The Peasants (2023), Imago (2023) or Next to Nothing (2023) - these films will soon be competing for awards at the 48th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. This year, the decision as to who will get Don Quixote (the statuette of the Polish Federation of Film Discussion Clubs) will be made by, among others, Tomasz Pupacz, deputy manager of ACK UG Alternator. Between September 18 and 23, 2023, the Polish Federation of Film Discussion Clubs jury will review sixteen films from the Main Competition and select the winner of this year's award.
The Polish Federation of Film Discussion Clubs' Don Quixote Award has always been an honourary prize awarded by enthusiasts and social activists, regardless of the times independent in their judgements. The Polish Don Quixote is the younger brother of the Don Quixote of the International Federation of Film Clubs (IFFS, a.k.a. FICC), present at various festivals since 1964. This national one was associated with the Lubuskie Film Summer in Łagów for many years, starting in 1972, when the Polish Federation of Film Discussion Clubs became seriously involved in organising the event.
Representatives of the film clubs present at the festival appointed a jury to select the best Polish film of the season. The first Don Quixote was received by Kazimierz Kutz for Pearl in the Crown. In 2007, Don Quixote became firmly associated with the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, becoming one of the regular extra-schedule awards. It is awarded by a three-person jury (made of club members) accredited at the festival.
The award takes the form of a statuette, although, in crisis years, it was only a diploma. Subsequent Don Quixote statuettes in steel or bronze were created by Andrzej Dąbrowski, Bronisław Chromy and Miłosz Tomkowicz (the latter design is valid from 2020). The laureate also receives an invitation to a meeting during the annual National Film Seminars of the Polish Federation of Film Discussion Clubs, and the film itself gains a kind of club seal of approval: a recommendation to those running over one hundred film discussion clubs throughout Poland.
This is not the end of the participation of the ‘Miłość Blondynki’ Film Discussion Club in the 48th FPFF in Gdynia. As part of the activities of the academic DKF, students of film and art faculties (Film and Audiovisual Culture Knowledge, Production of Audiovisual Forms, or Management of Artistic Institutions) will complete work placements, animating film events and taking part in international film festivals.
The ‘Miłość Blondynki’ Film Discussion Club (DKF Miłość Blondynki) has been operating under the auspices of the University of Gdańsk since 1994 and prepares several attractive cultural events in the Tricity, realised within the framework of the University of Gdańsk’s Academic Cultural Centre (ACK UG). In 2009, it was nominated for the National Film Institute Award in the Film Discussion Club category. DKF is a laureate of the Prof. Antoni Bohdziewicz Award, granted by the Polish Federation of DKFs in 2006. The essence of the Film Discussion Club is the education and promotion of film culture in its broadest sense, presenting ambitious and interesting achievements of world and domestic cinematography. It presents original and unusual cycles, winning the audience’s favour.