1 month ago
Millennium Docs Against Gravity, nan world-class nonfiction movie show successful Poland, has announced its main title lineup, pinch nan victor earning instant qualification for nan Academy Awards.
A twelve features will compete for nan Grand Prix – nan Bank Millennium Award. In addition, nan three-person assemblage – comprised of Oscar nominated filmmaker Talal Derki (Of Fathers and Sons), Oscar-shortlisted filmmaker Lea Glob (Apolonia, Apolonia), and Oscar-nominated shaper Jessica Hargrave (Come See Me successful nan Good Light) — will grant prizes for Best Cinematography and Best Editing successful nan Main Competition. A abstracted three-person FIPRESCI assemblage will grant a critics prize successful nan Main Competition.
MDAG, nan second-largest documentary movie show successful Europe, runs May 8-17 crossed 7 cities successful Poland: Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź and Bydgoszcz. It continues online from May 19-June 1.
“The 12 films that represent this year’s Main Competition are nan absolute item of what is happening presently successful documentary cinema,” notes a release.
Among nan films successful Main Competition are Closure, directed by Michał Marczak, astir a father’s hopeless hunt for his missing teenage son; YO (Love Is a Rebellious Bird), directed by Anna Fitch and Banker White, astir Fitch’s narration pinch a fascinating émigré who was almost 50 years her senior; A Child of My Own, directed by two-time Oscar nominee Maite Alberdi, examines a young joined female who faced truthful overmuch unit to person a babe that she faked her ain pregnancy; Time and Water, Oscar nominee Sara Dosa’s movie astir Iceland’s disappearing glaciers seen done nan activity of writer Andri Snær Magnason.
Scroll for nan afloat title lineup.
“The conception of ‘searching’ is persistent successful nan films presented successful nan Main Competition successful galore forms,” observes Karol Piekarczyk, creator and managing head astatine MDAG. “Whether it is simply a literal hunt for a missing boy successful Closure, a hunt for location successful A Fox Under a Pink Moon aliases looking for a unique vertebrate successful Whispers successful nan Woods, nan exploration continues into nan general building of these titles. With a unsocial immersive acquisition offered by Nuisance Bear, cautiously crafted shots successful To Hold a Mountain, aliases an unthinkable blend of fabrication and documentary successful A Child of My Own.”
Piekarczyk continues, “The stories are besides powerfully group successful landscapes wherever they return spot – nan municipality of Mariinka is some a origin of section which arsenic formed a brotherly bond, Iceland successful Time and Water is magnificent inasmuch arsenic showing america what is astatine liking for humanity, pinch Wax & Gold telling a communicative of a federation done nan position of a hotel.
“Searching is besides what we do erstwhile we deliberation astir our relations pinch others. A boy faces increasing up pinch nan assistance of his begetter successful Bugboy, a head examines relationship and nonaccomplishment successful YO (Love is simply a Rebellious Bird) and different head puts herself successful beforehand of nan camera to understand nan relationships which person forged her astatine her birthplace and ones which she encounters successful her caller location successful Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest.”
Piekarczyk adds, “At slightest nan destination of nan hunt for awesome cinema mightiness beryllium successful sight, spell and spot these films!”
In summation to nan Grand Prize – nan Bank Millennium Award – section juries successful nan different cities hosting nan show will coming awards: nan Lower Silesia Grand Prix (Wrocław), nan Silesian Audience Award (Katowice), nan Mayor of Gdynia Award, nan City of Poznań Freedom Award, and nan Bydgoszcz Art.Doc Award.
As Deadline reported, MDAG has besides go location to a new, prestigious award: nan FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix, selected from among nan apical documentaries of 2025. “Each year, it will beryllium presented during nan festival’s opening gala to nan champion movie of nan erstwhile year, selected by world movie critics.”
These are nan films successful Main Competition for this year’s Millennium Docs Against Gravity:
CLOSURE
In Michał Marczak’s Closure, Daniel sets disconnected connected an endless search. He did not perceive his boy Krzysiek leaving nan location and heading to nan span complete nan Vistula, wherever he was past seen. A camera captured him — and past he disappeared: either he jumped into nan stream aliases walked disconnected nan bridge. Since then, Daniel and his woman person lived suspended betwixt dream and fear. Unable to hold for a breakthrough successful nan investigation, nan begetter builds a vessel equipped pinch cameras and drones to hunt nan stream himself. The hunt consumes him. The lonely hours spent connected nan vessel go a chance for him to reckon pinch his life truthful far.
YO (LOVE IS A REBELLIOUS BIRD)
Anna is besides trying to find meaning aft nan nonaccomplishment of a loved one. Following nan decease of her friend Yo, Anna obsessively recreates her location astatine a 1:3 standard for a marionette base nan aforesaid name. When they met, Yo was 73 and Anna only 24. By constructing this miniature space, Anna creates a world wherever Yo’s stories tin proceed and their closeness tin endure. YO (Love Is a Rebellious Bird) by Anna Fitch and Banker White reveals nan powerfulness of creator creation arsenic a measurement to process and stock condolences and love.
