New Horizons Film Festival
New Horizons Film Festival (pl: Nowe Horyzonty) is an international film festival held annually in July in Wrocław, Poland. It has been organised since 2001. It is one of the biggest and most popular film festivals in Poland. Since 2008 it is accredited by FIAPF with an avant-garde specialised competitive status.
The event is organized by Stowarzyszenie Nowe Horyzonty (New Horizons Association). The founder and moving spirit of the festival is Roman Gutek. The current director, Marcin Pieńkowski, took over the position in 2021. mBank is the nominal sponsor of the event since 2023.
Festival presents mainly arthouse cinema. The most important from the several competitions held at the festival (including new Polish films, films-on-art and short films contests) is the New horizons international competition. It aims to present bold, unconventional and uncompromising films that are searching for the new forms of expression – the new horizons of cinema. Prizes in the competition are: the Grand Prix, special mentions, and Audience Award. Between 2010 and 2017 also a FIPRESCI Award was awarded.
Another important sections of the event are: retrospectives of the greatest film authors, experimental filmmakers and national cinemas, panorama of the most important auteur films of the season, Midnight madness, and thematic sections.
== Festival history ==
After the first edition, organized in Sanok, the Festival was moved to Cieszyn, where it was held four times between 2002 and 2005. From 2006 the event takes place in Wrocław. Since then, it has apparently spread and now it is frequented by number of cinephiles and hosts many important guests every year, including Lisandro Alonso, Theo Angelopoulos, Šarūnas Bartas, Leos Carax, Nick Cave, Dardenne brothers, Lav Diaz, Bruno Dumont, Asghar Farhadi, Terry Gilliam, Amos Gitai, Peter Greenaway, Hal Hartley, Agnieszka Holland, Naomi Kawase, Abdellatif Kechiche, Kim Ki-duk, Andrey Konchalovskiy, Sebastián Lelio, Lou Ye, Dušan Makavejev, Tsai Ming-liang, Nanni Moretti, Cristian Mungiu, Gaspar Noé, Ulrike Ottinger, Carlos Saura, Béla Tarr, Peter Tscherkassky, Agnès Varda, Andrzej Wajda, Vincent Ward, and Andrzej Żuławski.
In 2016, when Wrocław was holding the title of European Capital of Culture, festival included events related to this occasion (i.e. a special section called Masters of European Cinema).
== New horizons international competition winners ==
=== Grand Prix ===
At the beginning the festival's Grand Prix was an audience award, but since 2009 it is given by the International Jury. The first main prize selected that way was awarded to Steve McQueen's Hunger.
=== Audience award ===
Since the main prize became jury-selected in 2009, the Audience Award became a separate recognition, the second in importance. Three films managed to win both Grand Prix and Audience award: White Shadow in 2014, Bait in 2019 and The Metamorphosis of Birds in 2020.
== Festival programme 2009 ==
Opening gala – Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon
Closing – Martin Provost's Séraphine
New horizons international competition
Films on art international competition
New Polish films competition
Polish short films competition
European short films competition
Panorama
Special screenings
Documentaries / Essays
Third eye
Midnight madness: ozploitation
Cinema of Canada
Cinema of Sweden
Golden era of Hungarian cinema
Retrospective: Tsai Ming-liang
Retrospective: Jennifer Reeves
Retrospective: Krzysztof Zanussi
Retrospective: Piotr Dumała
60 years of WFDiF
From Polański to...
New horizons of film language: editing
Season 2008/2009
Films for children
Silent films with live music
Screenings at the market square
Concerts
Exhibitions
== Festival programme 2010 ==
Opening gala – Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods and Men
Closing – Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro
New horizons international competition
Films on art international competition
New Polish films competition
Polish short films competition
European short debuts competition
Panorama
Special screenings
Documentaries / Essays
Third eye
Midnight madness: Philippe Mora; samurai cinema
Cinema of Turkey
Retrospective: Jean-Luc Godard
Retrospective: Brothers Quay
Retrospective: Klaus Maria Brandauer
Retrospective: Laura Mulvey
Retrospective: Wojciech Jerzy Has
Retrospective: Daniel Szczechura
New horizons of film language
Season 2009/2010
Screenings at the market square
Concerts
Exhibitions
== Festival programme 2011 ==
Opening gala – Asghar Farhadi's A Separation
Closing – Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In
New horizons international competition
Films on art international competition
New Polish films competition
Polish short films competition
European short debuts competition
Panorama
Documentaries / Essays
Third eye
Special screenings
'Round midnight
Behind the pink curtain
Red westerns
Norway expanded
New horizons of film language: production design
Hommage: Anja Breien
Retrospective: Bruno Dumont
Retrospective: Werner Nekes
Retrospective: Jack Smith
Retrospective: Terry Gilliam
Retrospective: Andrzej Munk
Retrospective: Mariusz Wilczyński
Season 2010/2011
Films for children
Screenings at the market square
Concerts
Discussion panels, workshops
Exhibitions
== Festival programme 2012 ==
Opening gala – Michael Haneke's Amour
Closing – Walter Salles' On the Road
New horizons international competition
Films on art international competition
Polish short films competition
European short films competition
Panorama
Special screenings
Gdynia in Wrocław
Documentaries / Essays
Third eye: The Happy End. Images for the end of the world
Midnight madness: From stage to screen
Mockumentaries
New horizons of film language: sound
The Karol Irzykowski Film Studio
Films for children
The Cinema of Mexico
Retrospective: Carlos Reygadas
Retrospective: Ulrich Seidl
Retrospective: Dušan Makavejev
Retrospective: Peter Tscherkassky and Eve Heller
Retrospective: Witold Giersz
Season 2011/2012
Screenings at the market square
Concerts
Discussion panels, workshops
Exhibitions
== Festival programme 2023 ==
23rd mBank New Horizons International Film Festival was held in Wrocław from 20 July to 30 2023. 251 films including 196 features and 55 shorts were screened.Grand Prix award: 2023 heist comedy-drama The Delinquents by Rodrigo Moreno.
Special Mention: After (France) by Anthony Lapia
Audience Award:
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Switzerland, Georgia) by Elene
Naveriani Produced by Alva Film
List of film festivals
American Film Festival (other film festival held in Wrocław organized by Stowarzyszenie Nowe Horyzonty)

== External links ==
New Horizons Film Festival Official website (en)