2026 has been declared “The Year of Wajda” by Poland’s Senate One of Poland’s top film festivals opens on Saturday with a tribute to one of the country’s greatest directors. The 34th CamerImage international film festival in Toruń, a historic city in central Poland, is set to give stage to quality cinema from home and abroad, with dozens of movies and crew nominated for awards. Saturday’s opening ceremony will pay tribute to Andrzej Wajda, the legendary Polish director behind films such as The Promised Land, Katyń and Ashes and Diamonds. The year 2026 marks a century since the auteur’s birth and a decade since his death, and has been declared “The Year of Wajda” by Poland’s Senate, the upper house of parliament. Music from his movies will feature in the opening ceremony when the Polish Radio Choir - Lusławice takes to the stage to perform acapella reinterpretations developed as part of the REscoringWajda project. Some of Wajda’s films will also be shown during the festival. Directors Darren Aronofsky, Luca Guadagnino, Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert are among the filmmakers scheduled to appear at the week-long event in Toruń, along with actors such as Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn. Fifteen movies are in contention for the festival’s top prize, while several stalwarts of the film industry are set to be honored with special lifetime achievement awards.
The opening ceremony will pay tribute to Andrzej Wajda, the legendary Polish director. (Camerimage, Wikimedia Commons)
