Cinema of Poland
The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as the history of cinematography, and it has universally recognized achievements, even though Polish films tend to be less commercially available than films from several other European nations.
| Cinema of Poland | |
|---|---|
Film festival Off Plus Camera in Kraków, 2012 | |
| No. of screens | 1,122 (2011) |
| • Per capita | 3.2 per 100,000 (2011) |
| Main distributors | United International Pictures 26.8% Forum Film 12.8% Imperial Cinepix 11.9% |
| Produced feature films (2011) | |
| Fictional | 32 (62.7%) |
| Animated | 1 (2.0%) |
| Documentary | 18 (35.3%) |
| Number of admissions (2011) | |
| Total | 39,663,222 |
| • Per capita | 1 (2012) |
| National films | 11,624,566 (29.3%) |
| Gross box office (2010) | |
| Total | PLN 703 million (~€167.8 million) |
| National films | PLN 43.5 million (~€10.4 million) (6.2%) |
After World War II, the communist government built an auteur-based national cinema, trained hundreds of new directors and empowered them to make films. Filmmakers like Roman Polański, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Agnieszka Holland, Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Żuławski, Andrzej Munk, and Jerzy Skolimowski impacted the development of Polish film-making. In more recent years, the industry has been producer-led with finance being the key to a film being made, and with many independent filmmakers of all genres, Polish productions tend to be more inspired by American film.