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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Poland

The PFI closes 2019 by supporting domestic projects and minority co-productions

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- Three of the eight films subsidised by the Polish Film Institute are directed by first-timers Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, Jakub Piątek and Bartłomiej Żmuda

The PFI closes 2019 by supporting domestic projects and minority co-productions
Director Anna Jadowska, whose upcoming film Mira will be given €325,000 by the PFI

The final batch of production grants given out this year by the Polish Film Institute (PFI) is much more modest than the previous two. After 20 domestic projects were recommended by expert committees for the grants, only three will end up being supported financially by the main funding body in Poland. In the two previous sessions of 2019, this figure was eight and ten films, respectively.

December turned out to be a good month for Anna Jadowska (Wild Roses [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Jadowska
film profile
]
), whose upcoming Mira, produced by Donten & Lacroix Films, will be given PLN 1.4 million (€325,000). The same amount was granted to Jakub Piątek’s Prime Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jakub Piątek
film profile
]
, which has production outfit Watchout Studio on board, and Bartłomiej Żmuda’s More (producer: Before My Eyes).

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The minority co-productions include five lucky applicants. Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski (the Venice-awarded documentary The Prince and the Dybbuk [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) snagged PLN 514,240 (€120,000). Their upcoming film, The Hamlet Syndrome [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elwira Niewiera and Piotr R…
film profile
]
, will be produced by Warsaw-based Balapolis. Gregory Monro, who is set to helm Kubrick in His Own Words with the help of production studio Telemark, was backed with PLN 172 242 (€40,000), and Viesturs Kairiss and his Staron-Film-produced January will receive PLN 400,000 (€93,000), while Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk and production house Madants will be able to count on the same amount of subsidy for the making of Pamfir [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
interview: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
film profile
]
. Last but not least, Asaf Saban and his The Delegation (producer: Koi Studio) was granted the largest sum of this session: PLN 1.3 million (€300,000).

This therefore rounds off the PFI’s film production grants for 2019. The dates for next year’s application deadlines have not been announced yet, and neither have the rules for the 2020 operational programmes, owing to a disagreement between the institute’s head, Radosław Śmigulski, and the PFI board, as announced on the institution’s website.

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