A FOX UNDER A PINK MOON
Soraya has not recovered a location yet. For 5 years, 16-year-old Soraya Akhalaghi filmed cardinal moments of her life connected a mobile phone. During this time, she created striking drawings and sculptures while attempting to flight Iran, fleeing a convulsive hubby to subordinate her mother successful Austria. Co-directed by her and Mehrdad Oskouei, A Fox Under A Pink Moon abandons a accepted documentary building successful favour of a shape built connected images, gestures, and symbols. It gives sound to Soraya arsenic she embarks connected a journey, fuelled by youthful courage, to observe her personality and find a caller home.
TWO MOUNTAINS WEIGHTING DOWN MY CHEST
The movie Two Mountains Weighting Down My Chest explores nan taxable of searching for one’s spot successful nan world. Its head and protagonist, Viv Li, raised successful Beijing successful nan 1990s and now surviving successful Berlin, exists betwixt 2 wholly different worlds: nan progressive segment of nan German superior and nan accepted life of her family successful China. The titular “two mountains” service arsenic a metaphor for nan weight of these opposing pressures: freedom, individualism, and creator experimentation connected 1 side, tradition, family, and loyalty to her roots connected nan other.
TO HOLD A MOUNTAIN
The protagonists of To Hold a Mountain, directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić, will not fto anyone return their onshore away. Gara and her girl Nada return each twelvemonth to their family pastures. Living according to nature’s rhythm, they sphere nan vulnerable continuity of contented and memory. This bid is disrupted erstwhile nan authorities announces plans to found a NATO-backed subject training crushed connected nan site. In nan look of this threat, Gara emerges arsenic a leader of nan section community, becoming nan nationalist look of guidance against nan militarization of nan landscape. It is simply a communicative astir belonging, female resilience, and perseverance successful nan look of modern forms of domination.
NUISANCE BEAR
It is not only group who look displacement from nan onshore they person ever lived on. Churchill, Manitoba, affectionately known arsenic nan Polar Bear Capital of nan World, provides nan backdrop for a movie depicting nan tense coexistence of humans and bears. In Nuisance Bear, directed by Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman, nan communicative unfolds done nan eyes of an Inuit narrator, whose observations defy easy conclusions.
BUGBOY
The communicative of Yorgos shows conscionable really overmuch we could summation from a relationship pinch animals. This awkward teen pinch a imagination impairment struggles to link pinch others aft his parents’ divorce. His enslaved pinch a cricket named Isabella becomes a catalyst for translator and self-discovery. Lucas Paleocrassas’s Bugboy, which will person its world premiere astatine MDAG, blends realism pinch a metaphorical fairy-tale tone, creating visuals that are astatine erstwhile realistic and poetic.
WHISPERS IN THE WOODS
Vincent Munier, nan acclaimed creator of The Velvet Queen, besides reflects connected nan beauty of nature. In Whispers successful nan Woods, together pinch his begetter and his son, Vincent Munier explores life successful nan chaotic woods. The camera not only records images but, supra all, “listens” to nan wood arsenic a surviving organism, wherever activity and sound shape portion of a analyzable web of life. Yet this is not only a communicative astir nan pleasance of connecting pinch nature, but besides astir family and nan ways we tin build beardown bonds pinch those closest to us.
WAX & GOLD
For nan head of Wax & Gold, a enactment astatine nan legendary Hilton edifice successful Addis Abeba and Kapuściński’s The Emperor service arsenic a constituent of departure for a multilayered reflection connected Ethiopia’s imperial past. Master of documentary cinema Ruth Beckermann intertwines individual acquisition pinch humanities essay, revealing section perspectives and African contexts that style modern understandings of nan country.
TIME AND WATER
The value of nan past is besides explored by different movie successful nan competition. As Icelandic glaciers melt and cherished grandparents walk away, Andri Snær Magnason transforms his rich | archive – family photos, recordings, myths, and songs – into a benignant of clip capsule meant to sphere what slips away: memories, family, time, and water. Sara Dosa’s Time and Water. It is simply a poetic reflection connected nan narration betwixt intergenerational representation and nan history embedded successful ice.
MARIINKA
Pieter-Jan de Pue’s movie Mariinka looks astatine nan business successful Ukraine. The warfare turned everyone’s life connected nan frontline upside down. During nan war, a promising female boxer becomes a medic, while different young female useful arsenic a courier, smuggling equipment crossed nan beforehand line. Like a Greek tragedy, 2 brothers guidelines connected opposing sides of nan conflict, while nan youngest relative lives safely successful a foster family successful nan United States.
A CHILD OF MY OWN
The title line-up closes pinch a movie astir Alejandra. A powerful desire for motherhood and increasing unit from family members push her to return a hopeless measurement – she originates pretending to beryllium pregnant. An guiltless dishonesty quickly evolves into an progressively analyzable charade that she must prolong for months earlier her hubby and family. A Child Of My Own by Maite Alberdi is simply a moving image of a female trapped successful a web of her ain lies, and astatine nan aforesaid clip a communicative astir loneliness, societal pressure, and nan hopeless request to fulfill nan dream of motherhood.
