11th Young Horizons International Film Festival is coming to cinemas – and to the web!

172 films, 15 thematic sections, and 20 cities throughout Poland. Like in all previous years, you’re invited to take part in this unique celebration for young cinema lovers looking for their own cinematic pathways. The programme is bursting with the latest film discoveries, newest releases, and your favourite protagonists. This year’s festival marks the beginning of a new decade. We’d love to see you at the 11th Young Horizons International Film Festival!

The 11th edition of the Young Horizons International Film Festival will take place from 28 September to 6 October – in 20 Polish cities and even more cinemas. The main part of the event will take place in Warsaw – this is where you can watch the full programme. Your schedule will be filled to the brim with quality productions as well as workshops, meetings, discussions, and other satellite events. As part of the festival, Warsaw will host Young Horizons Industry – the international co-production forum for film industry representatives that accompanies the festival every year. You will be able to watch most of the festival films in Wrocław. Other selected titles will be shown at cinemas in 18 cities across Poland. It has become a tradition that the festival is hybrid, both offline and online: this gives you easy access to quality films for nearly a month. From 10 to 27 October, more than half of the programme will be available online at our website.

What’s in the programme?

This year’s festival is its second edition under the new name. Young Horizons IFF, previously known as Kids Kino, is addressed to audiences aged 3+ as well as adult viewers. The programme is versatile and adapted to the youngest kids. It includes a number of sequels and festival hits addressed to schoolchildren, too. This year, we have placed even more emphasis on films for teenagers. The wide selection of titles, along with our new branding, is meant to show that we offer a lot of space for adolescent viewers who are seeking their own ways in life, also in terms of cinema.

The programme comprises 15 different thematic and genre sections, including live-action, animated, and documentary films. The Main Competition will present the most interesting productions from Poland and other countries – most of them have not been distributed theatrically in Poland yet. The best film of the festival will be selected not only by the jury but also by the audience in Warsaw. The jury members will vote for the best film in the Documentary Competition and Discoveries Competition as well. In the latter competition, the young cinema lovers will give their vote, too.

For young discoverers

The Discoveries Competition presents various faces of arthouse cinema for young audiences. This section is full of brave films – visually enchanting, addressing important current issues, and awarded at international film festivals. The themes of these productions are adjusted to young audiences but they can also open new film horizons to adult viewers. These are five unique features that go beyond the limits of well-worn genres and narratives, treating the audience as partners. 

As part of this section, you can watch the sensational debut by Leonardo Van Dijl, which premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in the Critics’ Week section – Julie Keeps Quiet (14–∞; dir. Leonardo Van Dijl; Belgium, Sweden 2024). This is a moving, accurate, and meaningful film that asks crucial questions concerning women’s silence in confrontation with a manipulative aggressor. Julie’s quiet struggle for survival is presented without resorting to emotional blackmail – her story is told with respect and patience, but it is boiling with emotions on the inside. 

The power of silence and simplicity in film is demonstrated in the experimental no-dialogue animation by the Latvian visionary director Gints Zilbalodis. Flow (8–∞; dir. Gints Zilbalodis; Latvia, France, Belgium 2024) is a captivating visual odyssey which won four awards at this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The story about a great cruise of an interspecies crew met with the approval of the jury and the audience alike. Flow premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.

For all the teens and former teens

Complicated relationships, first times, search for identity, and all the other ups and downs experienced by young people on the verge of adulthood – as we all know, this road may be curvy and bumpy. That’s why the 11th edition of Young Horizons IFF is also a place for adolescent viewers – all those seeking independence and making their own ways in life. 

The Coming of Age section is a collection of five feature films with teenagers as the main protagonists. They are lost, they are rebelling, they crave adventure – young people on the big screen are discovering their true selves, learning to build relationships, and trying to make sense of the world around them. One of them is Ziba – the protagonist of Last Swim (16–∞; dir. Sasha Nathwani; United Kingdom 2024), a film featuring an atmospheric score and enchanting photos from London. Ziba has just graduated from secondary school and the door to University College London is wide open to her. She should be celebrating a new stage in her life but she can’t really enjoy the moment, or the promising future. The nagging vision of her unfulfilled dreams won’t leave for a second. This is a story about evanescent youth tinged with fear, with a plot twist. The film received the Crystal Bear in the Generation 14plus section at this year’s Berlinale. The Youth Jury valued it as “a story about the beauty of life and of things coming to an end”.

For the grown-ups who want to keep growing

This is the second time we have prepared a unique section for the adults who accompany young cinema lovers. The New Horizons section is a selection of three titles from this year’s mBank New Horizons IFF. What we have in common is not only the idea of presenting exceptional arthouse films. We focus on the themes of coming of age and seeking understanding and a common language despite the generation gap. 

The last motif is present in Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (18–∞; dir. Rungano Nyoni; United Kingdom, Zambia, Ireland 2024) – the film received the Best Director Award in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. The latest production from A24 is a fresh film with a powerful dose of feminist criticism. Reality is mixed with poetry here, and surrealism meets naturalism. Nyoni sketches an image of a local community that cannot escape toxic tradition and family values combined with patriarchy, which reduces women to the roles of servants and mothers.

For those who stay after the credits

We believe that quality films help our audiences learn more about the world – just like every year, we are supporting them in this respect by adding even more to the programme: meetings with film creators and actors, introductions to screenings prepared by educators, as well as workshops and creative activities. Each of the screenings in the New Horizons section will be followed by discussions with experts, addressed to adult viewers, organised in partnership with Newsweek Polska.

The Young Horizons International Film Festival is an annual event addressed to the youngest and adolescent viewers. The 11th edition of the festival will take place from 28 September to 6 October in 20 Polish cities. On 10–27 October, the programme will be available online at our website.

The festival will be accompanied by Young Horizons Industry – an international co-production forum for film and series projects targeting young audiences. The industry forum will be held from 30 September to 2 October in Warsaw and online. More information regarding the event here.