18/06/2012 - Poland’s first art house multiplex will open at the beginning of September in Wrocław. It’s one of Europe’s biggest

Cooperation between the New Horizons Association and the film exhibition group Helios will soon allow the town of Wrocław to have the largest art house cinema in Poland as well as one of the biggest in Europe.

The current multiplex’s conversion into a proper venue for art house films and an educational centre was made possible thanks to the support of the Wrocław municipality. The project was a key point in the town’s programme to win the bid for European Capital of Culture 2016.

On September 1, the Helios cinema’s nine screening rooms will open under the name of Helios Nouveaux Horizons. The venue is already well known by the local public, but also by film enthusiasts and professionals from the Polish and foreign film sectors, as it is the strategic heart of Poland’s largest film festival, the New Horizons IFF (formerly known as Era New Horizons), whose 12th edition will kick off on July 19. Wroclaw’s Helios is also the venue for an American film festival for independent films whose third edition will start on November 13.

As stressed by Roman Gutek, the two festivals’ director and the president of the New Horizons Association (photo), audiences will not see great Hollywood productions at Wroclaw’s Helios. Its programme will instead focus on independent productions, auteur films, and high-quality popular films. The centre will also develop educational projects for school and university students.

(Translated from French)