes for film journalists, taught by top-class international specialists;
Warsaw Screenings – a presentation of the latest Polish films, with English subtitles, for distributors, agents and international film festival selectors; the Polish film considered the best by these foreign professionals will receive the Award of the President of Telewizja Polska S.A.
CentEast Market – a regional market dedicated to pictures from Poland and other countries in our region; the aim of the market is to put Polish films back on the world map, and to offer Polish audiences more opportunities to see films made in neighbouring countries.