Polish Films, Faces, Accents and Curiosities at the Upcoming Splat!FilmFest
Polish genre cinema is making waves on the international film scene this year, and this is clearly reflected in the programme of Splat!FilmFest, a festival dedicated to new genre cinema. Over the past 12 years, the festival has established a reputation as one of the world’s most prominent events of its kind. It has a devoted following of fans and audiences for whom the Halloween season, thanks in no small part to the packed festival programme, has become their favourite time of year.
This year’s edition features nearly 100 productions, many of which have made triumphant appearances at festivals in Cannes, Toronto, Venice and Locarno in recent months. As always, the programme also includes a strong selection of Polish genre films.
This year, Splat!FilmFest audiences will have the chance to see the acclaimed Polish film “Sick” – Agata Trzebuchowska’s bold, taboo-breaking directorial debut, which received awards for Best Director and Best Acting Duo at Fantastic Fest in Austin, recognising Katarzyna Łubik and Konrad Kąkol, who deliver fearless performances in “Sick”. They play a brother and sister who, during one last carefree stay in the Masurian region, discover the darker side of adulthood and desire.
The 12th edition of Splat!FilmFest will also feature the highly anticipated “Òpi” – a terrifying folk horror film, the kind of horror cinema audiences have been waiting for for decades. It took the arrival of director Marta Giec and screenwriter Dominika Kłoczewiak to finally bring it to life. Polish-French director Julia Kowalski will also present her film. Her “Her Will Be Done”, featuring Maria Wróbel in a harrowing role, is yet another testament to the strength of Polish genre cinema. Screenings will be followed by meetings and Q&As with the filmmakers, including Agata Trzebuchowska, Julia Kowalski, Maria Wróbel, Wojciech Skibiński, Marta Giec, Dominika Kłoczewiak, Magdalena Boczarska, and Gabriela Muskała.
This year’s special guest at Splat!FilmFest is Julie Corman, wife of the late Roger Corman, who died in 2024, a genius of independent cinema and recipient of an Honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement. She is coming to Warsaw to join us in celebrating the master’s 100th birthday. Following in the footsteps of festivals in Cannes and Venice, Splat!FilmFest has prepared special screenings of some of Roger Corman’s most celebrated films, as well as a meeting with Julie. Over the years, several Polish actresses who emigrated to the United States also worked with Roger Corman. Joanna Pacuła appeared in several films he produced, as did Beata Poźniak, while Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, a two-time Academy Award winner, also began his career working alongside Roger Corman.
In the razor-sharp Australian thriller “Kick On”, audiences will have the opportunity to see Jacek Koman, the Polish-Australian actor whose professional life spans two continents. Koman has just received the Best Supporting Actor award at the 51st Polish Film Festival in Gdynia for his performance in “Nasza rewolucja”. In the brutal “Kick On”, however, he will reveal a very different and much darker side of his screen persona to Polish audiences. His credits include roles in “Conclave”, “Children of Men”, and the celebrated musical “Moulin Rouge!”.
The filmmakers behind the dark and brutal comedy “The Last Temptation of Becky” clearly understood that Poland can be a horror story in its own right. The film follows a brazen CIA agent who travels to Poland to stop neo-Nazis led by a character played by Neil Patrick Harris. Its on-screen vision of Poland is likely to raise a knowing half-smile, particularly with the repeatedly uttered greeting “Witamy!”. Still, it is a pleasure to see Poland on the big screen, or at least a version of reality that is meant to resemble it.
As part of our screenings of cult classics, we will also present the notorious film that traumatized generations of Polish viewers: “Friend of the Jolly Devil”.
We will also screen the legendary “The Devils” by Ken Russell, the uncompromising British filmmaker who made films with the same abandon with which he lived his life. His celebrated “The Devils” also features a Polish connection. The role of Sister Iza was played by Russell’s longtime collaborator, Polish actress Izabella Teleżyńska. At Splat!FilmFest, “The Devils” will be shown for the first time in a new, restored and reconstructed version based on the cut prepared by Russell in 2004.
The festival’s main programme traditionally takes place at Kinoteka in Warsaw, and the programme also includes films with audio description.
Selected titles, including the aforementioned “Òpi”, will also be screened outside Warsaw, in nine additional Polish cities: Białystok (Kino Forum), Bydgoszcz (Kino Orzeł), Gdynia (Gdyńskie Centrum Filmowe), Katowice (Kino Kosmos), Kraków (Kino Mikro), Łódź (Kino Charlie), Poznań (Kino Pałacowe), Szczecin (Kino Pionier), and Wrocław (Dolnośląskie Centrum Filmowe).