Muranow & Era New Horizons International Film Festival

Website: muranow.gutekfilm.com.pl & edukacja.nowehoryzonty.pl

BEST PROGRAMMING:
MURANOW, WARSZAWA (POLAND)
EXHIBITOR: ROMAN GUTEK, GUTEK FILMS LTD

About Muranow: Located in the Muranow district in the heart of the city, the Muranow cinema is a veritable Warsaw institution. For half a century generations of Polish filmgoers have made this bastion of film culture their home. In the rapidly changing Polish market marked by a boom in multiplexes, where the number of auditoria in Warsaw alone went from 25 in 1999 to 150 in 2004, the Muranow has become the very symbol of enduring and adaptable cinema exhibition.

Much of the credit for the Muranow’s longevity goes to exhibitor Roman Gutek. A former habitue, he took over the cinema in 1981 and has become one of the principal distributors of European films in Poland.

The Muranow was given a complete overhaul at the beginning of the 90s, with financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Art. Today it has a modern look, with an elegant and hospitable central atrium boasting a bookshop, DVD boutique, cafeteria and poster displays. Two large theatres with 250 seats are situated at either end of the hall, equipped with the latest technology. A member of Europa Cinemas for over 10 years, the Muranow proposes a rich and diversified programming typified by curiosity and the thrill of new discoveries. The Muranow also stands out for its events programme, with numerous festivals dedicated to Austrian, Spanish, Italian, Latin American and Russian cinema, and special screenings for young audiences and school groups. A dynamic record for a cinema whose director plans to transform it into a four-theatre complex in response to the changing Polish market, so as to provide an even better welcome to the 130,000 annual visitors.

About ERA NEW HORIZONS Festival:

“A festival of films that go beyond the limits of conventional cinema. Deciding about the formula of our festival, especially of its competition part, we asked ourselves a question: is there in the 21st century cinema (shaped by the mass audience and its tastes) a place for directors who go against the current, for individualists who use their own style, their own inimitable language. Such haughty artists still exist in different parts of the world, although they find it ever harder to realise their projects. And yet their art does have its lovers - it is for those lovers that the festival is organised. Guided by our own taste, from among hundreds of films that are screened yearly at festivals all over the world, we choose those that due to their unusual form and force of expression will not let the audience forget them. All over the world, they give rise to polemics and discussions, praise and protest. And yet it is such films that usually set the newest trends in world cinema art. ” Roman Gutek – Festival Director