Welcome to the 31st Annual Seattle Polish Film Festival

see the 2023 schedule

Seattle Polish Film Festival (SPFF) is an annual event showcasing the best of Polish cinema since the early 1990s. The SPFF is produced and presented by the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association.

Latest News

news

2023 Best Picture Award Nov. 07

Ladies and Gentlemen, Members, Volunteers, Enthusiasts and Friends of Seattle Polish Film Festival. Now it is official - 2023 Best Picture Award for the best film of 31th Annual Seattle Polish Film Festival goes to:
"Piosenki o miłości (Songs about love)"
Tomasz Habowski – Director;
Tomasz Habowski – Screenplay, Weronika Bilska - Cinematography
2023 Best Picture was awarded by a jury of Janusz Zaorski (chair), Arek Jakubik, Anna Smołowik, Zbigniew…

news

Viewers’ Choice Award for 31st Seattle Polish Film Festival Oct. 28

Ladies and Gentlemen, Members, Volunteers, Enthusiasts and Friends of Seattle Polish Film Festival. Now it is official - Seattle Spirit of Polish Cinema – Viewers’ Choice Award for the best film of 31st Annual Seattle Polish Film Festival goes to:

Filip
Michał Kwieciński – director,
Michał Kwieciński, Michał Matejkiewicz – Screenplay,
Michał Sobociński - Cinematography

At this moment I would like to say big THANK…

The 2023 Best Picture Award

We have the pleasure to announce the 2023 Best Picture Award winner: Songs About Love directed by Tomasz Habowski.

Congratulations to the winner.

The 2023 Viewers' Choice Award

We have the pleasure to announce the 2023 Seattle Spirit of Polish Cinema - Viewers' Choice Award winner: Filip directed by Michał Kwieciński.

Congratulations to the winner and a big thank you for all your votes.

Special Guests This Year

Olga Bołądź

Actress

Tomasz Habowski

Writer and Director

Paulina Gałązka

Actress

Maciej Musiałowski

Actor

Michał Sobociński

Cinematographer

2023 Highlights

Thriller

The Breach

Maciek's wife's accident turns his life upside down. Soon the tragedy turns into a mystery full of secrets.

Comedy

Baptism

Marianna wants the family to live in harmony. The christening of her youngest grandson is a chance for reconciliation between her relatives. Plans are thwarted by General Jaruzelski. It is December 13, 1981. On this solemn day for the whole family, martial law is introduced.

Comedy

If I were you

Kaśka and Krzysiek - a young, attractive married couple with a charming son and an apartment in a picturesque area. It seems that they should be happy, and yet they are on the verge of divorce. They spend every day the same - arguing. Until the morning when they must work together like never before. And all because of... switching bodies.

Documentary

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness

A riveting portrait of the great writer whose stories became the basis of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness tells the tale of the rebellious genius who created an entirely new literature. Plumbing the depths of a Jewish world locked in crisis and on the cusp of profound change, he captured that world with brilliant humor. Sholem Aleichem was not just a witness to the creation of a new modern Jewish identity, but one of the very men who forged it.

Documentary

Until the last drop

It is a film about rivers and people, their relationship and interconnectedness. The documentary exposes the global cost and consequences of the destruction of nature "in the name of progress". Rivers have been especially badly hit.

Drama

Dad

A lonely dad, facing the sudden death of a Ukrainian babysitter, takes his daughter and her friend on a journey by truck. Will a trucker and two scamp girls handle the transport of frozen fish, body smuggling, and life without a home?

Drama

Woman on the roof

Mira, a 60 year-old woman, appears to have a normal life. One morning she starts her day like any other, wakes up early, puts her family's clothes out to dry, purchases food for her fish, and commits a bank robbery with a kitchen knife. She discovers her need for money is surpassed only by her need for love.

