New Horizons Festival

T-Mobile Nowe Horyzonty, usually just Nowe Horyzonty, started in Sanok in 2001, moved to Cieszyn and settled in Wroclaw in 2006, and it is the largest festival in Poland devoted specifically to art-house, experimental and formally difficult cinema rather than to a national or genre programme. It runs about ten days in late July or early August, screens several hundred films, and its selection has a reputation for being uncompromising - retrospectives of directors most audiences have not heard of alongside new work from festivals like Berlin, Cannes and Locarno. Its home is a multiplex in the city centre that was taken over and reprogrammed year-round as an art cinema, which is unusual. There are exhibitions, concerts and outdoor screenings alongside. It draws a young audience in large numbers and central Wroclaw fills for it, with a strong festival atmosphere in the square in the evenings.

Highlights

• Several hundred films in ten days - art-house, experimental and formally difficult.
• Uncompromising selection - retrospectives beside new work from the major festivals.
• A reprogrammed multiplex - the festival's cinema, run as art house year-round.
• A city that fills for it - concerts, exhibitions and outdoor screenings alongside.

When to go

Late July or early August, over about ten days. Several days.

Practical notes

The programme is deliberately hard going and not a general-audience selection. Popular screenings sell out fast even with a pass. Subtitles are usually Polish and English but not always both. Accommodation is tight that week.

Nearby

The market square and the whole centre are the festival's surroundings.