More than 92 000 people participated in the 16th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival – a 52% increase from last year’s numbers. Documentary cinema was never this popular in Poland!
Over 92 000 people in six Polish cities – Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Katowice, Bydgoszcz, and Lublin – have attended documentary film screenings and associated festival events. Join us at the next biggest celebration of documentary filmmaking in Poland! the 17th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival will take place on May 8-22, 2020.
The screening rooms were bursting at the seams!
1000 screenings, 156 movies, meetings with 80 female and male filmmakers and documentary protagonists, debates, music events, Polish premieres of blockbuster docs and the works of preeminent documentary filmmakers… The latest from Werner Herzog, Sergei Loznitsa, Vitaly Mansky, Victor Kossakovsky, Peter Jackson, the recently deceased Agnès Varda, and tremendously diverse subjects: psychology, art, science, sport, architecture, fashion, and a strong showing by female creators and women’s issues.
This extremely full and carefully assembled schedule attracted record numbers of viewers to the cinemas! Interest in documentary features – the genre consistently promoted by Millennium Docs Against Gravity – is growing across the country. Festival attendance was a whopping 52% higher this year than in 2018!
The motto of this year’s festival was: "Check whether you understand the world and whether the world understands you". The audiences responded to this offer: ticket sales went up an impressive 42% from last year. The total number of tickets for festival movie screenings hit 88 000 – a new record!
The first edition of MDAG in Katowice; record attendance in every city!
The 16th edition of the festival was held on May 10-19 in Warsaw, Wrocław, and Lublin, May 15-24 in Gdynia, and May 11-19 in Bydgoszcz; the first-ever Katowice edition of MDAG took place on May 12-19 with the help of Silesia Film.
Three participating cities saw an increase in festival attendace of approximately 50% – the audience grew by over 46% in Warsaw alone compared to the last year! Viewership in Wrocław soared by a whopping 51%, while the Gdynia edition noted a 47% increase compared to 2018!
The Bydgoszcz edition saw a 34% increase in screening attendance compared to the last year, while in Lublin viewership grew by nearly 25%.
Millennium Docs Against Gravity has no barriers – and we don’t just mean geographical ones! This year’s movies were accessible to everyone, including our visually impaired and d/Deaf attendees. With the help of Bank Millennium and in collaboration with the Change Serviceplan creative agency, selected films were available with audiodescriptions and voiceovers through the AudioMovie app.
The concept of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival keeps evolving in order to meet the growing interest in documentary movies across Poland.
The total number of festival attendees in 2019 exceeded 92 000 – a massive 52% increase compared to the last year. Thank you for your interest and participation! See you next year at the 17th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival – May 8-22, 2020.