Drama

True Life of Angels

Adam, a famous actor, a man with typical troubles of the middle-aged male and difficulties in finding the meaning of life, gets a stroke and loses contact with the world. Doctors make a catastrophic diagnosis.

Drama

Young Eagles Grodno ‘39

“Young Eagles” is a dramatic depiction of war against the Soviets as seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy, Leon. On 1 September 1939, marking the beginning of the school year, his school is bombed by German planes. The war forces Leoś, Tadek, Ewelina, and thousands of Polish children to leave their childhood behind and quickly grow up in order to confront the darkness of this new, twisted reality of adult life they are about to face.

Comedy

Dangerous Gentlemen

Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, Witkacy, Joseph Conrad, and Bronisław Malinowski, four leading figures among the Zakopane bohemians, wake up after an all-night drunken party. Their hangover headaches are killing them, none of them remembers anything, and finding the corpse of a male stranger on the floor doesn't help.

Comedy

Tough Luck

During the wake after the funeral of their beloved grandfather, the family finds out that the numbers that grandfather played all his life have just been drawn in the lottery.

Thriller

The Hidden Web

Young journalist Julita Wójcicka is investigating the mysterious death of a television celebrity. She believes that what the services classify as an unfortunate accident was in fact a precisely planned crime.

Drama

Elephant

Bartek runs a small horse farm in the mountains in Poland. He had to become head of the family when his father left and his mother fell apart. One day their neighbour dies and his son Dawid comes back to the village for a funeral. Bartek becomes fascinated by Dawid and his carefreeness. First love will force him to decide if he’s ready to choose his freedom above family obligations.

Drama

Backwards

Inspired by real events, the story of a young mother of an autistic boy whose persistence and struggle with bureaucracy and human heartlessness have led to significant changes in the Polish education system.

Horror

It came from the water

A group of Warsaw high school graduates, sick and tired of lockdowns and online schooling, decide to head to the seaside for a party that they will never forget.

Drama

Swarm

For ten years a family has been living on an island, isolated from reality. This apparent harmony turns into a trap. Against her partner's wish, the mother decides to return to the world she has left behind.

see 2023 films

Interviews with last year Guests

About the SPFF

Seattle Polish Film Festival (SPFF) is an annual event showcasing the best of Polish cinema since the early 1990’s. The SPFF is produced and presented by the non-profit Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association.

SPFF was started in 1992 by Polish community leaders Tom Podl and Dr. Michal Friedrich. Mr. Podl and Dr. Friedrich were inspired by other notable Polish Film festivals in the U.S. and in Poland. They wanted to share this special part of Polish culture with the greater Seattle community. SPFF is the second longest running Polish film festival in the United States. 2017 marked its 25th anniversary.

From 2002 to 2005, local attorney Krys Koper directed the SPFF. Mr. Koper ushered in a new era of procuring high quality films and guests. Under his direction, SPFF presented such films as Revenge and When the Sun was God, as well as classics such as The Promised Land and Woman Alone.

From 2006, local patent attorney Greg Plichta directed SPFF. Under Mr. Plichta's leadership, the SPFF showcased critically acclaimed films alongside independent films, shorts, animations, and documentaries. During this time, the SPFF hosted a wide variety of guests and luminaries from Polish cinema. In 2010, Dr. Michal Friedrich returned to SPFF as the Artistic Director, with Greg Plichta as Managing Director.

As of 2011, former Solidarity activist and local film fanatic Zbigniew Pietrzyk has run SPFF, and in 2012 was joined by his son Michal, a television industry professional, as the Artistic Director. Since then, every edition of SPFF is scheduled to reach new heights in terms of film quality, diversity, and sophistication – in large part due to the generous support of its patrons, and the selfless contributions of its dedicated staff.

Sponsors

When you sponsor our cultural exhibition of Polish films your financial support helps cover the costs of film royalties, theater rental, airfare and accommodations for our guests, advertising, and printing. You can participate at different levels, all with added benefits! Review the options for Signature Sponsorship.