The 45th Cracow Film Festival, one of Europe's oldest film festivals, started on May 31. The festival is devoted to documentaries, animated and experimental films and short features. More than 400 films will be shown on seven screens during the six days of the festival. Nearly 1,500 films were submitted, of which 54 qualified for the international competition (22 documentaries, 20 animated films, 13 features and one experimental film) and 39 for Polish film shows (23 documentaries, 10 animated films and six features). Among them is Izabela Plucińska's Jam Session (Silver Bear in the short film category), Ryan by Academy Award winner Chris Landreth, Guard Dog, the latest film by Bill Plympton, an American producer of cult animated films, and The Final Solution by well-known draftsman Phil Mulloy.

This year, the Dragon of the Dragons, the award for life-time achievement, went to brilliant draftsman Yuri Norstein. Among the winners of previous editions were Werner Herzog, Jan Lenica and the Quay brothers. The festival program features many shows in more than 10 thematic blocks including world premiere showings of documentaries, portraits and retrospectives of acclaimed and interesting artists (Bela Tarr, Daniel Szczechura and Peter Liechti) and Short Forms of Film Masters including short films by Antonioni, Kieślowski, Menzel, Truffaut, Visconti, Ford, Passolini and Munk.

The program of the jubilee edition of the Cracow Film Festival will be enriched by a festival for children and young people, a novelty this year, organized in cooperation with the largest such festivals from Berlin, Moscow and Giffoni.

This year's film shows will be held in Kijów, Mikro and Pod Baranami cinemas and in Samurajów Room at the National Museum. The festival organizers also invite open-air cinema lovers to KinOFFteka shows.

For the program of the festival and more information see www.cracowfilmfestival.pl