Kinoteka, the UK’s annual Polish Film Festival is now in full swing in various locations nationwide. Each year the Polish Cultural Institute in London offers audiences the best of contemporary and classic Polish cinema, documentaries and special events. This year’s event coincides with the centenary celebrations of Polish great: Andrzej Wajda with a retrospective covering the six decades of his career.
ANDRZEJ WAJDA: PORTRAITS OF HISTORY AND HUMANITY
In 2026, the festival continues its tradition of retrospectives of grand film directors, celebrating the centenary of Andrzej Wajda’s birth with a retrospective taking place at BFI Southbank, ICA and Ciné Lumière and spanning six decades of the filmmaker’s work. Encompassing film screenings, Q&As, talks and an exhibition, Andrzej Wajda: Portraits of History And Humanity focuses on the Academy Award-winning director’s politically engaged filmmaking career from his early years making films under post-war communism to his work during the Solidarność movement.
Kinoteka opened on 4 February 2026 with an Opening Gala screening of Wajda’s revered Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament, 1958) that sees a young Polish Resistance fighter being ordered to assassinate a Communist official during WWII. With his target being a former comrade-in-arms, this triggers a moral dilemma, calling into question all that was fought for. Defined by an electrifying, iconic performance by Zbigniew Cybulski, this depiction of Poland, poised between the horrors of WWII and an uncertain future, is arguably Wajda’s greatest achievement, and a landmark of international cinema.
Highlights during the season include the director’s celebrated first feature A Generation (Pokolenie, 1955); his acclaimed drama which foretold the Polish Solidarity movement, Man of Marble (Człowiek z marmuru, dir. Andrzej Wajda, 1977); French revolution drama Danton (1983), and the Oscar-nominated Katyn (2007) about the execution of 22,000 Polish army officers by the Soviets in 1940, during WWII.
Ciné Lumière also presents a series of double-bills that highlight the myriad ways Andrzej Wajda’s body of work co-exists in dialogue with, orgiastically merges with and violently clashes with his student-turned-filmmaking rival Andrzej Żuławski. Films screening: The Wedding (Wesele, dir. Andrzej Wajda, 1972) and The Devil (Diabeł, dir. Andrzej Żuławski, 1972); Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza, 1981) and Possession (dir. Andrzej Żuławski, 1981); The Possessed (dir. Andrzej Wajda, 1988) and The Public Woman (dir. Andrzej Żuławski, 1984)
CLOSING GALA
Taking place at Cine Lumière on 29 March 2026, the Closing Gala of Kinoteka 2026 is Brother (Brat, dir. Maciej Sobieszczański, 2025), a powerful coming-of-age drama focused on a family where violence and manipulation is always simmering under the surface.
NEW POLISH CINEMA
The New Polish Cinema strand explores community interaction and the potential of working together. Two of Poland’s leading filmmaking names spearhead this year’s programme. Kinoteka is delighted to screen two films from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jan Komasa (Corpus Christi). The Good Boy (2025), a Polish-British co-production, is the director’s first English language film, a dark, genre-blending fable starring Anson Boon as transgressive bad boy Tommy who wakes up far away from home as the subject of a ‘rehabilitation project’. Starring Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough as the psychotic couple enacting his redemption plan, this is sharp social commentary full of unexpected tonal shifts.
Komasa’s follow up to The Good Boy is Anniversary (Rocznica, 2025), a dystopian thriller with modern-day relevance starring Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Phoebe Dynevor and Dylan O’Brien that shows a family caught in the turmoil of a controversial new political movement called ‘The Change’, as the country teeters on the brink of collapse.
Agnieszka Holland’s Franz (2025) is a dynamic portrait of young Franz Kafka and is Poland’s official submission to the 98th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film.
Home Sweet Home (Dom dobry, dir. Wojciech Smarzowski, 2025) explores contemporary domestic life in Poland through the story of a couple. From the director of Traffic Department (2012), Clergy (Kler, 2018) and Rose (Róża, 2011), this is an intense psychological drama that uncovers issues of domestic violence within Polish society. Photosensitive (Światłoczuła, dir. Tadeusz Śliwa, 2024) stars TV actor Matylda Giegżno in her first film lead as a dynamic, fulfilled social worker who is blind and whose life changes following a meeting with a more reserved photographer (rising star Ignacy Liss). Simple and intimate, this romantic drama shows how moving outside our comfort zones can be empowering.
DOCUMENTARY & A TRIBUTE TO MARCEL ŁOZIŃSKI
Continuing its commitment to showcasing thought-provoking and topical documentary film, the festival presents three films in its Documentary strand. Letters from Wolf Street + director Q&A (Listy z Wilczej, dir. Arjun Talwar, 2025) (above image) documents the Warsaw street where Indian filmmaker Arjun Talwar lives. Powerful and haunting, Trains + director Q&A (Pociągi, dir. Maciej J. Drygas, 2024) won the top prize at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival and is crafted entirely from international archive footage. Mr. Olbrychski + Daniel Olbrychski Q&A (dir. Robert Wichrowski, 2025), examines the persona of revered Polish actor Daniel Olbrychski, thought of as one of the greatest Polish actors of his generation, who often performed in Andzrej Wajda’s films. Olbrychski’s professional successes are intertwined with his personal failures and the film features interviews with Krystyna Janda and Andrzej Seweryn among many others. The festival will also honour the legacy of Marcel Łoziński, one of the most influential voices in world documentary cinema who passed away last year. A master of ethical provocation and humanist observation, Łoziński reshaped the language of non-fiction film by questioning the boundaries between truth, manipulation, and authorship. Films screening: The Visit (1974, 15 mins), Workshop Exercises (1986, 12 mins), 89mm from Europe (1993, 12 mins), Anything Can Happen (1995, 40 mins).
A TRIBUTE TO KIEŚLOWSKI: CINEMA, PERFORMANCE, TECHNOLOGY
Kinoteka will mark the 30th anniversary of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s passing, with a programme featuring his early documentary shorts, alongside landmark feature films A Short Film About Killing (Krótki film o zabijaniu, 1988), A Short Film About Love (Krótki film o miłości, 1988) and The Double Life of Veronique (Podwójne życie Weroniki, 1991). Audiences can take part in the world premiere of Call Kieślowski, an innovative AI project that allows attendees to engage in conversation with Kieślowski, and Kieślowski collaborators and actors will also join for a Q&A reflecting on his artistry and impact on cinema.
UNTOLD WAJDA: BLOKOWISKO AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE
Inspired by the notes and interviews of Andrzej Wajda, BLOKOWISKO – the Polish term for a housing estate – fuses electro‑acoustic sound, socially charged choreography and immersive videography into a landscape of loss and resilience. The performance tells of an actor who meets a woman, they share a single day, and the next morning he cannot find his way back to her through the endless housing blocks of an unforgiving city. By giving form to a story Andrzej Wajda imagined but never filmed, the work honours his legacy while insisting on its relevance today – resonating through the anonymous apartment blocks of contemporary cities and the fragile bonds strained by scarcity, migration and the vastness of urban scale.
Kinoteka 2026 | 4 February – 29 March in venues across London and select UK cities
London venues: BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX, ICA, Ciné Lumière, Barbican, Southbank Centre, The Garden Cinema, Bertha Dochouse, Coal Drops Yard Kings Cross, Samsung Kings Cross, Ognisko Polskie – The Polish Hearth Club
UK Venues: Filmhouse, Edinburgh; Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle; The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford. More cities and venues to be announced soon.