23/04/2025 - The festival will run from 9-18 May in seven Polish cities, and will feature a number of premieres for both international and local documentaries

The 22nd Millennium Docs Against Gravity (MDAG) is fast approaching, bringing its latest edition to screens across Poland. From 9-18 May, the festival will take place in seven cities (Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź and Bydgoszcz), offering a rich line-up of documentary cinema. After the in-person screenings, the event will move online, with a curated selection of groundbreaking international documentaries, many premiering in Poland, available for streaming on mdag.pl from 20 May-2 June.

The 2025 edition of MDAG, held under the motto "The Whole World Between Us", will showcase nearly 180 documentaries from around the globe, including winners from IDFA, Sundance and the Berlinale. With 16 competitions and 20 awards, this year’s programme spans diverse themes, from ecology and art to politics, psychology and sports. The festival opens with two films: Coexistence, My Ass! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Amber Fares, a humorous take on Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts; and Ernest Cole: Lost and Found [+see also:
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film profile] by Raoul Peck, a portrait of the titular pioneering South African photographer and his quest for artistic freedom and equality. On 11 May, the festival will also feature a special charity stand-up show by Noam Shuster-Eliassi, the protagonist of Coexistence, My Ass!, blending comedy and activism to explore identity, politics and, indeed, coexistence.

The Main Competition features 12 films from around the globe, selected to reflect what MDAG artistic director Karol Piekarczyk calls “the very best of documentary cinema – and cinema as a whole”. These titles will compete for the major awards presented across the festival cities, including the Grand Prix – Millennium Bank Award, which offers theatrical distribution of the winning film in Poland and €8,000. This year’s jury features Salma Abdalla, international relations and PR manager at the Austrian Film Institute, and former CEO of Autlook Filmsales; Remi Grellety, a two-time Oscar-nominated film producer, known for I Am Not Your Negro [+see also:
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film profile] and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat [+see also:
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interview: Johan Grimonprez
film profile]; and Simon Lereng Wilmont, the Oscar-nominated director of A House Made of Splinters [+see also:
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film profile].

The selection comprises 2000 Meters to Andriivka [+see also:
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film profile] by Mstyslav Chernov (Ukraine), Apocalypse in the Tropics by Petra Costa (Brazil/USA/Denmark), A Want in Her [+see also:
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interview: Myrid Carten
film profile] by Myrid Carten (Ireland/UK/Netherlands), Baby Doe by Jessica Earnshaw (USA), Come See Me in the Good Light by Ryan White (USA), Coexistence, My Ass! by Amber Fares (USA/France), My Stolen Planet [+see also:
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film profile] by Farahnaz Sharifi (Germany/Iran), A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things [+see also:
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interview: Mark Cousins
film profile] by Mark Cousins (UK), Mr. Nobody Against Putin [+see also:
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film profile] by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin (Denmark/Czech Republic), Trains [+see also:
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interview: Maciej J Drygas
film profile] by Maciej J Drygas (Poland/Lithuania), Only on Earth [+see also:
interview: Robin Petré
interview: Robin Petré
film profile] by Robin Petré (Denmark/Spain), and Yintah by Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano (Canada).

A total of ten films are competing in the Polish Competition, each aiming to win one of three awards: the Best Polish Film Award, which is accompanied by €4,000; the Smakjam Award for Best Production; and the Arthouse Cinema Association Award. The selection features two world premieres and one international premiere, while the remaining titles will be having their Polish premieres during MDAG. The line-up showcases gender parity, as the films are directed by six men and six women. The jury includes: Dorota Lech, programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival; Victoria Leshchenko, programme coordinator at DOK Leipzig; and Jakub Popielecki, film critic at Filmweb.pl.

The world premieres include KOMPLETA by Tomasz Śliwiński and Magdalena Hueckel (Poland), an intimate record of a difficult period in the filmmakers’ lives as the main character, in her eighth month of pregnancy, is diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer; and The Passenger Andrzej Munk by Michał Bielawski (Poland), a portrait of Andrzej Munk, one of the leading figures of the Polish Film School, illustrated with film fragments, chronicles and photographs from the rich archive of the filmmaker. Furthermore, the Berlinale-premiered Das Deutsche Volk [+see also:
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interview: Marcin Wierzchowski
film profile] by Marcin Wierzchowski (Germany) will make its international bow.

The selection also includes The Guest by Zvika Gregory Portnoy and Zuzanna Solakiewicz (Poland/Qatar), King Matt the First [+see also:
interview: Jaśmina Wójcik
film profile] by Jaśmina Wójcik (Poland), Letters From Wolf Street [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Arjun Talwar (Poland/Germany), My Dear Théo [+see also:
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film profile] by Alisa Kovalenko (Poland/Czech Republic/Ukraine), Trains by Maciej J Drygas (Poland/Lithuania), Bedrock by Kinga Michalska (Canada) and Trust Me by Joanna Ratajczak (Poland/Germany).