Agnieszka Holland

Founded by Richard Linklater in 1985 as a screening series dedicated to bringing experimental and art cinema to the city of Austin, Texas, the Austin Film Society has grown into a cornerstone of the city's creative community - while remaining true to its edgy, eclectic roots.

The film was inspired by one of the most important documentaries shot by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Talking Heads (1980). The director asked his interlocutors seemingly simple questions, such as “Who are you?” and “What do you want?”.

From his juvenile, tormented, heroic roles, which made him a global phenomenon, to his darker mature roles, a portrait of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, a consummate performer and probably the most successful film star of his generation.

Gdańsk, Poland, September 1980. Lech Wałęsa and other Lenin shipyard workers found Solidarność (Solidarity), the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtain. The long and hard battle to bring down communist dictatorship has begun.

An epic exploration of the Czechoslovak New Wave cinema of the 1960s and 70s, structured around a series of conversations with one of its most acclaimed exponents - Closely Observed Trains director Jiří Menzel.

August 2015, a courtroom in Rostov-on-Don. A man is peering through the bars of his cage, his eyes reveal that his nerves are about to snap. Today he will be handed down a sentence to which he must submit: 20 years’ imprisonment in Siberia for terrorism. The man is Oleg Sentsov, a film director and Maidan activist born in Simferopol in the Ukraine. He is charged with leading an anti-Russian terrorist movement and having planned attacks on bridges, power lines and a monument of Lenin. Sentsov defends himself, courageously and without flinching. He responds to the verdict with an emphatic denial of his crimes and instead accuses the accusers themselves ...

A biographical documentary on Edward Zebrowski, a director, screenwriter, and educator. The film draws from his notes, revealing his thoughts on illness and history as human fate. Friends from the Film School in Lodz and the TOR Film Group, including Wojciech Marczewski and Agnieszka Holland, discuss his legendary status as a scandalmonger and thinker. His wives, Barbara Lisowska and Magdalena Jaworska, share intimate details of his life. Students Agnieszka Smoczynska and Adrian Panek speak respectfully of him. Zebrowski’s biography is complemented by excerpts from his school works and original films, with scenes featuring him in Zanussi’s films like “The Illumination.” Directed by Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz, the documentary captures a reflective and nostalgic atmosphere, reflecting Zebrowski’s mature life and sense of lost opportunities.

French Cinema Mon Amour is an ensemble film in which each contributor brings their own voice, their own particular approach, their culture, and their language to produce a portrait of French cinema.

Martin Štrba’s inventive documentary tells the remarkable story of a group of Slovak photographers whose groundbreaking work challenged Communist orthodoxy in the 1980ss.

Documentary about the famous Polish director Agnieszka Holland and her relationship to Czechoslovakia, based on two storylines: one depicting the life of Agnieszka Holland during her studies in Prague towards the end of the 1960’s, her friends, her participation in a student strike and her arrest for supporting the dissident movement and anti-state tendencies, and the second one - following her return there.