The 41st Warsaw Film Festival marks a significant Nordic presence along with its new artistic vision

This year marks a memorable chapter in the history of the Warsaw Film Festival, as long-time programme director Stefan Laudyn stepped down after more than 30 years at the helm of Poland’s A-category festival. He has handed over leadership to Bartłomiej Pulcyn, who has held various roles within the festival and brings a strong background in film curation and journalism.

“We are opening a new chapter,” Pulcyn told Nordisk Film & TV Fond. “Our new visual identity signals changes not only in aesthetics, but also in the structure, organisation, and programme of the festival.”

As the director further pointed out, drawing inspiration from history while showcasing some of the year’s most talked-about festival titles, the festival is also expanding with side music events and new sections – such as the freshly launched programme Animus. Cinema of Values – aimed at encouraging conversations around the ideas that unite us: goodness, courage, solidarity, beauty, freedom, and truth.

Its selection includes one of the most celebrated Nordic films of the year, Tarik Saleh’s Eagles of the Republic, featured among the nine Nordic productions and co-productions presented in Warsaw. Another top title, placed within the boutique Special Screenings sidebar, is Anders Thomas Jensen’s dark comedy The Last Viking (Den sidste viking), celebrating its Eastern European premiere. Also featured with a special screening is Yrsa Roca Fannberg’s latest documentary The Ground Beneath Our Feet (Jörðin undir fótum okkar), which provides a warm, poetic look at the final days of life.

Two Nordic co-productions are having their world premieres at the festival: Coco Wouters’s transcontinental journey in search of female role models, Framing Her, backed by producers Karianne Berge and Silje Viki from Norway’s Indie Film, and financed by the Swedish Film Institute, the Norwegian Film Institute, Film i Skåne, and SVT; and M. Siam’s exploration of a poignant father-son bond, My Father’s Scent, co-produced by Linda Bolstad Strønen, Marie Fuglestein Lægreid, and Ingrid Lill Høgtun from Norway’s DUOfilm AS, with support from the Norwegian South Film Fund. These films are running in the Documentary Competition and Competition 1-2 sections, respectively. The latter section also showcases Janicke Askevold’s Solomamma, about a curiosity-driven journalist who decides to embark on single motherhood with the help of sperm donation.

The Nordic participants in the International Competition are Jon Einarsson Gustafsson’s intimate road movie around Iceland, Anorgasmia, and Ivan Nikolaichuk’s Eternity Man, which follows a centenarian reflecting on his life through war, solitude, and change in 20th-century Ukraine. Eternity Man is co-produced by Matila Röhr Productions, financed by the Finnish Film Foundation, and broadcast by Yle.

Furthermore, the Free Spirit festival section will feature Swedish documentary filmmaker Ragnhild Ekner’s second feature, Ultras, offering an insider’s perspective on the passionate world of football’s most devoted fans; and Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén’s documentary Celtic Utopia (Útóipe Cheilteach), exploring Ireland’s vibrant new music scene, produced by Elin Lilleman Eriksson from Stockholm-based MDEMC.

The 41st Warsaw Film Festival will present 112 feature films and 56 short films, including over 80 premieres - world, international, European, and will take place from October 10 to October 20.

Eagles of the Republic, The Last Viking, The Ground Beneath Our Feet and Ultras are supported by NFTVF.