For the competition sections (we have 8 different awards) we accept films which would have their Polish premiere at the festival and are over 45 minutes long.

The deadline for submissions is: 3rd of February, 2017.

In order to submit your film fill out the application form (there are guidelines at the start of the form) and send it to: submission@againstgravity.pl.

The form is available here:
Submission form MDAG 2017-1

As you will read, whilst filling out the form, the film can be submitted by post or via email. We encourage everyone to choose the latter (which is more of an environment friendly option).

Best of luck,

Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival

Jury’s statement:

The Mayor of Gdynia Award goes to the film Ukrainian Sheriffs directed by Roman Bondarchuk,
for its compositional discipline and suggestive portrayal of the astonishing, full of surprises and contradictions, multidimensional reality of contemporary Ukraine.

Helena Třeštíková’s Mallory receives a Special Jury Mention for creating, as a result of patient, long-time observation, a wonderful portrait of a woman, who in spite of multiple mistakes and falls has the power to fight against this cruel world and her own weaknesses.

General remarks:
The level of the competition was extremely high. Out of the 13 presented films, at least half has been considered as potential candidates to the award. Various styles and documentary formulas have been exposed – from raw registration of facts, through different methods of linking documentalism and forms of fiction, up to poetic documentaries, revealing purely aesthetic values of reality. There was place for psychodrama (Jerzy Śladkowski’s Don Juan), a film about the process of making a movie (Under The Sun by Vitaliy Manski), a film-lecture (The Swedish Theory of Love by Erik Gandini), a film-meditation session (Homo Sapiens by Nikolaus Geyrhalter) and a protest documentary (Sonita by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami). As usual, documentaries were looking into the most dangerous parts of the world, thus there was Afghanistan, Ukraine (two films) and North Korea. At the same time, there was place for studied analysis of the relatively prosperous and peaceful Western world (e.g.  Europe, She Loves by Jan Gassmann) or complicated and rooted in the past family matters (A Family Affair by Tom Fassaert, Thy Father’s Chair by Àlex Lora and Antonio Tibaldi). Not to mention wonderful, complex and multidimensional human portraits, a magnificent exemple of which (and not the only one) is the distinguished film Mallory.
All in all, the Festival represented all the best that contemporary documentary cinema has to offer, thanks to which it evolves so dynamically, gathering constantly growing crowds of admirers, often tired and bored by predictable, unauthentic and childish fiction cinema.

International jury composed of Robert Gliński, Jean Peret and Anna Rudnitskaya gave the MILLENNIUM AWARD, the Grand Prix of the 13th Millennium Docs Against Gravity FF to the film Under the Sun (dir. Vitaliy Manskiy). ‘Under the Sun concerns North Korea, we got the point, but not only this dictatorship – this film concerns all of us in our different countries as far as we want to live as open minded and well informed citizen. Citizen able to dream our future, our utopias’, says the jury’s statement. A special mention was given to the film Sonita (dir. Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami).

This year the Festival introduced a new competition section called Fiction Non Fiction, for the best film on the border of two genres: fiction and documentary. The jurors Monika Braid, Piotr Stasik and Marcin Kot Bastkowski gave the award of EUR 4,000 funded by the Polish Film Institute to the film Olmo & The Seagull (dir. Petra Costa, Lei Glob). According to the jury’s verdict, it is ‘a film which crosses the boundaries of intimacy in a way which is beautiful, sincere, and emotional. A film whose theme is love, passion and devotion, a work that remains honest both towards its protagonists and the public, technically impeccable and artistically mature’. Special mention was given to the film White Rage (dir. Arto Halonen) which is ‘an electrifying journey to the sources of anger, and a terrifying warning of the consequences of rage.’

The jury composed of Tadeusz Sobolewski, Mirosław Chojecki and Draginja Nadaždin awarded the best film on human rights with Amnesty International Award. The winner is the film Those Who Jump (dir. Moritz Siebert, Estephan Wagner, Abou Bakar Sidibé) for ‘the excellent way it tells its story, and the idea of its realization “on the inside”, from the perspective of those who strive to reach the almost impossible’. The jury decided to give a special mention to the films A Good American (dir. Fredrich Moser) and They Will Have To Kill Us First (dir. Johann Schwartz).

The Chopin Nose Award and EUR 2,000 for the best documentary on music and art was given by the jury composed of Misia Furtak, Bogna Świątkowska and Stach Szabłowski to the film They Will Have To Kill Us First (dir. Johann Schwartz). A special mention was given to the film Thru You Princess (Presenting Princess Shaw) (dir. Ido Haar). The jury gave credit to both the story and the cinematic construction through which the story is reaching our awareness. ‘Ido Haar’s film is a contemporary fairy tale, the more interesting as it happened in reality’, the jurors concluded.

The GREEN WARSAW AWARD and EUR 3,000 sponsored by the City of Warsaw for the best film discussing ecology-related matters was given by the jury composed of Leszek Długosz, Joanna Erbel and Paweł Średziński to the film 10 Billion – What’s On Your Plate (dir. Valentin Thurn).‘We found insightful the attempt of facing, via film, solutions to the problem of scarcity of food, with focus on the analyses as to real validity and consumability, present-day facilities, and their effect on the environment’, the verdict said.

This year’s edition of the Festival introduced a new award of EUR 2,000 given by Zwierciadło magazine for the best psychology-related documentary. The winner is the film Natural Disorder (dir. Christian Sønderby Jepsen).

