On Thursday, May 7, during the Opening Ceremony of the 23rd Millennium Docs Against Gravity, a new international award was introduced – the FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix. This distinction honors the best documentary film of the past year, selected through a vote by members of the International Federation of Film Critics from around the world. MDAG will serve as the home of the award, and will be presented annually at the opening of the second-largest documentary film festival in Europe and Poland’s biggest film event.
The jury, comprising all FIPRESCI members, representing over 50 national sections and individual members from more than 30 additional countries, has chosen the winner. The first recipient of the Documentary Grand Prix is “Fiume o morte!” by Igor Bezinović.
[Graphic: laurel for “Fiume o morte!” for Documentary Grand Prix FIPRESCI 2025; Millennium Docs Against Gravity logo, with stills from the awarded film in the background.]
A screening of the award-winning film, followed by a Q&A with the director, will take place on Saturday, May 9 at 4 pm at Kinoteka. The meeting will be hosted by Paola Casella, an Italian film critic and Vice President of FIPRESCI.
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The 23rd edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity will be held from May 8 to 17, 2026 in cinemas across seven cities (Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź and Bydgoszcz), and online from May 19 to June 1 at mdag.pl.
More about “Fiume o morte!”
One hundred years after the peculiar occupation of Fiume in 1919 by Gabriele D’Annunzio, Rijeka-born director Igor Bezinović teams up with 300 residents to create a subversive, punk-style reenactment that dismantles nationalist myths and exposes the spectacle of political performativity.
The film has already received the European Film Award for Best European Documentary and was recognized at the Rotterdam festival, where it won both the Tiger Award in the Main Competition and the FIPRESCI Jury Prize.
[Graphic: Documentary Grand Prix FIPRESCI 2025 laurel for “Fiume o morte!”, dir. Igor Bezinović; still from the film showing three men in military uniform trousers, with knives in their mouths and grenades in their hands, with a classroom blackboard behind them.]
We also congratulate all the films nominated this year for the FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix:
“2000 Meters to Andriivka”, dir. Mstyslav Chernov
“Mr. Nobody Against Putin”, dir. David Borenstein, Pavel Talanki
“Orwell: 2+2=5”, dir. Raoul Peck
“The Perfect Neighbor”, dir. Geeta Gandbhir
Starting this year, MDAG will also host a three-member FIPRESCI Jury, which will present its own award to a film in the Main Competition. The winner will be announced on May 14 during the Awards Ceremony. That evening will also reveal the recipient of the Grand Prix – the Bank Millennium Award, which opens the path to the most prestigious honors in world cinema.
Millennium Docs Against Gravity is on the list of festivals qualifying for the Academy Awards® in the Best Documentary Feature category and also recommends films for the European Film Awards.
The 23rd edition of MDAG will take place from May 8–17, 2026, in cinemas in Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Bydgoszcz, and Łódź, and online from May 19 to June 1 at mdag.pl. The title sponsor of the event is Bank Millennium (https://www.bankmillennium.pl/).
