The Polish Film Festival of America in Chicago, the first (since 1989), the best, and the biggest of the Polish movie festivals in the United States is on! This year, it has a hybrid form due to COVID-19. That is, some movies will be screened in an actual cinema theatres in Chicago, while some others will be available through streaming. The festival will even feature some movies that have not been released yet in Poland due to the cinemas being closed because of pandemic. These movies will screen only as “secret movies”, with no prior announcement, and will not be available for streaming.

Please note: streaming for a movie may have a limited time window to see the movie, such as 48 hrs.

The following is a list of movies available for streaming:

FEATURE MOVIES

• 1920. The World’s Most Important Battle / 1920. Bitwa warszawska, dir. Jerzy Hoffman [2011, 110′]
• Code Name: Challenge / Wyzwanie, dir. Maciej Dudkiewicz [2020, 104’]
• I Never Cry / Jak najdalej stąd dir. Piotr Domalewski [2020, 98’]
• Icarus. The Legend of Mietek Kosz / Ikar. Legenda Mietka Kosza, dir. Maciej Pieprzyca [2019, 122’]
• Safe Inside, dir. Renata Gabryjelska [2019, 97’]
• Supernova, dir. Bartosz Kruhlik [2019, 79’]
• The Taste of Pho / Smak pho, dir. Marico Bobrik [2020, 84’]
• Truth Makes Free / Zieja, dir. Robert Gliński [2020, 112’]

SHORT FEATURES

• Go and Tell Her (Czuły film),  dir. Aleksandra Maciejczak [2019, 18’]
• Home Sweet Home, dir. Agata Puszcz [2019, 21’]
• Marcel, dir. Marcin Mikulski [2019, 26’]
• Me Voy, dir. Sara Bustamente-Drozdek [2019, 27’]
• My Heart (Moje serce), dir. Damian Kocur [2019, 30’]
• Picnic (Festyn), dir. Grzegorz Krawiec [2019, 20’]
• Settling the Score (Porachunki), dir. Zuzanna Grajcewicz [2018, 13’]
• The Crossword (Krzyżówka), dir. Jan Bujnowski [2019, 15’]
• The Tumble (Fikołek), dir. Milena Dutkowska [2019, 30’]
• The Turtle Cave (Jaskinia żółwi), dir. Klaudia Folga [2019, 21’]

DOCUMENTARY MOVIES

• View to the Wall (Okno z widokiem na ścianę), dir. Kobas Laksa [2019, 29’]
• Adam Strzembosz – The First Judge of Poland / (Adam Strzembosz – pierwszy sędzia Rzeczpospolitej), dir. Bożena Garus-Hockuba [2020, 63’]
• Amnesia (Amnezja), dir. Maciej Kuciel [2019, 40’]
• Artists on Strike, dir. Elena de Varda
• Auschwitz Report (Raport z Auschwitz), dir. Krzysztof Brożek [2019,   ]
• Breathe (Oddech) , dir. Daria Kasperek [2019, 25’]
• Broken Dreams (Przemyśl. Złamane marzenia), dir. Tomasz Magierski [2019, 69’]
• “Brutus” “Czarnocka” “Maria” … Colonel Gano’s Spy Network(“Brutus” “Czarnocka” “Maria”… Siatka pułkownika Gano), dir. Grażyna Czermińska [2019, 46’]
• Clouds of Death (Obłoki śmierci. Bolimów 1915), dir. Ireneusz Skruczaj [2020, 65’]
• Covid 19: the World in Danger (Covid 19: świat w zagrożeniu), dir. Łukasz Ruciński, Jarosław Jabrzyk [2020, 72’]
• Fortunata, dir. Paweł Banasiak [2020, 79’]
• House of Writers(Dom literatów czyli kartoteka zebrana), dir. Marek Gajczak [2019, 61’]
• Hungarians in Warsaw(Węgrzy w Warszawie), dir. Tadeusz Pawlicki [2020, 53’]
• Invincible. The Story of General Stanisław Maczek’s Life (Niepokonany. Opowieść o generale Stanisławie Maczku), dir. Rafał Geremel [2019, 60’]
• Isolation Cell 32, dir. Hossam Meneai [2020, 45’]
• Julek, dir. Bartosz Toboła [2019, 28’]
• Kult. Film, dir. Olga Bieniek [2019, 80’]
• Lessons of Love(Lekcja miłości), dir. Małgorzata Goliszewska, Kasia Mateja [2019. 73’]
• Marek Edelman  …And There Was Love in the Ghetto (Marek Edelman… I była miłość w getcie), dir. Jolanta Dylewska [2019, 80’]
• Material (Materiał), dir. Joanna Różniak [2019, 14’]
• Playing Hide and Seek (Zabawa w chowanego), dir. Tomasz Sekielski [2020, 87’]
• Polmission. The Passports’ Secrets (Polmission. Tajemnice paszportów), dir. Jacek Papis [2020, 57’]
• The Antarctic Syndrome (Syndrom zimowników), dir. Piotr Jaworski [2019, 74’]
• The Neurosurgeon (Neurochirurg), dir. Magdalena Zagała [2020, 81’]
• The Whale from Lorino (Wieloryb z Lorino), dir. Maciej Cuske [2019, 59’]
• Tony Halik. Born for Adventure  (Tony Halik), dir. Marcin Borchardt [2020, 90’]
• War of the Worlds (Wojna światów), dir. Mirosław Bork,, Krzysztof Talczewski [2020, 81’]
• Who Was Jerzy Giedroyć, (Kim był Jerzy Giedroyć), dir. A. Marek Drążewski (2020, 54’ & 57’]

ANIMATION

• A Degvil and a Rascat (Bies i kat), dir. Weronika Szyma [2018, 10’]
• The Little Soul (Duszyczka), dir. Barbara Rupik [2019, 9’]

More: please visit http://pffamerica.org/en

Please note, a PFFA streaming is typically limited to a time window, such as 48 hours. Apparently some “live” streaming movies may have a shorter time, so pay attention before you buy a ticket.

The following is a note sent to the PFFA subscribers concerning streaming and its gotchas, complete with the contacts to the Festival when things go wrong and you have problems:

To start, go to the PFFA website www.pffamerica.org First, click LIST OF FILMS, you will see all film titles. Click title you are interested in. You will see an option to buy STREAMING TICKET. Pay with your credit card and receive e-mail with a code to open the film. One code is like one ticket, but in most cases you will have 48 hrs. to view the selected film; you can start watching on Monday and finish on Tuesday, if it suits your schedule. The movies marked as real time screening can have shorter viewing span, for example, from 7:30 PM. to 11:30 PM. One important thing: make sure that you have a new version of your browser. Majority of festival films will be available online throughout the whole event until November 22nd. PFFA support team will be on hand online (just send an e-mail to pffamerica@pffamerica,com) or by phone (773-486-9612).