Returning this October is the 12th Polish Film Festival, celebrating the very best of Polish cinema. Featuring Australian premieres, award-winning festival favourites and a special presentation of a cinematic classic, the festival screens at Luna Palace Cinemas from October 25 to December 10.

Opening the Festival is THE DOLL, a spectacular new adaptation of beloved literary masterpiece — a sweeping story of love, ambition, money and social class. Starring in the lead roles are Marcin Dorociński (The Queen’s Gambit, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning) and Kamila Urzędowska (The Peasants), alongside the long-awaited return of Marek Kondrat and an extraordinary ensemble of Poland’s leading actors, including Agata Kulesza (Cold War, Ida), Andrzej Seweryn (Schindler's List, Total Eclipse) and many more.

Set in Warsaw at the end of the 19th century, this lavish period romance brings the city vividly to life, following wealthy merchant Wokulski as he enters the world of the aristocracy in pursuit of the woman he loves.

THE 2026 PROGRAM FEATURES:

Inspired by Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk, WINTER OF THE CROW - a gripping political thriller starring Academy Award nominee Lesley Manville (The Crown, Phantom Thread). Set on the eve of martial law in Poland, Kasia Adamik’s atmospheric film premiered at Toronto and was selected as the closing film of the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

From the producers of Oscar-nominated Corpus Christi, bold coming-of-age film THE ALTAR BOYS follows four teenage altar boys who, frustrated by the indifference of adults towards social injustice, decide to take matters into their own hands. Funny, rebellious and unexpectedly moving, the film explores friendship, faith and the difficult transition into adulthood.

LACHTARA – LONGING a brand-new Polish-Greek co-production, making its first festival appearances alongside its Polish theatrical release, starring Filip Pławiak, with acclaimed  Bosnian actor Branko Đurić (No Man’s Land) and Iranian Berlinale-winning actress Sarina Farhadi (A Separation). This poignant road movie, with humour woven throughout, follows a Greek father and his Polish-Greek son as they reunite after decades apart and embark on an unexpected journey across Europe in an old Polonez.

As part of Poland’s 2026 Year of Andrzej Wajda, marking the centenary of the celebrated filmmaker’s and Honorary Academy Award recipient’s birth, the Festival will screen his 1958 masterpiece ASHES AND DIAMONDS. Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Venice in 1959, the film remains one of the defining works of Polish cinema and has long been admired by filmmakers around the world, including Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.

The program also includes winner of the Audience Award at the Trieste Film Festival, BROTHER - a raw and intimate portrait of brotherhood, resilience and adolescence under pressure. The Festival concludes with the Australian Premiere of PICASSO’S MERMAID, a charming comedy-drama inspired by the true story of Pablo Picasso’s 1948 visit to Warsaw and the mermaid he famously drew on the wall of a Warsaw apartment.

All films screen with English subtitles.

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