After nearly thirty-five years The Polish Film Festival in America winds up its activity. The world’s largest annual Polish cultural event beyond Poland and the most extensive yearly program of a promotion of Polish cinema outside of Poland was established in Chicago upon the fall of communism in Poland by Christopher Kamyszew and a group of his friends. Within the PFFA programs over 2,000 movies have been showed – feature, documentary and animated ones; almost 800 artists of film and industry professionals of Polish descent from all over the globe met the Chicago festival audiences. PFFA contributed to a founding of several annual Polish film events in North America, including Houston, Rochester, Seattle, Ann Arbor, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and others. Beginning in 1993, PFFA organized and took part in many Academy campaigns, often with measurable success. A few years later, a distribution-production branch, Society Films, started its activity with a splash of over a million admissions for “With Fire and Sword” by J. Hoffman (presented in 70 cities in North America). The festival financed Polish film productions and funded scholarships for filmmakers of Polish descent. For all the achievements PFFA and its organizers have received numerous prestigious international awards and honors.

Unofficially we started with premiere screenings of later widely awarded “Short Film About Love” and “Short Film About Killing” by Krzysztof Kieslowski – says the festival founder – We convinced The Art Institute of Chicago’s Film Center to do it together. However, very soon we had to add larger theatres due to amazing popularity of the event.
At one point, films were screened in six theatres at the same time, not counting colleges and universities. We extended our programs to all year-round, making retrospectives, Polish Movie Springtime, Frontline: Poland, and more sidebars. Every year, the fest offered from 50 to 70 titles. Thanks to a group of dedicated, generous sponsors, the festival had enormous marketing from billboards on city buses and over expressways to major TV and radio advertising.

The New York Times ranked PFFA among the five most important programs of promoting European cinema in the States while The Chicago Tribune called it “Chicago Success Story”. New City and Chicago Reader listed it among the best film fests in Chicago.

“Everything has its end. The whole movie industry changed dramatically. New technologies have made almost unrestricted access to films. Viewers’ habits change, and today they often prefer to watch movies in the comfort of their living rooms. Finally, in a mass production of various kinds of Netflix it’s increasingly harder to find works of high artistic quality. It seems impossible to build with professional integrity an extensive program from film productions made in Poland. And last but not least, desperate running after funding and lack of new, younger staff forced the organizers to give up.
The Society for Arts will continue occasional screenings of outstanding Polish film if our financial means allow. However, we are finished with large annual event, extending our gratitude to all those who have been very essential part of the ambitious venture.”

This November, PFFA invites you for special farewell screenings of excellent Polish features.

On Saturday, November 23th @ 7 pm. additional screening of THE SCARBORN dir. by P. Maslona, awarded with Golden Lions for the Best Movie among many others. Eagle for the Best Directing in 2023. Spectacular performances of Jacek Braciak, Robert Wieckiewicz and Agnieszka Grochowska. Offered without any martyrology, a picture of Thaddeus Kosciuszko in a mortal duel with his Russian enemy, made in a convention of Sam Peckinpah’s western, it gets you on the edge of your seat from start to the end.

On Saturday, November 16th @ 7:00 PM. a presentation of KULEJ. ALL THAT GLITTERS ISN’T GOLD dir. by X. Zulawski about the most famous Polish boxer, his marriage and entourage, with outstanding role of Andrzej Chyra as a legendary coach Feliks Stamm. The movie is just being released in Polish cinemas.

On Sunday, November 17th @ 3:00 and 5:30 PM. screenings of a fascinating spy psychological thriller DOPPERGANGER. DOUBLE dir. by J. Holoubek starring Jakub Gierszal. Film was awarded for the Best Directing at the Gdynia Film Festival.

On Sunday, November 24 at 15:00 the screening of the biographical drama directed and based on a script by Adrian Panek, with an excellent role by Sandra Drzymalska, playing scientist and environmentalist Simona Kossak. The film also stars Jakub Gierszał and Agata Kulesza.

All films have English subtitles.

Tickets can be purchased www.pffamerica.com or by phone at 773-486-9612.

The Gallery Theatre is located at 1112 N. Milwaukee Ave., one block south of Ashland/Division/Milwaukee intersection.

Society for Arts 1112 North Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60642 tel. 773.486.9612