Przez ścianę Wins Golden Lions at Gdynia Film Festival 2026

The news in Polish

1. fabularny
   dotyczący fabuły, oparty na wymyślonej historii, nie dokumentalny ↩︎
2. ściana  (f.)
   pionowa, twarda powierzchnia oddzielająca pomieszczenia lub budynki ↩︎
3. nadzieja  (f.)
   przekonanie, że coś dobrego może się wydarzyć w przyszłości ↩︎
4. reżyser  (m.)
   osoba, która kieruje produkcją filmową lub teatralną ↩︎
5. ojczyzna  (f.)
   kraj, w którym ktoś się urodził i z którym jest związany uczuciowo ↩︎
6. reżyserować
   kierować pracą aktorów i ekipy przy tworzeniu filmu lub spektaklu ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: Which film won the award for best film at the festival?

Question 2: How many films in the main competition were directed by women?

Vocabulary

Polish	English
fabularny	feature (film)
ściana  (f.)	wall
nadzieja  (f.)	hope
reżyser  (m.)	director
ojczyzna  (f.)	homeland
reżyserować	to direct

Read the full story

The 51st Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia concluded with the Golden Lions for best film going to Przez ścianę (Through the Wall), directed by Maciej Sobieszczański. The festival ran from 21 to 26 September.

The black-and-white film tells a true story of love set during the Stalinist terror, in which two people imprisoned for underground anti-communist activity communicate through a wall using Morse code. Accepting the award, Sobieszczański said the film asks what gives people hope when a situation seems hopeless. “That hope is given to us and our characters by enormous love,” he said.

The best director award went to Paweł Pawlikowski for Ojczyzna (Homeland), a black-and-white film described as the informal conclusion to the trilogy that includes Ida and Cold War. Pawlikowski dedicated the award to the late cinematographer Ryszard Lenczewski. The film also won awards for set design, collected by Katarzyna Sobańska and Marcel Sławiński.

Jan Komasa’s Dobry chłopiec (Good Boy), a British-Polish co-production featuring Stephen Graham of Adolescence, took four awards: best editing, best screenplay for Bartek Bartosik and Naqqash Khalid, best actor in a leading role for Anson Boon, and the audience award.

The Złoty Pazur (Golden Claw), named after Andrzej Żuławski, was awarded to Agnieszka Smoczyńska for her futuristic thriller Hot Spot, a Polish-Greek co-production set in a world shaped by conscious artificial intelligence. The film also won awards for music, sound, and costume design.

Best actress in a leading role went to Jaśmina Polak, and best supporting actress to Monika Frajczyk, both for their performances in Exotic. Jacek Koman was named best supporting actor for his portrayal of Marek Edelman in Piotr Domalewski’s Nasza rewolucja.

The Platinum Lions for lifetime achievement were awarded to editor Halina Prugar-Ketling, who worked with directors including Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polański, Jerzy Skolimowski, and Andrzej Żuławski. She is the first editor to receive this honour in the festival’s history.

The Sapphire Lions in the Perspektywy competition went to Czarna godzina by Filip Bojarski. The best debut or second-film directing award was collected by Eliza Godlewska and Alan Ruczyński for Kobieta stanu wolnego.

The festival’s artistic director Joanna Łapińska had described this year’s edition as “diverse,” noting that seven of the 16 main competition films were directed or co-directed by women — a record in the festival’s history.