About the programme

New Horizons will open with the revelation of the Cannes Film Festival (acting award for Kōji Yakusho) – Perfect Days, directed by the legendary Wim Wenders. The first day of the festival will also feature the maestro’s second film, Anselm, which was shot in 3D technology. Following the opening gala in the renovated space of the New Horizons Cinema, the festival audience will be treated to a performance by Bass Astral. The closing film of the festival will be the sensational Passages by Ira Sachs, a standout from the Sundance and Berlinale festivals, featuring the electrifying trio of Franz Rogowski, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Ben Whishaw.

For over two decades, New Horizons has been a celebration of diversity, both on and off the screen – consistent in its (beautiful!) inconsistency. This unique event thrives on the multiplicity of experiences and sensibilities it embraces, which is echoed in this year’s slogan, “Cinemerging,” and the festival’s visual identity. After a break of nearly six years, we are thrilled to welcome back a titular partner to the festival: starting this year, we welcome you to the mBank New Horizons International Film Festival.

The full program for the event is now available on our website. Tickets and screening access are on sale:

View the program of the 23rd mBank New Horizons IFF

New Horizons International Film Competition

The Competition is the signature section of the Wroclaw festival. This year’s lineup of competition films explores and challenges ossified power structures, hardened systems, and traditional cinematic formats using crime fiction, satire, picaresque novels, narrative poetry, and melancholy ballads. These films create space for the wild, the untamed, and the uncontrollable. They allow you to let your imagination run wild, to open minds, to throw off the suit, grow a ponytail, cross boundaries, and be reborn.

Among the twelve competing titles that will compete for this year’s Grand Prix are: Ann Oren’s Piaffe, Bas Devos’ Here, Helena Wittmann’s Human Flowers of Flesh, Lois Patiño’s Samsara, Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, Anthony Lapia’s After, Philip Sotnychenko’s La Palisiada, Leïla Kilani’s Birdland, Stonewalling by Huang Ji and Ryûji Otsuka, Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry by Elene Naveriani, and The Store by Ami-Ro Sköld. Representing Polish cinema is the punk Imago by Olga Chajdas, a personal and generational tale of alternative music and anarchy.

The best film will be selected by a jury composed of Mark Jenkin (Grand Prix winner for Bait at the 18th NH), Dane Komljen (honorable mention winner for Afterwater at the 22nd NH), Jennifer Reeder (her Perpetrator is included in this year’s Midnight Madness section), Sergio Fant (Berlinale programmer) and Aga Woszczyńska (whose Silent Land was one of the opening films at last year’s NH). The festival’s viewers will also have the opportunity to nominate their favorite title in an audience vote.

Hits from world festivals, including over 20 titles from Cannes

The Visa Gala Screenings and Masters sections of the festival will feature a curated selection of outstanding films that have been shown and awarded at renowned film festivals worldwide. Among the notable films making their way from Cannes to Wroclaw are The Pot au Feu by Trần Anh Hùng (winner of Best Director), Monster by Hirokazu Kore-eda (awarded for its screenplay), About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Best Actress Award), Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves (Jury Prize), Kaouther Ben Hani’s Four Daughters (Best Documentary), Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex (winner of the Un Certain Regard section) and Jessica Hausner’s Club Zero, starring the excellent Mia Wasikowski.

Additionally, audiences will have the opportunity to experience Alice Diop’s feature debut Saint Omer, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice IFF (one of our retrospectives will be dedicated to the French director); the winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice IFF, No Bears by Jafar Panahi; and Eureka by Lisandro Alonso, who will be a guest at the festival. The program further includes critically acclaimed films from this year’s Berlinale, such as Tótem by Lila Avilés, 20,000 Species of Bees by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren and Celine Song’s Past Lives (produced by Studio A24); Sundance winners A Thousand and One by A.V. Rockwell and Scrapper by Charlotte Regan; as well as hits from IFF Rotterdam – like Notes on a Summer by Diego Llorente. The program also includes recent films by Marco Bellocchio, Sacha Polak, Angela Schanelec, Lav Diaz, Kelly Reichardt, Joanna Hogg, Christian Petzold and the final film by Jean-Luc Godard.

Four Daughters, dir. Kaouther Ben Hani

Festival sections

Satyajit Ray – an absolute legend of Indian cinema, Alice Diop – an astute observer and portraitist of French suburban life, Wang Bing – one of the most important Chinese directors, and Alain Robbe-Grillet – a French director combining New Wave experimentation, libertine and surrealist traditions. This year’s retrospectives in the New Horizons program shine a spotlight on these four distinguished figures in the world of cinema. The review of Wang Bing’s work includes the monumental work-installation 15 Hours (the film’s duration is included in the title), which captures the interior of a sewing room in Zhili in eastern China. This thought-provoking film will be screened free of charge in the New Horizons Cinema space.

Robbe-Grillet’s work is the inspiration for the new Avec Plasir section and the exhibition of the same title at Studio BWA. The review of the French director’s works became an opportunity to reflect on the artistic, as well as political, place that the erotic sensibility defined by the acronym BDSM occupies in the present-day. Avec Plaisir is a counterpoint to Robbe-Grillet’s free-thinking, yet unambiguously masculine and heterosexual, perspective towards more diverse, especially feminine and queer points of view.

Queerness, ambiguity or non-schematism, is also at the heart of the Third Eye section’s program, which is guided by the title “non-masculine / non-feminine.” This year, the Third Eye, which usually presents a feminist view of cinema, goes beyond binary divisions and oppositions, looking at non-binary, fluid identities that cannot be locked into simple categories.

