While the team of experts assembled by the Polish Film Institute (PISF) debates the ways in which the industry can return to work in a safe and reasonable manner, the main funding body has also decided on the recipients of the first batch of grants for domestic productions for 2020. Some of these films, like Tak ma być (Let It Be) by Łukasz Grzegorzek, are international co-productions but with Poland as a majority co-producer.

Ten projects were supported with an overall sum of PLN 25.2 million (€5.8 million). Two of them are receiving subsidies on the basis of the decision of PISF director Radosław Śmigulski: Code Red/Imigranci (lit. "Code Red/Immigrants") by Dariusz Jabłoński (who also works as a producer: his recent credits include Oleh Sentsov’s Numbers [+lire aussi :
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interview : Oleg Sentsov
fiche film], shown at the 2020 Berlinale), staged by Apple Film; and Niepewność (lit. "Uncertainty") by Waldemar Szarek, produced by Fog Content Agency Sp z oo. The former project received PLN 2.5 million (€581,000) and the latter PLN 1.5 million (€348,000).

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Dorota Kobiela, who directed the Oscar-nominated feature-length animation Loving Vincent [+lire aussi :
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interview : Dorota Kobiela
fiche film] with Hugh Welchman, received PLN 4 million (€930,000) for Chłopi (The Peasants) [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], which is being produced by Chłopi Sp z oo w organizacji. Kobiela is this time listed as the sole director of the animation based on a classic Polish novel from the 1900s, penned by Władysław Reymont and awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1924.

Veteran filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski (Deep End, Essential Killing [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jerzy Skolimowski
fiche film]), who is currently staying in Sicily, received PLN 3 million (approximately €700,000) for a project entitled EO [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (working title: Baltazar), which may have connections with the 1966 Robert Bresson classic Au Hasard Balthazar. It is being staged by production outfit Skopia Film. In a 2018 interview with Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Skolimowski said that it was the only film that had “really moved” him.

Writer, director and art curator Łukasz Ronduda is set to make Wszystkie nasze strachy (lit. "All Our Fears") with a PISF grant of PLN 1.7 million (approximately €400,000). The feature is being produced by Serce. Both of his previous films revolved around edgy Polish artists – performer Oskar Dawicki (The Performer [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]), and poet, filmmaker and performer Wojciech Bąkowski (A Heart of Love [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]) – and they were both presented at International Film Festival Rotterdam. Ronduda’s third feature focuses on Daniel Rycharski, also an artist, who in his works examines religion, LGBT+ issues and iconography in rural Poland.

Also, as mentioned above, Łukasz Grzegorzek (Kamper [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] and A Coach’s Daughter [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], both showcased at Karlovy Vary) is gearing up to make his third film, Let It Be, which will be produced by Koskino, and co-produced with the Czech Republic and possibly also Bulgaria. The PISF contribution is as high as PLN 1.5 million (€348,000), and the shoot is scheduled for summer 2020, assuming the pandemic allows cast and crew to safely return to film sets.

The company behind The Last Family [+lire aussi :
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interview : Dawid Ogrodnik
fiche film] and Corpus Christi [+lire aussi :
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interview : Bartosz Bielenia
interview : Jan Komasa
fiche film], Aurum Film, will produce Backwards [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], the third directorial effort by Jacek Lusiński. This project will receive PLN 3 million, or circa €700,000. Also in the works is the new outing by Filip Bajon, whose previous film, The Butler [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], won the Silver Lions at the Polish Film Festival in 2019. He will helm Nauczyciel (lit. "The Teacher"), with another PLN 3 million (approximately €700,000) having now been added to the budget by the PISF. It is being staged by Studio Filmowe Kalejdoskop.

Last but not least, two feature debuts were also supported by Poland’s main funding body. One of these is the Koi Studio-produced Dangerous Men [+lire aussi :
interview : Maciej Kawalski
fiche film] by Maciej Kawalski, which, according to the published synopsis, will tell a crazy story featuring writer Joseph Conrad and set in a Polish mountain resort, Zakopane, in 1914. Meanwhile, Anna Maliszewska is preparing to shoot Deep Frozen Goods, produced by Metro Films. Each of these projects is to be granted PLN 2.5 million (€581,000).