The award of Akademia Dokumentalna (Documentary Academy) was granted at Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival for the third time. This year though, a special Intergenerational Jury of Documentary Academy was composed of jurors of various ages: high schoolers who cooperate with Akademia Dokumentalna and the participants of the program ‘Archipelag pokoleń’ (Archipelago of Generations): Maciej Turski, , Łukasz Gawroński , Martyna Tomczyk, Klara Woźniak, Anna Starzewska, Joanna Peters, Alina Rudnicka. The award was given to the film My Love, Don’t Cross That River (dir. Jin Mo-young). ‘Mutual attention, care and empathy in unconditional, lasting and eternal love. Modest people. Modest life. Soulful presentation: with distance and great carefulness, discreetly, without pathos, shown through images, frames, music. It is a grand exercise in humanity’, said the jury in its verdict.

The Audience Award of the 13th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival was given to the film Racing Extinction directed by Louie Psihoyos.

MEDIA provides support at the early stages of a film’s lifecycle: investment in development and pre-production (e.g. scriptwriting, financing research, business events) provides a spring board for European filmmakers, actors and technicians. MEDIA also invests in film distribution (theatrical distribution and video on demand) across borders and therefore supports European cultural diversity. MEDIA supports subtitling, dubbing, advertising and co-finances networks of cinemas screening European content.

MEDIA has helped the audiences for European cinema to grow. In 2014, 33.2% of all cinema admissions in Europe were for European films, up from 25.4% in 2010. Emerging film industries and markets in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe have also grown, thanks to the success of their works abroad.

To celebrate the 25^th anniversary of MEDIA, a series of videos will pay tribute to European audiovisual works which drive our imagination under the slogan “we all love stories”. Testimonials by filmmakers, producers and actors are also available online.

Tirelessly exploring the nooks and crannies of the human spirit, Herzog takes on the Internet in his latest movie. The journey begins at the source – in the very room at the University of California from which the first email message was sent in 1969. That’s when the humanity entered the digital era, researchers say. The director observes it from all angles in a warm yet cynical fashion, neither despairing over the apocalyptic visions nor worshiping the network wrapped around the world.

He interviews the Internet’s pioneers and mystics, victims of hate campaigns, scientists developing artificial intelligence, lab assistants creating a video game that could find a cure for cancer, researchers working on robots that ought to win the 2050 football championship, famous hackers, Internet addicts in rehab centers… All these people know that the development of artificial intelligence is invariably linked to a debate on the boundaries of morality – and where human beings begin and end.

Herzog proves that the moment when the Internet begins to “dream about itself” is extremely near. One of the scientists shows us what goes on in the imagination of a robot planning a very complex task of turning a metal valve, and asks an uncomfortable question: once we’re surrounded by intelligent machines, will we still need human company?

13^th Millennium Docs Against Gravity will open on May 13^th at 18:00 in the Warszawa screening room of the Dolnośląskie Centrum Filmowe. Festival tickets can be already purchased at the Dolnośląskie Centrum Filmowe, priced at 12 and 15 zł (single ticket, price depends on screening time). With the purchase of 10 or more tickets, the price is 10 zł each. More information about the Wrocław edition of  Millennium Docs Against Gravity can be found on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DocsAGWroclaw/

See you at the movies!

Pricing:
PAKIET 10+
12 zł per ticket with the purchase of at least 10 tickets to shows in a single festival venue. Tickets to shows in different venues do not count toward the PAKIET 10 package deal.
Shows before 4:55 PM:
Monday-Friday: 13 zł
Saturday-Sunday: 15 zł
Shows after 5PM:
Monday-Friday: 15 zł
Saturday-Sunday: 16 zł
Family tickets to shows in the Oki Doki section: 10 zł per person
School tickets to shows in the Akademia Dokumentalna section: 10 zł per person
Screenings in local cinemas: 13 zł
Senior citizen tickets: 10 zł
3D glasses are included in the ticket price where applicable.
Admission to debates is free (ticket holders to screenings preceding the debate will be given priority)
Admission to concerts is free

Tickets are available via the Kino Luna website. Seats are not numbered.

See you there!

Tickets

Ticket sales in each festival venue will begin on May 6th.
Regular tickets can be purchased online.
For more information see www.kinoteka.pl , www.kinoluna.pl , http://www.iluzjon.fn.org.pl/
IMPORTANT! Tickets sold at each venue are valid only for shows at this venue. Tickets purchased at different venues do not count toward the PAKIET 10+ package deal.
You can make reservations by phone at each venue (only during the festival) and online via weach venue’s website.
You can pick up your reservations an hour before the show.
Tickets are non-returnable.
Seats in our venues are not numbered.

Pricing:

PAKIET 10+
12 zł per ticket with the purchase of at least 10 tickets to shows in a single festival venue. Tickets to shows in different venues do not count toward the PAKIET 10 package deal.
Shows before 4:55 PM:
Monday-Friday: 13 zł
Saturday-Sunday: 15 zł
Shows after 5PM:
Monday-Friday: 15 zł
Saturday-Sunday: 16 zł
Family tickets to shows in the Oki Doki section: 10 zł per person
School tickets to shows in the Akademia Dokumentalna section: 10 zł per person
Screenings in local cinemas: 13 zł
Senior citizen tickets: 10 zł
3D glasses are included in the ticket price where applicable.
Admission to debates is free (ticket holders to screenings preceding the debate will be given priority)
Admission to concerts is free