11/01/2007

While the new Polish film support fund has strengthened local production (28 domestic titles released in 2006 compared to 18 in 2005) and the choice of films is greater and more balanced than in 2005 (51.6% of films distributed in Poland in 2006 were US, compared to 72.3% in 2005, while 11.2% were Polish and 29.2% European), audiences have still to reward the efforts made by the industry.

However, their delayed reaction – which is logical nonetheless – may be changing for the good. Audiences have been changing their attitude towards home-grown films, in particular because of the renaissance of romantic comedy over the past two years.

One of the important ingredients in this successful recipe has been local stars. This is how Tylko mnie kochaj (lit. “But You Have to Love Me”) by Ryszard Zatorski succeeded in drawing 1.7m cinemagoers and Denis Delić’s Ja wam pokażę! (lit. “You’ll See That!”)1.2m admissions.

Blockbusters aside, several films exceeded 200,000 admissions, a first for Polish titles since 2005. These included S@motność w sieci [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (lit. “Loneliness on the Web” ) by Witold Adamek (430,000), The French Trick by Robert Wichrowski (294,000), Job, czyli ostatnia szara komórka (lit. “Job or the Last Grey Cell”) by Konrad Niewolski (223,000), Dublerzy by Marcin Ziębiński and Denis Delić (221,000), Hi Way by Jacek Borusiński (212,000) and We’re All Christs by Marek Koterski (212,000).

Several more difficult titles, for the most part arthouse, failed to attract their audience. While Ode to Joy by Anna Kazejak, Jan Komasa and Maciej Migas, Chaos by Xawery Żuławski and Sławomir Fabicki’s Retrieval [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] all picked up prizes at festivals, they received scathing reviews from critics. One of the reasons for this failure without doubt is gaps in promotion and marketing on a local level.

(Translated from French)