Invitation to this year’s Festival jury has been accepted by: Vita Drygas, Monika Pawluczuk, Marek Piwowski, Andrzej Sapija and Tadeusz Szczepański.

Vita Drygas

A cinematographer, director, scriptwriter. In 2015 she followed in the footsteps of her parents – Vita Żelakeviciute and Maciej Drygas – the winners of the Festival’s earlier editions, and won the Grand Prix of the “Man in Danger” Festival for her film titled Piano. The films tells a story of the Ukrainian revolution from the perspective of four people – a student of the Kiev Conservatory, a composer, a soldier and a masked man – and a title musical instrument.

– The award at the festival named “Man in Danger” is particularly important for me and the protagonists of my film, who fought for dignity in Ukraine. I called Antonetta Miszczenko – a character from my film. She was touched. It is extremely important for us that people remember about Ukraine thanks to this film – said the director.

Vita Drygas is currently working on a new project titled War Watchers.

Monika Pawluczuk

An author of Koniec świata (End of the World) and Kiedy będę ptakiem (I Am a Bird), which both received numerous awards all over the world. A co-author (with Katarzyna Miller) of a paradocumentary story Być kobietą i nie zwariować (How to Be a Woman and Not Go Crazy), translated into several languages. An author of numerous radio and TV cycles (1993 – 2007), a graduate in cultural studies, journalism and documentary course DOC PRO Documentary at Wajda School.

Andrzej Sapija

An author of several dozens documentary films and theatre plays. He debuted in 1984 with a reportage Wielopole – Wielopole. Biographical films devoted among others to Tadeusz Kantor, Tadeusz Różewicz and Roman Opałka are regarded as his most important creative achievements.

In his documentaries he deals mainly with contemporary art and literature. He also touches on important issues pertaining most recent history and our circumstances. He writes scripts for all his films and oftentimes additionally prepares cinematography, stage design and production. He is a lecturer at the Lodz Film School and Reportage Laboratory of the Institute of Journalism at the University of Warsaw.

The Festival will host the premiere of the latest film by Andrzej Sapija titled Intensywność patrzenia (Intensity of Watching), subtitled: „Dokumentalny portret pojedynczego bohatera według Kazimierza Karabasza” (A Documentary Portrait of a Single Character According to Kazimierz Karabasz).

Tadeusz Szczepański

A film historian, critics, translator, culture expert, a professor of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the University of Wrocław, a lecturer at the Łódź Film School. He was also an editor-in-chief of Wytwórnia Filmów Oświatowych (Educational Films Studio) in Łódź and an editor of a bimonthly “Film na świecie”.

He is an established expert in Scandinavian cinema. Zwierciadło Bergmana for which Szczepański received Bolesław Michałek Award for the best film book in 1999 is regarded as the best Polish publication on the Swedish master’s work.

Scholarly interests of Professor Szczepański are also linked to the history of film avantgarde, the work of Sergei Eisenstein, the relations between the theatre and film, European film, Russian cinematography and auteur cinema.

The latest book edited by Tadeusz Szczepański is Sejsmograf duszy. Kino według Marii Kornatowskiej published this year.