November
7th, 2024. Pawel Chmielewski Director of HUNT and Marek Dzida, Director
of PFFLA
at
the 25th Annual Gala Opening of Polish Film Festival Los Angeles at El
Portal Theatre, N. Hollywood.
.
.
PFFLA
NEWS FLASH ( VIII )
October
24th, 2024
Polish
Film Festival Los Angeles welcomes Waldemar Wilk as part of the team.
Waldemar Wilk is the
driving force behind the festival's creative vision,
and
he is working tirelessly putting together the 25th Polish Film Festival
in Los Angeles!
***
Film
expert, cinema historian, film critic, publicist.
In 1984
he connected to film forever! A cinema programmer, film distributor and
a journalist. A script and edit doctor for Aurum Film.
In
1985 he was elected chairman of the Polish Federation of Film Clubs. The
jury of the International Federation of Film Clubs FICC. From 1988 he
collaborated with the Lagow Film Festivals as the curator of
retrospectives and programmer.
Chairperson
of the Polish Film Festivals in Lubomierz, Jelenia Gora and many others.
Jury for the International Film Festivals, co-author and book editor.
.
PFFLA
NEWS FLASH ( VI )
September
20th, 2024
The
films of 25th Polish Film Festival Los Angeles have been selected. They
are:
.
FEATURES
GAME
OVER, 84 min
WHEN
F***KING SPRING IS IN THE AIR, 111 min
THE
DOG, 90 min
.
DOCUMENTARIES
THE
DELUGE. POSTSCRIPTUM, 60 min
JULIAN
KULSKI AND THE MANAGEMENT
OF
OCCUPIED WARSAW, 63 min
LELIWA,
54 min
THE
ONE I LOVE, 93 min
A
LIFE BURNED OUT IN CLAY, 63 min
ALWAYS
FRESH MONEY, 82 min
FOR
OUR FREEDOM AND YOURS, 58 min
A
THEATER MANIFESTO OF AN OLD MAN, 37 min
.
SHORTS
A
BEAR NAMED WOJTEK, 28 min
WARMTH,
15 min
CHRONOS,
13 min
BE
SOMEBODY, 27 min
THE
ONLY SON, 15 min
HEART
FLUTTERS, HERCKLEKOTY, 23 min
FRAME,
4 min
THE
LIGHTS ABOVE, 17 min
DOUGHY
CAKE, 11 min
TRENY
JANA KOCHANOWSKIEGO, 31 min
LIVE,
13 min
I’VE
BEAN THERE, 14 min
LIFE:
8TH CHAPTER, 23 min
PUPA
LIBERIA, 10 min
ON
THE POLISH TRIANGLE, 41 min
ANIMATIONS
THE
CORPSE, 5 min
SHE
CAT HIM, 22 min
WAWEL
DRAGON, 6 min
LACK,
11 min
THE
SAD FOREST, 3 min
FRAME, 3,5 min
.
PFFLA
NEWS FLASH ( II )
August
14, 2024
.
To
add to a festive celebration of the 25th anniversary of the festival
everyone
who donates $175 or more for a Gala Award Reception on November 7th will be able to bring
guests for free
- as long as they
are 25 years of age or younger.
.
.
Marek
Dzida
PFFLA
Executive Director
.
.
.
.
.
PFFLA
NEWS FLASH ( I )
August
6, 2024
.
The
2024 film submission open window has concluded.
From
now on until September 30th, the PFFLA Selection Committee
will
choose the films to be nominated to the Hollywood Eagle Awards and
to
be included in the 25th Annual Polish Film Festival Los Angeles program.
.
There
are 55 films submitted.
19
animations, 16 short films, 17 documentaries, 3 feature films.
There
will be additional, not competing for the awards feature films
included
in
the program and will be announced in a later day.
.
Let's
wait for the list of accepted to the festival films patiently.
We
will publicize the lucky ones as soon as we make our decision.
..
Marek
Dzida
PFFLA
Executive Director
.
Screen
shot from an animation film “JOKO” by Dr. Izabela Pluciński
and
4 films: “Identities”, “Identities 2”, “Travels”, and
“Mathieu” by Dr.Piotr Perski.
