WARSAW: Polish cinema had another record year, with 59.7 m total admissions and 263.9 m EUR total gross. Polish films had 19.8 m admissions, compared to 13.5 m in 2017. The first four films in the overall top ten are Polish.

Polish cinema had a strong year in 2018, with record-breaking box office results, international success of feature films, worldwide distribution for domestic titles, as well as the introduction of long-awaited 30% financial incentives for international filmmakers.

WARSAW: Cold War by Paweł Pawlikowski got three nominations for the Academy Awards in the Best Directing, Best Cinematography (Łukasz Żal) and Best Foreign Language Film categories. The nominations were announced on 22 January 2019.

WARSAW: The acclaimed Polish director Jan Komasa finished shooting Suicide Room. Hater, a new cyber thriller and a sequel to his box office feature debut Suicide Room. The film will be released in the second half of 2019.

WARSAW: The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage plans to merge the Documentary and Feature Film Studios (WFDiF) and four other public production studios into one big film production center for producing big budget films. The announcement brought diverse reactions in the film community, from praising the plan to create a modern film production unit to concerns that it will diminish the diversity on the Polish film market.

WARSAW: Polish public broadcaster TVP is negotiating the purchase of the Showmax VOD service from Naspers, following the owner's decision to leave the Polish market by the end of January 2019.

WARSAW: Films Boutique will manage worldwide sales for Jacek Borcuch’s Italy-based drama Dolce Fine Giornata starring Krystyna Janda. The film will premiere internationally at the Sundance IFF in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

Polish films have been scoring slots in the box office top 10 in the UK and Ireland as well as other countries over the past few years making the leap from art house to commercial success abroad. Titles like Pitbull and Botox, both directed by Patryk Vega, were UK box office hits while The Clergy directed by Wojciech Smarzowski scored a record of approximately 1.1 m EUR / 1 m GBP during its first opening weekend in Ireland and the UK.

A driving force behind this success is distributor Phoenix Productions. FNE spoke to Phoenix CEO Joanna Michalec

WARSAW: The Polish Film Institute supported eight feature films with 2 m EUR / 8.9 m PLN during the third and the last session of financing in 2018.

WARSAW: The sequel to box office hit Planet Single had over 1 m admissions and remains in the number one spot in Poland for the third week in a row. The romantic comedy continues a streak of locally produced titles topping Polish box office charts in 2018.