ŁAGÓW FILM FESTIWAL

(Lubuskie Lato Filmowe— ŁAGÓW)

   The oldest film festival devoted to Polish cinema, organized since 1969 in the small resort town of Łagów in west-central Poland. Until 1974, when the Festival of Polish Films in Gdańsk was established, Łagów was the only festival celebrating Polish cinema. The screenings were accompanied by seminars and discussions with filmmakers and film critics. Since 1974, although the festival had been overshadowed by the bigger and state-supported festival in Gdańsk (since 1996 in Gdynia), it survived by becoming a discussion forum for the Polish Federation of Film Clubs (PFDKF).Beginning in 1990, the festival broadened its scope and has become the international festival focusing on post-Communist national cinemas. The festival's main prize, the Golden Grape (Złote Grono), has been given to Everything for Sale (1969, Andrzej Wajda), Salt of the Black Earth (1970, Kazimierz Kutz), The Pearl in the Crown (1972, Kutz), The Wedding (1973, Wajda), Illumination (1974, Krzysztof Zanussi), The Promised Land (1975, Wajda), Spiral (1978, Zanussi), and Top Dog (1978, Feliks Falk). In subsequent years the awards went to Stanisław Różewicz (1985), Witold Leszczyński (1986), Ryszard Bugajski (1989), and Marcel Łoziński (1990), among others. The list of foreign recipients includes Istvan Szabó, Sandor Sara, Jan Hfebejk, and Lajos Koltai.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof