This is always one of the most important moments in the run-up to the festival: the premiere of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity trailer, featuring spectacular footage from several dozen festival films. We also now know the slogan of the 23rd edition of MDAG. It is: “Searching”, and it encapsulates more than two decades of the development of documentary cinema that Polish audiences have been able to witness thanks to the festival.
This year’s slogan refers both to the search for the right form of telling stories about reality – something that is an inseparable part of documentary filmmakers’ work – 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, or economic. Films do not change the world, but they offer a fresh perspective and encourage action. We believe that the people who watch them often go on to change reality themselves – Mateusz Góra, Head of Communications at MDAG.
The 23rd MDAG will take place from 8 to 17 May 2026 in cinemas across seven cities (Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź, and Bydgoszcz), and online from 19 May to 1 June at mdag.pl. Festival passes and industry and press accreditations for the Warsaw edition of MDAG are now on sale. Their number is limited. All information is available at book.mdag.pl. On 23 April, single tickets for screenings will go on sale at mdag.pl as well as on the websites and at the box offices of festival cinemas.
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When I watch films shot by shot, I sometimes feel as if I’m performing an ultrasound scan. I examine films in search of tension, emotion, and truth, and then I try to assemble them into a short story about the world we live in – says director and editor Dorota Proba, who has been responsible for the Millennium Docs Against Gravity trailer for the past decade.
A Shared Search for Answers to the Most Important Questions
[An elderly man kisses a cow in a pasture.]
This year’s MDAG trailer could not possibly leave out the new film by the legendary Werner Herzog, in which we visit Dr Steve Boyes. The protagonist of Ghost Elephants is searching for giants whose existence is shrouded in mystery. In How Deep Is Your Love?, directed by Eleanor Mortimer, young scientists descend much deeper – all the way to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to investigate the mysteries of the deep sea and attempt to save the ocean from the excessive exploitation of its mineral resources. Nikolaus Geyrhalter, director of Melt, takes viewers on a journey to places where snow and ice shape the conditions of human existence. The film balances between awe and melancholy, portraying the inevitable loss of this world.
Meanwhile, two mycologists exploring the forests of Mexico take audiences on a journey through the fascinating world of fungi, balancing on the border between sci-fi and documentary cinema in Daughters of the Forest, directed by Otilia Portillo Padua. Vincent Munier, the creator of The Velvet Queen (The Snow Leopard), this time sets out — together with his father and son – on an expedition into the wild French forest in the visually and musically spectacular Whispers in the Woods, where the forest itself becomes a living organism.
[Two women laugh at a gas station at dusk.]
The trailer for the 23rd MDAG also takes us to Fiji, to the family home of Iona, who, after years spent in Scotland, searches for answers to questions about her sense of alienation in Europe. In Heart of Light – 11 Songs for Fiji, directed by Cynthia Beatt, Tilda Swinton plays the role of Iona. Another equally fascinating place is La Scala in Milan — the legendary opera house. It is not only a monumental building, but also a living organism where ambition, dreams, talent, and excellence intertwine, as audiences can discover in La Scala: The Force of Destiny, directed by Anissa Bonnefont. The love between artists is a relationship full of passion, but also of crises and emotions transformed into art. Love-22-Love, a film by Jeroen Kooijmans, is a video diary kept over 30 years and a tribute to his beloved wife, infused with poetic visual language. In it, Kooijmans explores issues of mental health and self-understanding within a relationship.
The trailer also gives us a glimpse into the world of Franta and Ondra, who are twins. In Better Go Mad in the Wild, directed by Miro Remo, we see them arguing, smoking joints, sleeping under the open sky, and sharing the same philosophy of life. At some point, however, the understanding that binds them begins to fade. How will they cope with the coming crisis in their relationship? Meanwhile, Cesare Through the Time, directed by Angelo Loy, tells the story of two fishing families who have been catching eels on opposite banks of the river since 1999. The long-established order, based on rivalry and balance of power, is disrupted by the arrival of Anwar, a young migrant from Bangladesh.
[A boy climbs a blossoming tree.]
The protagonists of A Fire There, directed by Marlene Edoyan, also undergo transformation. Standing on the threshold of adulthood, they try to imagine a different future in a world dominated by tradition. The film draws a moving portrait of friendship and quiet inner rebellion, capturing intimate conversations, everyday rituals, and spiritual motifs. Hex, directed by Maja Holand, is in turn a hybrid essay film situated at the intersection of documentary cinema, performance, and feminist manifesto. The director weaves together her own experiences with the collective memory of violence, creating a story about shame, resistance, and reclaiming agency. The film’s narrative is built through rituals, gestures, voice, and the physical presence of its protagonists.
The trailer for the 23rd MDAG also encourages us to search for answers to the question: Are we living in an Orwellian world, and has 1984 become our reality? Academy Award® nominee Raoul Peck portrays the final months of George Orwell’s life, searching for the socio-political ideas that connect his novel with the contemporary world in Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5. The world we live in is also examined in Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment, directed by Andreas Pichler. In 2014, Elon Musk publicly revealed his plans for the autonomous car. What consumers did not know was that Tesla’s “autopilot” feature was far from ready, and that new owners were effectively being used to test and refine it. A fatal crash in Florida sparked a lengthy court case aimed at holding Tesla accountable.
[An astronaut in a spacesuit stands in orange mist on a barren desert planet, with a dome and antenna in the background.]
Other films featured in the festival trailer and already announced:
"The Fifth Season", dir. Giuseppe Carrieri
"Nuisance Bear", dir. Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman
"Barbara Forever", dir. Brydie O’Connor
"I Follow Rivers", dir. Barbora Hollan
"Confessions of a Swedish Man", dir. Linder Hampus
"Candidates of Death" (Kandydaci śmierci), dir. Maciej Cuske
"A Fox Under a Pink Moon", dir. Mehrdad Oskouei, Soraya Akhalaghi
"Yanuni", dir. Richard Ladkani
"Closure" (Bez końca), dir. Michał Marczak
"Auto Queens", dir. Sraiyanti
"The Oldest Person in the World", dir. Sam Green
"Twin Days", dir. Sara Szymańska, Nadia Szymańska
"Freak Show", dir. Łukasz Ronduda, Filip Pawlak
