Searching. 23rd Millennium Docs Against Gravity
Let the search begin! Millennium Docs Against Gravity is coming to seven cities, with a program of nearly 180 documentaries from around the world. There will also be countless meetings with filmmakers and protagonists, workshops, concerts, and debates.
In 2025, the festival attracted over 181,000 audience members. This not only makes MDAG the largest film festival in Poland, but also the second-largest event dedicated to documentary cinema in Europe. The 23rd edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity will take place from May 8–17 in cinemas in Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź, and Bydgoszcz, and from May 19 to June 1 online at mdag.pl!
A New Award in the Cinema World – the FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix
This year, the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and the Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival announced the launch of the Documentary Grand Prix. This new award will be given to the best documentary film of the year. The winner will be selected by a vote of all members of this prestigious organisation, representing over 50 national sections and individual members from another 30 countries. The award will be presented annually, starting in 2026, during the Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival.
Searching - the theme of the 23rd MDAG
This year’s slogan refers both to the search for the right way to tell stories about reality – an inseparable part of documentary filmmaking – and to the search for knowledge about the world, which characterises our audience. Together with the festival team, filmmakers and viewers also embark on another kind of search: one for mutual understanding and shared values in times of polarisation and uncertainty. We are searching for solutions to the problems we see in reality – geopolitical, ecological, social, and economic. Films do not change the world, but they offer a fresh perspective and encourage action. We believe that those who watch them often go on to change reality themselves.
In Search of Great Cinema. The Main Competition at the 23rd MDAG
The notion of “searching” is persistent in the films presented in the Main Competition in many forms. Whether it is a literal search for a missing son in ”Closure”, a search for home in ”A Fox Under a Pink Moon”, or looking for a distinctive bird in ”Whispers in the Woods”.
The exploration continues into the formal construction of these titles. With a unique immersive experience offered by ”Nuisance Bear”, carefully crafted shots in ”To Hold a Mountain”, or an incredible blend of fiction and documentary in ”A Child of My Own”.
The stories are also strongly set in landscapes where they take place – the town of ”Mariinka” is both a cause of division which equally formed a brotherly bond, Iceland in ”Time and Water” is magnificent inasmuch as showing us what is at stake for humanity, with ”Wax & Gold” telling a story of a nation through the perspective of a hotel.
Searching is also what we do when we think about our relations with others. A son faces growing up with the aid of his father in ”Bugboy”, a director examines friendship and loss in ”Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird)” and another director puts herself in front of the camera to understand the relationships which have forged her at her birthplace and ones which she encounters in her new home in ”Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest”.
Award-Winning Films from Around the World
The face of this year’s MDAG poster is Soraya Akhalaghi, the protagonist, cinematographer, and co-director of the film “A Fox Under a Pink Moon”, which won the main prize at IDFA, the world’s largest documentary film festival. Soraya is an Afghan multidisciplinary artist who primarily works in painting and sculpture. She has been through a great deal in her life. For five years, she made numerous attempts (known among migrants as “games”) to escape from Iran, where she worked as a maid, to Europe. She currently lives in a refugee camp in Berlin. In the film, she says she would like to find a place where she can live and create without fear.
The MDAG program features the most notable documentaries that celebrated their world premieres at major film festivals, such as the Venice Film Festival, Sundance, and the Berlin International Film Festival. The lineup includes numerous Polish productions and co-productions. The festival’s opening film, “Closure” by Michał Marczak, premiered in the international documentary competition at Sundance and won the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. It is the story of Daniel, a father consumed by the search for his missing son, who lives suspended between hope and fear.
The Ukrainian-Polish film “Traces”, directed by Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikituk, had its world premiere at the Berlinale, where it won the Documentary Panorama Audience Award. The film tells the story of Ukrainian women who, after experiencing sexual violence (CRSV) and torture during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, begin to speak out about their ordeal.
Meanwhile, Maciej Cuske's “Candidates of Death” was selected for the Main Competition at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, where it had its world premiere. Over a dozen years ago, Maciej took his son and two of his young friends on vacation, during which they filmed an amateur horror movie together. “Candidates of Death” is a film about the father-son relationship set against the backdrop of a grand cinematic adventure spanning decades.
New Festival Sections
Once again, the MDAG program will include several new sections exploring issues that have attracted the attention of documentary filmmakers over the past year. The “Women Change the World” section returns. It features intimate stories of fearless pioneers fighting for equality at any cost. The “New York, I Love You, But…” section, on the other hand, is a collection of films about New York’s artistic bohemian scene, which has had a complicated relationship with the city yet has found inspiration within it. The films in the “In the Name of the Father and the Son” section explore the changes currently taking place in father–son relationships, while the “All Eyes on Palestine” section sheds light on the political and social situation of Palestinians, depicting the daily lives of people living in the shadow of conflict and instability.
Another addition to the MDAG program is the Masters section. It includes new films by acclaimed filmmakers whose previous works have shaped the world of documentary cinema. What stories will these filmmakers, whose work we admire so much, surprise us with this time?
This year’s avant-garde section is titled The Usage of Anger. American Insurgent Cinema. It presents films devoted to American culture and the cinema of resistance. These documentaries explore the history behind the development of civil society that emerged from the struggle for human rights.
MDAG Vision: Experience What Is to Come
The XR exhibition as part of MDAG Vision (May 8–17, 2026) will once again take place at the State Ethnographic Museum. This year’s MDAG Vision exhibition invites you into a world where visions of the future become a tangible reality. The five presented works explore the need to seek identity and security in an era of rapid change. By stimulating the imagination, the artists offer new survival scenarios, utilising a wide spectrum of media: from artificial intelligence and augmented reality to collective performance. The exhibition offers an active, sensory entry into a world that has just caught up to us.
MDAG Industry: Where Cinema Is Made
MDAG Industry (May 7–11, 2026) is the key event of the year for the documentary film industry, bringing together five pitch sessions, filmmakers, and representatives from festivals, distributors, TV stations, and streaming platforms from around the world. MDAG Industry has been growing rapidly in recent years, becoming a launching ground for ambitious documentary films. In recent years, MDAG Industry has presented projects that have achieved significant international success, including “Closure” by Michał Marczak (world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival), “My Dear Theo” by Alisa Kovalenko (world premiere at CPH:DOX 2025), and “The Forest” by Lidia Duda (world premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival 2024).
The 23rd Millennium Docs Against Gravity will be a fascinating journey not only around the world but also through a wide range of important topics—from ecology and politics to psychology, human rights, art (including avant-garde art), pop culture, and family relationships.
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