The common terrain of cinema and art intermingling will again be marked by the Visual Front, while the latest productions deconstructing genre cinema patterns and playing with conventions may be found within Midnight Madness (which includes the world premiere of Lipstick on the Glass by Kuba Czekaj). We’ll also check out what’s being talked about and watched today in Lisbon or Porto, Fundão and Arcos de Valdevez – all within the Focus on Portugal section. Lost Lost Lost features overlooked discoveries from the past few years; films by directors whose work is situated on the fringes of cinema. Also returning to the festival is the Oslo/Reykjavík section – an overview of modern Icelandic and Norwegian cinema, which was created in collaboration with the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, which coordinates the use of the EEA (European Economic Area) Norway Grants in Poland.

Once again we invite you to free screenings as part of the open-air Cinema at the Market Square. Every day at 10 pm, from July 21st to 30th, in the heart of the capital of Lower Silesia, you will have the chance to see terrific films bearing the New Horizonian seal of approval. The program of this section will also include iconic classics presented in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. Among those set to appear on screen are Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The festival will also feature short films: the Shortlist will prove that shorts are very often conducive to great talent. Each film in this section, created by a filmmaker under the age of 30, will also have the opportunity to compete for the Zuzanna Jagoda Kolska Award.

A new addition to the program is the Smart7 section – a unique, itinerant competition spanning festivals in seven European cities. The competing films are traveling this year from Vilnius, via Lisbon, Madrid, Cluj-Napoca, Wroclaw and Reykjavík, while the winner will be selected by an international young jury at the closing film festival in Thessaloniki.

Eureka, dir. Lisandro Alonso

The art scene

The collaboration with our long-time partner, BWA Wrocław, as the official co-organizer of the festival’s customarily abundant art scene, continues. Together, we will curate experiences that engage every sense, stimulate intellect, and evoke emotions. In addition to the aforementioned Avec Plasir exhibition, the SiC! gallery of BWA will showcase the works of Anne Mlasowsky in the exhibition From Within, along with a new piece by Kasia Kmita, a familiar name within the festival community, titled Contrafactur. The theme of pleasure, explored in Avec Plasir, is also being embraced this year by the IP Group, presenting the seventh installment of the Ambient Room under the title Around the Pleasure Principle.

Festival Nights. Where to have fun after leaving the cinema

After a whole day in the cinema seat, it’s good to get up and move around, preferably dancing off all the excitement in the company of your favorite people. We’ve always said that New Horizons is more than just a festival; it’s also a great club: a discussion club, a social club, combining film with music and other pleasures. This year, we’re continuing our club tradition in new spaces and with a refreshed approach. We’re opening up to Wroclaw, to the local club scene and to the great people who contribute to making the capital of Lower Silesia one of the most vibrant event destinations in Poland. Join us for Festival Nights, taking place in the neon-lit courtyard at Ruska 46 (the combined forces of Recepcja and Surowiec clubs), Ciało club, Tamka Island and even under the stars thanks to dACH! at plac Dominikański 3. The musical sensations will also be taken care of by BULVARY at Księcia Witolda 11-31. The Festival Nights program includes free concerts by Rosalie, Marcin Masecki (accompanied by a screening of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War), Daniel Spaleniak, a DJ Wika set and Silent Disco.

An accessible festival

Access to culture, including high-quality cinema, should be equal and available to a wide range of audiences. The festival team is dedicated to ensuring inclusivity and accommodating the needs of individuals with disabilities. We will provide trained staff to cater to these audiences and organize screenings of films with audio-description and captioning by SDH: Close by Lukas Dhont – combined with a PJM-translated meeting with Miri Palak, a sex educator for people with disabilities from the SexedPL Foundation; Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund – as part of Cinema at the Market Square (free admission). We would like to thank the Katarynka Foundation for their assistance in enhancing the festival’s accessibility. Detailed information about the accessibility of the 23rd mBank New Horizons Festival will soon be available at nowehoryzonty.pl.

Beyond the horizon, namely the collaboration with SexedPL

Expanding horizons, whether cinematic, social or cultural, is our specialty. We know that festival films ignite discussion and often raise challenging questions. Therefore, the strength of the festival lies not only in the screenings but also in the conversations with our guests, who contribute to the perspectives presented in the films. However, some questions, conclusions, and thoughts may come to us later, and not everyone feels comfortable speaking in a large group in a cinema hall. That's why this year, we have partnered with the SexedPL team. During selected days of the festival, visitors will have the opportunity to ask questions about topics related to identity, sexuality and relationships. SexedPL experts will be available to answer these questions either in person, in a designated area on the second floor of the New Horizons Cinema, or anonymously through a free app. In addition, SexedPL and Magnum, in collaboration with the art collective To Tu, will create an art installation that explores the concept of mapping one’s body through collages. Festival attendees can create their own collages using the app.

Where to quench your thirst and satisfy your non-film appetite?

Movie marathons require a good dose of calories. As always, we’ve prepared a list of recommended places where festival-goers can grab a bite to eat between screenings, with the added benefit of discounts and special offers.

View the map of recommended spots

It’s also worth preparing your own water bottles, because on the second floor of the New Horizons Cinema, thanks to the cooperation with Wroclaw’s MPWiK (Municipal Water and Sewerage Company), there will be a water bar where you will be able to enjoy Wroclaw’s (mineral-rich and very tasty!) tap water; all part of the city’s #PijKranówkę (Drink Tap Water) social campaign.

The festival in numbers

• 251 films at the festival, including 196 features and 55 shorts
• 23,282 minutes – the combined running time of all films
• More than 500 guests and visitors at the festival (including industry event attendees)
• 3854 – the total number of cinema seats
• 184 people overseeing the organization of the festival
• 153 wonderful volunteers