Program:
5pm
to 8pm - Reception and artist's presentation.
8pm
- film screenings.
Snacks
and refreshments will be available.
***
Dr.
Izabela Plucińska
She
is a multi-awarded Polish animator and director who lives and works in
Berlin. She has developed her own technique for creating animated films:
she films figures that she herself makes from clay and plasticine.
Thanks to the developed, special way of animation, the director manages
to achieve the effect of smooth penetration of colors and even
"painting" with plasticine.
Dr.
Piotr Perski
He
is a Polish artist and university professor from Kalisz, lives in
Barcelona. He participates in the publication and illustration of:
artist's books from the workshop directed by Karen Stahlecker. Since
2020 he has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the
University of Barcelona. He has participated in more than 70 group
exhibitions in Spain, Poland, Germany, Cyprus, Singapore, USA and in
Spanish and Polish art competitions.
PFFLA
NEWS FLASH ( XI )
January
26th, 2025
.
.
.
Oscar
nominations for 2025 Academy Awards
Award
annoucement: March 2nd, Dolby Theatre, Hollywood
Free
admission, Polish snacks and beers will be available.
Janek,
a graphic designer from a big city, is summoned to the
opening of the last will of a complete stranger. Eager to
learn the history of his family, he and his younger sister
drive to a small town. Unexpectedly, Janek receives a
house by a lake, but he's not the only one who claims the
right to the property. Janek's acceptance sets off an
avalanche of disastrous events that throw his organised
life out of kilter.
Free
admission, Polish snacks and beers will be available.
In
the early 1990s, in crisis-stricken Poland, a
controversial TV star Jurek Owsiak responds to the plea of
two doctors. They desperately need money for medical
equipment. Owsiak starts a fundraiser and, consequently,
creates the largest charity organization in the country,
the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. Over the next
two decades, the Orchestra grows stronger with Polish
democracy, mixing charity with rock music and a hippie
ethos. Przystanek Woodstock, an event that is intended to
be a free music festival for Orchestra volunteers, has
become the largest free festival in Europe, celebrating
the ideals of rock'n'roll.
"Phenomenon"
is an intimate portrait of Owsiak. We see him as he
transforms from a carefree hippie into a symbol of
charity, unaware that he will inadvertently place himself
in the centre of a brutal political conflict. In 2019,
Paweł Adamowicz, the president of Gdańsk, dies
during the annual final of the Great Orchestra of
Christmas Charity.
Utopian
vision based on music, love and friendship clashes with a
new era ruled by internet hate. The resulting tragedy is a
huge blow to the very heart of Owsiak's idealism. We
witness how he and his Orchestra cope with this challenge.
Nawoja,
a tormented witch, buries the head of a dead animal under
the barn, casting a curse on the perfect life of her
neighbor Bielakowa. Young Bielakowa organizes a rehearsal
of an all-female folk band in her house, even though she
feels that evil forces are creeping into her world. A
friendship develops between the band members. Before the
day is over, the girls will have to face the curse of
Nawoja. They meet again a few decades later for another
rehearsal - older, wiser, but still a tight-knit and
spirited group. An elderly woman is visited by the
memories of a friend she had in her youth. The two young
girls were inseparable, like one soul inhabiting two
bodies. Her memories, falling into place like pieces of a
puzzle, conjure a story of women's hard fates: failed
marriages, unkept promises, dashed hopes and dreams.
When
teenage trouble maker orphan Hela learns that her 5 years
old sister has been adopted, she decides to run away from
the reformatory with hope to find her sibling.
Incredible
story of Ina Benita, one of the most enigmatic figures of
Polish cinema of the 1930s. She was a star whose chances
of a great international career were buried by a war. For
years her fate was shrouded in mystery. Throughout the
post-war period the legend was that she died in the sewers
during the Warsaw Uprising. It was only in 2019 that a
young journalist, Marek Teler, discovered that she had
actually died in Pennsylvania in 1980s. What did she do
during the war? Why was she infamous? Why did she never
tell her American family who she had been before the war?
This documentary film attempts to unravel the amazing
story of this extraordinary actress.
