Marley to Open 52nd Krakow Film Festival

The 52nd Krakow Film Festival will open on May 28 with the Polish premiere of Marley – the critically acclaimed biopic of reggae legend Bob Marley directed by Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void). The director is expected to attend the screening, which will be at Kijów.Centrum.

The KFF, one of the oldest film festivals in the world, runs for seven days until June 3 and will feature about 250 movies this year. Almost 2,500 films were submitted or chosen for inclusion in the KFF’s three main competition categories: international documentaries, international short films and Polish films.

In keeping with KFF tradition, documentaries and animated films dominate the proceedings. Fifty eight Polish and international documentaries and 30 animated films will be in the running for a share of the 220,000zł (53,000 euro) pot of prize money.

At just four minutes long, animated short Not about Us (dir. Michael Frei) is the shortest film in the competition, while feature-length documentary Motherland or Death by Russian director Vitalij Mansky tops the chart at 99 minutes.

An international jury made up of stellar names in the field of documentary and fiction film making will award the Golden Dragon in the short film category, the Golden Horn for the best documentary and the Golden Hobby-Horse for the best film in the Polish film competition, among others.

The awards at Krakow are important, because the KFF is AMPAS (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) and EFA (European Film Academy) accredited – meaning the winner of the International Short Film Award can submit their film to the Oscar competition list.

Screenings will be at cinemas across Krakow, including  Kijów.Centrum, Pod Baranami and Kino Mikro. More details are available at www.krakowfilmfestival.pl