Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival


01.06.2023

Winners of the 20th edition of the MDAG festival. Grand Prix - Bank Millennium Award for “Apolonia Apolonia”

Traditionally during MDAG awards were given to the best films. The festival’s main award - Grand Prix – Bank Millennium Award – went this year to the film “Apolonia, Apolonia” by Lea Glob, a picture about art, friendship and womanhood.

In the Main Competition of the 20th Millennium Docs Against Gravity there were 12 films contending for the Grand Prix – Bank Millennium Award and 8 000 euro. The best one has been selected by a jury composed of: Jonas Rasmussen – Danish-French film director, creator of “Flee", Grażyna Torbicka – journalist and film critic and Mehrdad Oskouei – Iranian independent documentary filmmaker.

Justification of the jury: "Created over the course of 13 years, the film slowly allows us to discover how the inner lives of the protagonist and the director reflect each other. The story shown in the film becomes a tale about how the presence of art in our lives can bring liberation. The film is tragic, dramatic and funny, but it never manipulates our emotions. We are glad that we can award the main prize of the 20th edition of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity festival to "Apolonia, Apolonia" directed by Lea Glob."

This year's edition of the competition was full of unusual films, which is why it was decided to award two special distinctions - for the films "Innocence” dir. Guy Davidi and “Under the Sky of Damascus” dir. Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh

Local awards in the Main Competition were also given by individual festival cities:
Wrocław - Grand Prix of Lower Silesia went to the film "The Hermit of Treig", directed by Lizzie MacKenzie
Gdynia - The Award of the Mayor of the City of Gdynia went to the film "Under the Sky of Damascus", directed by Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh
Bydgoszcz - BYDGOSZCZ ART.DOC AWARD went ex aequo to films "We will not disappear", dir. Alisa Kovalenko as well as “Innocence” dir. Guy Davidi
Katowice - Silesian Voivodeship Audience Award went to "Pianoforte", dir. Kuba Piątek)
Poznań - The Freedom Award funded by the City of Poznań went to the film “Against the Tide", directed by Sarvnik Kaur).