2012 Honorary Patronage of the 10th edition:

  • Masovian Marshal Mr. Adam Struzik

  • Minister of Culture and National Heritage Mr. Bogdan Zdrojewski
  • 2012 Awards Founders:

  • Minister of Culture and National Heritage Mr. Bogdan Zdrojewski - 2012 Grand Prix - 15.000 PLN
  • President of TVP Mr. Juliusz Braun - Special Award - 10.000 PLN
  • 2012 Honorary David Camera:

    To Coen Brothers for their courage and insight in showing issues related to Jewishness as well as their unique contribution to world cinematography.


    As some films relate not only to Jewish issues, our Festival has for a few years now organized meetings with minorities living in Poland. When an Israeli documentary JOURNEY OF VAAN NGUYEN was shown in 2006, a Vietnamese Evening was held with a martial arts ballet performance by Nam`a Group from Warsaw.
    What has invariably been a part of our program for some years now is the Palestinian Evening. It seems that it is hard to avoid mentioning Palestinian history while bringing up Jewish issues, and all the more so because many of our festival audience who live in Poland and speak Polish are of Palestinian origins. Apart from that, we strongly believe that this is also a way of building peaceful relations and tolerance among people which may then help resolve all contentious issues.

    The Festival is held in the center of Warsaw's cultural and festival world, in KINOTEKA.

    We are the first ever Jewish film festival in this part of Europe. Even the pre-war Poland with a 3.5 million Jewish population did not see a festival of this type. That is why we are aware of the responsibility we bear while representing the heritage, which we wish to cultivate and present through films. Our Festival was first organized in 2003 and is a dedicated festival, i.e. we screen exclusively the movies which bring up or relate to Jewish issues. We try to show good movies only and those which were not presented before at any other Jewish festival in Poland.
    Since 2003, we have managed to present to the country's audience over 510 productions from 28 countries from all over the world. The films we have screened include tens of Oscar nominees, several Oscar, Palm d'Or and Emmy winners, one film awarded in Karlove Vary, several movies awarded by the Israeli Film and Television Academy and one awarded by the Swedish Film Institute. 'West Bank Story', which was the winner of the 1st Award David Camera at our Festival, was the Oscar winner in the same category three months later and two other films presented at our Festival, Polish 'Katyn' and Israeli 'Beaufort', were the Oscar nominees three months later.

    The winners of our David Camera include: Paul Mazursky (Honorary 2010 David Camera given in his office in Beverly Hills), INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS by Tarantino (awarded with Special 2009 David Camera in Universal Studio, USA), Janusz Kaminski (2006 David Camera for cinematography to MUNICH by S. Spielberg), Agnes Varda and others.

    The Warsaw Jewish Film Festival is a co-founder of the Cinema Jenin Association which reconstructed a cinema building, the Centre for Culture and Piece, in the Palestinian city of Jenin. We must say with great satisfaction that the cinema was officially opened on the 5th of August 2010. We hope that this place will contribute to the peak development of the culture among the citizens of Jenin.

    We would like to express our regret due to the fact that the Jewish legacy, the part of which is our festival, is not cultivated by various cultural institutions in our country which has been so strongly connected with the Jewish society, history and culture for the last 900 years. It seems that these institutions should be obliged to an objective support of events such as ours which has been the first to come into existence in our region since the World War II. The honorary support is often not enough to accomplish the organization of an international film festival which was recognized by such great authorities as Mr. Paul Mazursky.

    Please, feel free to read my articles:

    "Statement after the decision of the Appeal Court against dishonest organizers from August 3rd, 2012, Warsaw, Poland: in PDF here".



    Enjoy the Festival & soon more update!

    You are most welcome!

    Sincerely,
    Daniel Strehlau
    Festival Director with Festival staff


    E-mail:
    warsawjff@wjff.pl
    The Windows Film Studio
    President of
    The Foundation for the Development of Jewish Culture in PL David Camera
    Add: P.O.B. 537, 00-950 Warsaw # 1, PL

    2012 Gallery

    23.10.2012 – Press coference of REMEMBRANCE movie.

    with participation of director Anna Justice, cast: Alice Dwyer, Mateusz Damięcki, Lech Mackiewicz, Joanna Kulig, Karina Krawczyk & cast director: Magdalena Szwarcbart.

    23.10.2012 – the premiere of REMENBRANCE movie - oficial opening of 10th Warsaw Jewish FF 2012

    with the participation of the film`s creators, German Ambassador and many distinguished guests...

    25.10.2012

    26.10.2012

    27.10.2012

    28.10.2012

    29.10.2012

    30.10.2012 – Closing Ceremony : 2012 Jury Verdict announced by Ms. Magdalena Waligórska – a Jury member and the closing screening: a documentary: ROMAN POLANSKI: A LIFE MEMOIRE – Zamknięcie 10 edycji 2012 – odczytanie werdyktu Jury przez Magdalenę Waligórską i projekcja dokumentu: ROMAN POLAŃSKI: MOJE ŻYCIE