Foreword

Before our very eyes, Szczecin Film Festival became a strong, energetic teenager – one who can observe the reality, learn from experience, participate in an important discussion but who also likes good entertainment, is curious of the world, open to the new. Each year, SEFF shows us things we have not dreamt of, and this year is no exception.

It is even more so due to the fact that we partake in its path on a regular basis. Every six months we meet at the “summer bonus event light” or at the “cinematic autumn.” They are constructed in a slightly different way, showing a slightly different face of the festival and, also, of ourselves. Laughter, fun and entertainment are important, without them we become bitter. But each one of us also needs a moment to think and reflect upon what surrounds us. Not unlike us all, Szczecin Film Festival can experience either one of those moods. But, as is typical of energetic teenagers, SEFF always wants to have optimism and faith in future. To believe that freedom, in every meaning of the word, will remain a (free!) choice for ourselves.

Compelling true stories (in the main competition), absorbing tales (for instance those about the city in TELEFON ART), music (MUSIC SEFF and POP SEFF) and wise entertainment for the youngest ones (SEFF MINI) but also important talks with the masters (Krzysztof Zanussi and Joanna Kos-Krauze) – the program has everything an open teenager might need.

I wish for all of us to regularly become energetic, curious teenagers, not only during our festival celebration.