60+ Competition
Maciej Cuske
photo: Leszek Holf
In 2004, Maciej Cuske completed the documentary filmmaking programme at the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing, where he now teaches. He also lectures at the Gdynia Film School, leads film workshops in Poland and abroad, and co-founded Bydgoska Kronika Filmowa (the Bydgoszcz Film Chronicle), a creative hub for young filmmakers at the Municipal Cultural Centre in Bydgoszcz.
His documentaries have been screened at festivals in Poland and around the world, earning him numerous honours, including Best Director at the 2021 West Lake Film Festival in China, the 2021 Polish Film Award (Eagle), the Bronze and Silver Lajkonik awards, and the Silver Horn at the Krakow Film Festival. He is a member of the Polish Film Academy and an expert for the Polish Film Institute.
Selected documentaries:
Candidates of Death (2026) – director, screenwriter
The Whale from Lorino (2019) – director, screenwriter
Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy (2008) – director, screenwriter, cinematographer
In the Sky, on Earth (2007) – director, screenwriter
Old Book Store (2005) – director, screenwriter, cinematographer
Suburban Train (2005) – director, screenwriter
The Cure (2004) – director, screenwriter
Joanna Matuszak
Joanna Matuszak graduated from the Acting Department of the Łódź Film School and has been a member of the Teatr Współczesny ensemble in Szczecin since 1994. Her acclaimed dramatic roles include Franciszka in Volker Schmidt’s The Cyclists and Maria Lukianovna in Nikolai Erdman’s The Suicide. She received an award at the 42nd Opole Theatre Confrontations “Polish Classics” for her performance as the Mother in The Marriage, directed by Anna Augustynowicz; in 2016, the production won the Grand Prix at the International Gombrowicz Festival. She has been awarded the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. She also received an acting award for her portrayal of Josette Boulin in Da Vinci Was Right at the 36th Kontrapunkt National Review of Small-Form Theatre. Her screen credits include a police officer in Xawery Żuławski’s series The Thaw and numerous roles in short fiction films, among them Wojtuś, directed by Dominik Czech, and Przeciągi, directed by Katarzyna Kosajda, which won an award at the 2026 Młodzi i Film festival in Koszalin.
Beata Pisula
A film and television producer and CEO of Film Selekt (formerly K&K Selekt), Beata Pisula is a member of the European Film Academy and the Polish Film Academy. Her body of work combines socially and historically significant cinema with large-scale family entertainment. Her producing credits include The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, Irena’s Vow, Amok, The Last Spark of Hope and the television series 1920. War and Love – productions that engage with difficult chapters in Poland’s history as well as its contemporary realities. Alongside these projects, she has produced major box-office successes, including the family films The Dog Who Travelled by Train and The Dog Who Travelled by Train 2, both hugely popular with Polish audiences, and the Christmas film Przepis na święta, scheduled for theatrical release in November 2026. Combining a sensitivity to socially important stories with a keen ability to develop projects for broad audiences, she continues to expand the international presence of Polish genre and family cinema.
THROUGH GENERATIONS COMPETITION
Alicja Jasina
Alicja Jasina is a Polish animation director whose award-winning films have been screened and recognised at festivals worldwide. Her short film Once Upon a Line was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Awards in the Best Animated Short Film category. Working across animation and visual storytelling, Alicja explores the medium’s potential to tell stories in unexpected ways. Her films are often conceptual, playful and humorous, with a particular interest in pushing the boundaries of what animation can be. She has served as a jury member at film festivals worldwide and teaches 2D animation at the Polsko-Japońska Akademia Technik Komputerowych in Warsaw. She holds an MFA in Animation from the University of Southern California and a BA from Kingston University, London. Alongside her independent work, she has collaborated with international brands including Google, Airbnb, Swiss Life and Disney.
Selected work:
2025 / Almost at the Seaside or a Weenie
2021 / Turbo Love
2018 / Stanzas
2016 / Once Upon a Line
2015 / Disrupted
2014 / Out of Line
2013 / The Light Bulb
Łukasz Jastrubczak
Łukasz Jastrubczak is a visual and sound artist, curator and associate professor at the Faculty of Media Art, Photography and Experimental Film of the Academy of Art in Szczecin. His solo exhibitions have been presented at venues including Art in General in New York, Bunkier Sztuki in Krakow, Sabot Gallery in Cluj-Napoca and CSW Kronika in Bytom. His film works have been screened at the Arsenal Cinema in Berlin, the Whitechapel Gallery in London and the Images Festival in Toronto. In 2013, he received the Deutsche Bank Foundation’s Spojrzenia award. Since 2014, he has organised the Young Wolves Art Festival; from 2020 to 2023, he also organised Duos, a festival project built around collaboration between Polish and Kenyan artists. Together with Małgorzata Mazur, he runs CentrumCentrum, an art space situated both at the centre and at the periphery of artistic, social and ecological practice. He lives in Szczecin.
Damian Romaniak
Damian Romaniak is a film and literary scholar with a PhD in the humanities, a champion of film culture, film and literary critic, cultural journalist and lecturer, as well as someone who loves a screening followed by a proper discussion. He hosted the Kino Konesera series at Helios multiplexes and ran the Cyklino Academic Film Club. He appeared in several independent productions screened at festivals devoted to offbeat and uncompromising cinema. He has written numerous articles and reviews on film and literature and previously worked as an editor for Onet Film and Horror Online. Since 2017, he has been editor-in-chief of eleWator, a quarterly devoted to literature and culture. For many years he served as a film selector and a member of the Programme Committee of the Szczecin Film Festival; from 2023 to 2024, he was the festival’s artistic director. He currently teaches at university, where his courses cover documentary film analysis and film narrative, and he leads workshops in film criticism. He also teaches Polish, journalism and rhetoric at a private secondary school. Since January 2026, he has hosted a new film club at Kino Pionier 1907 and co-runs the film page ESSA NA KINO.