Poland's 40th Gdynia Film Festival underway

The festival, which provides the key annual showcase of new Polish films, sees 18 movies compete in the main competition this year, with the coveted 'Golden Lions' as the ultimate prize.

However, during Monday's opening gala, there was an opportunity to reflect on the successes of Polish cinema since the festival's inception.

Members of the public had been encouraged to vote on who should be awarded 'Diamond Lions' awards for achievements over the last forty years.

Viewers chose Jerzy Antczak's 1975 historical epic 'Nights and Days' as the Best Film. The Oscar-nominated work, which was also released in an elongated version as a television series, is based on a novel by Maria Dąbrowska. It explores the plight of a family running a country estate in the wake of Poland's doomed 1863 January Uprising against Tsarist Russia.

Picking up the prize, director Antczak noted that it was his wife, actress Jadwiga Barańska, who encouraged him to read Dąbrowska's original work.

It was evidently good advice, as indeed, Barańska walked away with the Golden Lions for Best Actress on Monday.

The prize for Best Actor went to Janusz Gajos, who was nominated for his roles in 'Interrogation', a 1982 film about Stalinist prisons that was banned by Poland's then communist authorities, as well as the 1990 film 'Escape from the Liberty Cinema'.

The Golden Lions for Best Film Music Composer went to the late Wojciech Kilar for his soundtrack for Andrzej Wajda's 1975 movie 'The Promised Land' about the rise of industry in the 19th century city of Łódź. Among Kilar's best known works are his scores for Francis Ford Coppola's 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' (1992) and Roman Polanski's 'The Pianist'.

This year's festival wraps up on Saturday 19 September. (nh/rk)