From November 13th to 17th, the Muza Cinema in Poznań will host the inaugural edition of the British Film Festival—the first of its kind in Poland and one of the few in Europe dedicated entirely to British cinema.
Dozens of films, diverse sections, international guests, side events, and screenings in unique locations will take centre stage. The event under the banner of the United Kingdom of Cinema is planned to be an annual celebration of British filmmaking.
The festival programme aims to celebrate the culture of the constituent nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) and highlight the diversity of regions and social classes, as well as the context of colonial and post-colonial countries.
The festival's key highlights include two retrospectives that will juxtapose the history and modernity of British cinema.
The first edition will be graced by a retrospective of Alfred Hitchcock films, marking the 125th anniversary of the legendary director's birth. The screenings, from digitally restored copies, will showcase the early works he directed in Britain. A special silent screening of THE LODGER - A STORY OF THE LONDON FOG, accompanied by live music from acclaimed composer Michał Jacaszek, will take place at the Evangelical Methodist Church of the Holy Cross. In contrast, we will be screening Hitchcock's iconic THE BIRDS in the industrial setting of a former factory in Poznań's Stomil area. Classic films such as PSYCHO, DIAL M FOR MURDER, and NORTH BY NORTHWEST will also make rare appearances on the big screen.
The second retrospective will spotlight Lynne Ramsay, the Scottish director and two-time BAFTA winner, whose works have garnered accolades at Cannes, Locarno, and San Sebastián. Alongside her celebrated films, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN and YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, audiences will also have the chance to see her short films and early, lesser-known features. Ramsay, currently collaborating with stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore, Joaquin Phoenix, and Rooney Mara, will attend the festival in person, participating in screenings and special events with audiences!
THE LODGER - A STORY OF THE LONDON FOG and THE BIRDS will also appear in the Outside the Box section - dedicated entirely to screenings that redefine the cinema experience. This section also includes screenings of the legendary TRAINSPOTTING in Poznań's iconic Tama Club, THE ITALIAN JOB in a Mini Cooper showroom, and MR.TURNER in the atmospheric space of the National Museum in Poznań.
The First Things First section will showcase high-profile, pre-release screenings of films, many of which are unlikely to make it into regular distribution, making them the first or only screenings in Poland. Highlights include THE OUTRUN featuring a stellar performance from Saoirse Ronan, KNEECAP—an Irish Oscar contender set to a hip-hop beat, telling the story of freedom and the right to speak native language, the Berlinale award-winning Last Swim, and BAFTA Shorts, presented in collaboration with the British Council. ON FALLING will be the festival opening film —the Polish premiere of Laura Carreira's debut feature, which won Best Director at the San Sebastián Film Festival and Sutherland Award in the First Feature Competition at the BFI London Film Festival.
Additionally, the High Season section will present some of the most exciting British films released in the 2023/2024 season, providing audiences with a chance to catch up on cinematic gems they may have missed throughout the year.
The Mind the Gap section will centre on the distinctly British genre of social realism—both historically and in contemporary contexts—featuring films from the 1950s and 1960s Free Cinema movement, the Angry Young Men of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as modern examples. These are films commenting on the past and present political and social situation of people living in the UK. KINO MUZA will show such films as MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE, directed by Stephen Frears, from 1985, with one of the first roles for Daniel Day-Lewis, or MADE IN BRITAIN by Alan Clarke, starring teenage debutante Tim Roth as a violent skinhead.
The section name refers to the traditional audio and visual message introduced in 1969 on the London Underground while colloquially and metaphorically drawing attention to the hole and gap, defining existing social divisions in British daily life.
The Five O'Clock section will celebrate British heritage cinema, featuring period dramas that capture the grandeur of Britain’s aristocratic, imperial, and colonial past. A key highlight will be a screening of CHARIOTS OF FIRE, Hugh Hudson’s Oscar-winning classic, marking the centenary of the events depicted in the film. Screenings in this section will take place at 5 p.m. sharp, in homage to the great British tradition of tea time.
After the tea has been drunk, audiences can dive into late-night screenings in the Bloody Hell! section dedicated to experimental and camp British films that are as infamous for their shoddy execution as they are beloved for their cinematic monstrosity. These low-budget gems will be shown in collaboration with the zany team behind the Octopus Film Festival and—fittingly—will be screened straight from VHS tapes!
The festival's visual identity draws on the history and power of the United Kingdom in a non-obvious way. The starting point for its creation was the Prime Meridian, passing through the London borough of Greenwich. For centuries, Britain has been called “the empire over which the sun never sets,” as its influence and colonial conquests spread across the globe.
Just as the Prime Meridian defines the world’s time zones, various meridians represent the numerous regions globally impacted by British culture and cinema—an influence that continues to persist today.
For further details available online, visit:
http://britishfilmfestival.pl/
https://www.facebook.com/BritishFilmFestivalPoznan
https://www.instagram.com/britishfilmfestivalpoznan
Organisers:
Kino Muza, Estrada Poznańska, City of Poznań
Patronage over the event:
British Council, British Embassy