Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival
Millennium Docs Against Gravity initiated the trend of documentary films in Poland and has since generated broad interest among audiences, a result of the consistently developed and attractive festival program. The growing audience, the festival's international stature, and the increasing number of partners reflect the validity of the festival's development concept and the creation of a community of audiences and co-organizing organizations for one of the most important film events in Poland. The 20th edition of the festival in 2023 gathered an audience of over 144,000 people. As the only film festival in Europe, it takes place simultaneously in 8 cities: Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Lublin, Bydgoszcz, and Łódź.
Our festival is evolving in a nomadic manner, in line with the 21st century, seeking audiences all over the country. We believe this is the future of film festivals. We take the priorities of promoting film culture by our partnering institutions who financially support the festival very seriously.
MDAG is also a co-founder and member of the Doc Alliance, which brings together seven key European documentary film festivals: CPH: DOX Copenhagen, DOK Leipzig, IDFF Jihlava, FID Marseille, Visions du Réel Nyon, Doclisboa, and Millennium Docs Against Gravity.
Our festival was the first in Poland to introduce a competition for the best feature-length documentary film (Bank Millennium Award). In 2009 and 2023, our festival received the prestigious award from the Polish Film Institute for the "most important international film event" in Poland. The festival was also nominated in the same category in 2013.
In 2021, the founder and director of the festival, Artur Liebhart, was awarded the "Paszport Polityki" award in the special category "Remote Culture". In 2019, the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival was listed among the "25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World" by "MovieMaker Magazine".
In 2022, Millennium Docs Against Gravity was admitted to the European Film Academy as one of the "most important European film festivals," gaining the opportunity to qualify films for the European Film Award. In 2023, the Artistic Director of the festival, Karol Piekarczyk, became a member of the European Film Academy.
In May 2024, we will invite audiences on a cinematic journey around the world and into themselves. The 21st MDAG will take place from May 10th to 19th in cinemas, followed by an online event from May 21st to June 3rd, 2024.
THOU SHALT NOT BE INDIFFERENT
The motto of the 2023 MDAG edition was "Thou Shalt Not Be Indifferent" echoing the famous words of Marian Turski, which also served as the slogan for the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising organized by the POLIN Museum. These words resonate with the mission of Millennium Docs Against Gravity and the film program presented at the festival for years. They express the values that have accompanied the festival since its inception - mindfulness and sensitivity (including linguistic) towards the people around us.
The 20th edition of the festival was an excellent opportunity to revisit the most important titles of the last two decades and simultaneously look at the present through new program sections. The selection of 20 legendary films for the 20th anniversary of MDAG was made by the festival's director and founder, Artur Liebhart. These are titles that have left a significant mark in the history of Millennium Docs Against Gravity and documentary cinema. 10 of them were presented in cinemas, and 10 were showcased online during the festival.