Wajda School is one of Europe’s leading institutions for the development of emerging filmmakers. Founded in Warsaw in 2002 by Andrzej Wajda and Wojciech Marczewski, it offers project-based training that combines artistic mentorship with hands-on film production.
Rather than teaching the basics of filmmaking, the School supports directors, screenwriters, producers, and documentary filmmakers in developing their own projects under the guidance of acclaimed industry professionals. Through its close collaboration with Wajda Studio, many projects developed at the School have gone on to premiere and receive awards at major international film festivals, establishing Wajda School as a vital incubator for contemporary Polish cinema.
Line up:
Stimulants & Empathogens, dir. Mateusz Pacewicz, fiction, 25 min (2024)
Live (Na żywo), dir. Mara Tamkovich, fiction, 14 min (2022)
Ptitsa, dir. Alina Maksimenko, documentary, 30 min (2022)
Basia: Three Short Stories (Trzy Opowiadania o Basi), dir. Mateusz Pietrak, documentary, 30 min (2023)
LIVE / “Na żywo”/
A gripping narrative about Belarusian journalists choosing between truth and freedom under a brutal regime. It is a direct spiritual descendant of Wajda’s cinema of social engagement and moral anxiety.
Ptitsa
A documentary short that premiered at FID Marseille. The film observes the deeply intimate, sometimes strained, but profoundly loving relationship between a mother (a demanding music teacher) and her adult daughter (the director herself, who is also a musician).
Stimulants and Empathogens
This film is written and directed by the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Corpus Christi. It changes how a modern “hero” is seen now. Instead of showing physical wars, it focuses on how young people today struggle with loneliness, mental health, and being constantly online.
Basia: Three Short Stories
A warm, humorous documentary portrait of an 80-year-old woman, framing the “everyday hero” through the lens of memory, aging, and love.
By focusing on the micro-narratives of Basia’s daily life, her humor, and her memories, the film expands into a profound meditation on the most universal aspects of the human condition: aging, the passage of time, love, and what remains after a long life.
About Amsterdam Polish Film Festival
The 5th edition of the Amsterdam Polish Film Festival is entirely dedicated to Andrzej Wajda, the renowned Polish director who received an Academy Award in 2000 for his lifetime achievement.
Speakers
The 5th edition of the Amsterdam Polish Film Festival is entirely dedicated to Andrzej Wajda, the renowned Polish director who received an Academy Award in 2000 for his lifetime achievement. With screenings of a number of his masterpieces, we join the celebration of Wajda Year, marking what would have been his 100th birthday and the
The twenty-four posters on display, created for sixteen of Wajda his films, show how Polish poster artists transformed film promotion into an art form of its own.
