This week marks the 10th year of the Austin Polish Film Festival and another year that the festival team brings Austin a taste for many of the great and unique films Polish filmmakers have to offer. Every year the festival highlights a wide variety of films, from dramas and comedies to documentaries and animation, from popular thrillers to indie gems. The team has worked very hard to bring this year’s selection of films—as well as several filmmakers—from Poland to Austin. For viewers in Austin and the Central Texas region, this week will be the only opportunity to see many of these films outside of Poland. If you are new to Polish cinema, the festival is a great introduction to Polish film; if you are a long-time fan of Polish cinema, the festival is an excellent way to explore more deeply the contemporary landscape of film and video in Poland.

Documentary filmmakers continue to reflect and contribute to the politics and cultures of Poland, past and present. One documentary being featured at this year’s Austin Polish Film Festival is Jurek, by director Paweł Wysoczański, which examines the life of Jerzy Kukuczka, a socialist worker turned celebrity in the 1980s who, as a poor mountain climber with homemade equipment, rose to compete in climbing the highest Himalayan peaks. Other documentaries screening at this year’s festival include Joanna (dir. Aneta Kopacz, 2013), which offers an intimate portrait of a mother diagnosed with an untreatable illness as she promises her son she will try to live as long as possible, and Obiekt (Object, dir. Paulina Skibińska, 2015), which takes a very creative and abstract look into an underwater search. We hope you will attend these screenings and more to see the many fascinating sides of Polish documentary and narrative film!