11^th ANNUAL POLISH FILM FESTIVAL IN SEATTLE

 

Press Release

October 14, 2002

 

The 11^th annual Seattle Polish Film Festival opens on Friday, November 1^st, 2002 at the Broadway Performance Hall.  Launching the Festival will be two great comedies: “E=MC²” and the US festival premier of Andrzej Wajda’s latest film “Revenge”.  “Revenge” stars the excellent award-winning director Roman Polanski and the highly acclaimed and respected actor, Daniel Olbrychski.  Later in the Festival, the screening of “Angelus” will be attended and introduced by its director, the honorable Lech Majewski.  Additionally, the honored guests at the Festival closing will be Artur Wiecek, the director of “An Angel in Krakow” and winner of the best director debut award at the 2002 Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, and Witold Beres, the co-author of the film.  Moviegoers will have an opportunity to meet all of the guests.

 

The Festival will run from Friday, November 1^st through Sunday, November 10^th.  The Festival will feature many new films, including several films for children.  Additional highlights include “Where Eskimos Live” by Tomasz Wiszniewski, voted best European film at the 2002 Avignon Film Festival in France, “Back and Forth” by Wojciech Wojcik and winner of the best director, editing, and costume awards at the 2002 Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, the aforementioned “An Angel in Krakow” by the award-winning Artur Wiecek, “Paradox Lake” by Przemyslaw Reut, featured at the Sundance Film Festival, and the critically acclaimed “Last Resort” by Pawel Pawlikowski.  The Festival line-up is rounded up by two sets of documentary shorts in line with Poland’s great tradition of excellent documentary film-making.  Several famous directors, to evoke only Krzysztof Kieslowski’s name, started with documentaries.  This year’s Festival continues its tradition of showing great and interesting documentary films.

 

Additionally, the 11^th annual Seattle Polish Film Festival will feature a photo exhibition entitled “Faces of Polish Cinema” organized by Ewa and Krzysztof Poraj-Kuczewski.  This splendid collection will feature photographs of important screen actors spanning the history of Polish cinema. 

 

Since its inception, the Seattle Polish Film Festival has grown in popularity in the Puget Sound region.  This has been due in part to the Festival’s selection of newly released and highly acclaimed films and visits of famous directors and actors such as Agnieszka Holland, Krzysztof Zanussi, Andrzej Seweryn, Olaf Lubaszenko, and many others.

 

All films either feature English subtitles or are in English.  Tickets for the opening night screening of “Revenge” are $12.00.  Regular individual tickets are $7.00.  Tickets for children films are $4.00.  Series passes are $60.00 and don’t include “Revenge”.  Advance purchase is recommended.  Tickets will be available for purchase at:  (1)  ticketwindowonline.com, all ticketwindowonline.com locations, and via phone at (206) 325-6500 or fax at (425) 450-3839, (2) the Polish Home Association Bazaar (1714 18th Ave, Seattle) November 2^nd and 3^rd, 12:00 pm – 7:00 pm, (3) the Polish Home Association Library every Friday 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm, and (4) the Broadway Performance Hall box office prior to show time.

 

The Polish Film Festival is sponsored by the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association.  Association President Andy Okinczyc invites the public to attend this highly acclaimed and very popular local Festival.  The Festival coordinator is Krystian Koper.  The director of the Festival since its founding in 1992 is Dr. Michal Friedrich.  For Festival information, schedule, volunteering, and sponsorship please visit the Festival website at www.PolishFilms.org or call the Festival hotline at (206) 901-0146.

 

 [“Revenge” provided courtesy of MGE and Vision Films.]