Since 6 March 2025, audiences are able to enjoy the best of contemporary Polish cinema alongside classic films as part of the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, organised by the Polish Cultural Institute in London. Now in its 23rd year, the festival takes place at major cinemas in London and features over 30 film screenings. This year, to celebrate the ongoing UK/Poland Cultural Season, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute is joining forces with the festival to launch an additional programme – Kinoteka on Tour – which will bring selected festival films to eight cities across the UK.
Kinoteka on Tour – Polish Films Even Closer to the Audience
Canterbury, Hull, Nottingham, Newcastle, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, and Oxford – these are the cities hosting screenings as part of the Kinoteka on Tour programme. Audiences at local arthouse cinemas will have the opportunity to see Polish premieres from 2024, including: “Under the Volcano” by Damian Kocur, “Silent Trees” by Agnieszka Zwiefka, “Under the Grey Sky” by Katsiaryna Mary Tamkowich, and “It Is Not My Film” by Maria Zbąska.
The programme will also feature Polish cinematic classics – two works by Wojciech Jerzy Has: “Farewells” (1958) and “The Saragossa Manuscript” (1964). The Has retrospective, which is also part of the Festival’s main programme, celebrates the centenary of the director’s birth. It is co-organised by, among others, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Year of Wojciech Jerzy Has (more information at www.iam.pl).
The first screening in the Kinoteka on Tour series took place on 9 March 2025 at the Ultimate Picture Palace cinema in Oxford, featuring “The Saragossa Manuscript”. A total of 31 screenings will be held across 7 cinemas, continuing until the end of April 2025.
The full Kinoteka on Tour programme is available on the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival website.
Kinoteka Polish Film Festival – Celebrating Polish Cinema in London Since 2003
The Kinoteka Polish Film Festival has been promoting Polish cinema in the UK capital since 2003. This year’s 23rd edition began on 6 March and runs until 25 April 2025. Throughout the festival, London audiences can enjoy another outstanding selection of contemporary and classic Polish films.
The New Polish Cinema section showcases the most notable Polish productions from the past year, including “Minghun”, “Under the Grey Sky”, “Simona Kossak”, and “It Is Not My Film”. Polish documentary cinema is represented by “Silent Trees” (screened in collaboration with Bertha DocHouse – the UK’s only cinema dedicated exclusively to documentaries) and “Wanda Rutkiewicz. The Last Expedition.”
Following previous retrospectives devoted to renowned Polish directors such as Andrzej Wajda and Jerzy Skolimowski, this year KINOTEKA will honour another of Poland’s greatest filmmakers – Wojciech Jerzy Has. The complete works of Has will be screened at BFI Southbank and the ICA, beginning with “The Saragossa Manuscript”, introduced by Tomasz Kolankiewicz, Director of the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute (FINA). The screenings will be accompanied by a series of additional events throughout the month, including exhibitions of film posters for Has’s works in the foyers of both BFI Southbank and the ICA.
The UK/Poland Cultural Season Is Underway
This year, the opening gala of the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival also marked the official launch of the UK/Poland Cultural Season 2025, organised by the British Council, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and the Polish Cultural Institute in London. During the gala at BFI Southbank, audiences were treated to a screening of Damian Kocur’s “Under the Volcano”, followed by a Q&A session with the director.
The UK/Poland Season 2025 opens in the UK in conjunction with the Kinoteka Festival at BFI Southbank. Photo: Elzbieta Piekacz
In an era of constant political, social, and cultural transformation, UK/Poland Season 2025 explores some of the most pressing contemporary issues – including social exclusion, the female perspective in art, migration, art and disability, climate change, identity, and digital reality. Through experimental forms of expression, innovative technological solutions, and a wide range of artistic approaches, the Season offers an open space for creators and audiences to seek inspiration in art.
The UK/Poland Season will feature over a hundred events spanning film, theatre, visual arts, design, and music, taking place in dozens of cities across Poland and the United Kingdom. The programme, which began in March, will run until the end of November, inaugurating a new chapter in cultural relations between the two countries.
Events in Poland are organised and financed by the British Council, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and the Polish Cultural Institute. The British Council is also responsible for the programme in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. The organisation of the Season in the UK and Northern Ireland has been supported by Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.