- We are pleased to invite you to the festival together with the organisers. The Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival is the most important cultural project supported by the Bank. It touches on many important and difficult topics that we as people and societies have to face. In supporting this event we not only facilitate access to the world of culture, but also to social debate with a very broad extent. Bank Millennium, in addition to supporting culture, works to protect the climate, the natural environment and endangered species, while reducing its carbon footprint, caring for diversity and local communities. Sustainability has been an inseparable element of our strategy for years – comments Iwona Jarzębska, Director of the Public Relations Department of Bank Millennium – patron of the festival.

Bank Millennium has been sponsoring the Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival and funding the Grand Prix during the festival since 2006. During the 20th edition of the festival, 12 films will compete for the Grand Prix - Bank Millennium Award, including as many as three Polish productions or co-productions – „Apolonia, Apolonia” dir. Lea Glob, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” dir. Laura Poitras, “Against the Tide” dir. Sarvnik Kaur, “We Will Not Fade Away” dir. Alisa Kovalenko, “Innocence” dir. Guy Davidi, „Pianoforte” dir. Jakub Piątek, “Whale Nation” dir. Jean-Albert Lievre, “Under the Sky of Damascus” dir. Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh, “The hermit of Treig” dir. Lizzie Mackenzie, “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” dir. Anna Hints, “Theatre of Violence” dir. Emil Langballe, Łukasz Konopa as well as “Bad press” dir. Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler.

During Millennium Docs Against Gravity, Polish films are very popular, attracting crowds of fans of Polish cinema to cinemas. This year, as many as 11 titles were qualified for the Polish competition: „Apolonia, Apolonia”, dir. Lea Glob, “Girls’ Stories”, dir. Agnieszka Borzym, “Fantastic Matt Parey”, dir. Bartosz Paduch, “Leon”, dir. Wojciech Gostomczyk, “We Will Not Fade Away”, dir. Alisa Kovalenko, „Pianoforte”, dir. Jakub Piątek, “Polish Prayers”, dir. Hanna Nobis, “In the Rearview”, dir. Maciej Hamela, „Solaris mon Amour”, dir. Kuba Mikunda, „Vika!”, dir. Agnieszka Zwiefka, “In Ukraine”, dir. Tomasz Wolski and Piotr Pawlus.

Every year, an important part of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity programme are films devoted to ecology. Climate change is one of the most important problems of the modern world. The only solution is new, responsible management of our planet's resources. The films in the "Climate for Change" section are both analyses of current threats and statements giving hope for a better, ecological future. They show activist power. We will find i.a. such important titles as: “Matter Out of Place” dir. Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Whale Nation” dir. Jean-Albert Lièvre, “Breaking Social” dir. Fredrik Gertten or “Wild Life” dir. Elizabeth Chay Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin.

The jubilee 20th edition of MDAG will take place on 12-21 May 2023 in cinemas in eight Polish cities – Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź, Bydgoszcz and Lublin and online – from 23 May to 4 June on the mdag.pl platform.

Bank Millennium has been involved in culture promotion for more than 30 years now. In parallel to its business it has supported national and local cultural events. It is a sponsor of culture on a 360° basis - promoting art in almost all its forms, including: music, painting, sculpture, film, theatre, photography, literature and performance. It reaches for niche and popular culture and is a long-term partner by design.

More about the bank’s sponsoring at:

www.bankmillennium.pl/o-banku/centrum-prasowe/mecenat-kultury

www.bankmillennium.pl/documents/10184/31803676/Raport_ESG_za_rok_2022.pdf

For more about the festival go to:

www.mdag.pl