Editor

5th edition of the American Film Festival has come to an end. The first event in Eastern and Central Europe focused entirely on independent American cinema closed on October26^th with the Polish premiere of Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher.

In five days of the festival 70 pictures were presented in 137 screenings. The program included 54 titles screened for the first time in Poland and three international premieres. With some shows sold out completely, the attendance was 17 thousand admissions.

Like in the previous years festival audience selected their favorite films. The results were announced during the closing gala at the New Horizons cinema on Sunday evening. Gillian Robespierre's Obvious Child was voted the best narrative of the AFF's Spectrum section (that included 20 movies this year).

Read more about the film >

In American Docs section 10 films were screened. The award went to Steve James for Life Itself - a brilliant documentary about Roger Ebert, famous American film critic, Pulitzer Prize winner who passed away last year.

Learn more about the film >

Directors of the awarded feature narrative and documentary received cash prizes of 10 and 5 thousand dollars respectively funded by BNY Mellon.

The AFF included Polish premiere screenings of the films awarded at Sundance (including Whiplash, The Skeleton Twins) and Cannes Film Festival (Foxcatcher). Festival program included films of such directors as Gregg Araki, Bennett Miller, David Gordon Green, Joe Swanberg, Debra Granik and Robert Keener.

The 5th AFF held also a retrospective of Orson Welles and Whit Stillman, who received the Indie Star Award, honoring recognized and established American independent filmmakers.