Foreign guests
A lot of prominent international guests have accepted our invitation and met with our audience since the beginning of the Festival, for example: the legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog (2010); the renowned expert on chimpanzees Jane Goodall (2011, when the film “Jane’s Journey” premiered); the British actress Charlotte Rampling (2012, “Charlotte Rampling: The Look”), the rapper M.I.A. (2018, “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.”), and Cicciolina, a porn star and a former member of the parliament (2017, “La Cicciolina: Godmother of Scandal”) and a remarkable, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Hubert Sauper (2020, “Darwin’s Nightmare”). One of the most prominent cinema events of the 19th edition of the Festival in 2022 was the clash of giants - masters of working on archive material: Sergei Loznitsa and Bill Morrison. In 2023, a masterclass was delivered at the festival by David France, who was Oscar®-nominated for "How to Survive a Plague."
In 2024, audiences had the opportunity to meet and ask questions to 120 filmmakers or film protagonists during 130 meetings with them. The 21st edition of MDAG was a chance to meet many distinguished figures from the world of documentary cinema. Once again, the festival hosted filmmakers and film protagonists from various corners of the globe, creating a unique opportunity for personal conversations and exchanges of ideas.
Dorottya Zurbó, co-director of the film Agent of Happiness, is known for her documentaries The Next Guardian and Easy Lessons. Her works have been showcased at numerous international festivals.
Lana Wilson, director of the film Look Into My Eyes, is known for films such as After Tiller and Miss Americana. She is an Emmy Award winner and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her latest film, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, has received critical acclaim and two Emmy nominations.
Eliza Kubarska, director of the film The Last Expedition, specializes in mountain-themed documentaries. Her films, such as K2: Touching the Sky, have won numerous international awards. Kubarska is also an experienced mountaineer.
Łukasz Ronduda and Dawid Nickel co-directed the film Rave. Ronduda, a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, is known for the film All Our Fears. Nickel, a graduate of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School, gained recognition for his feature debut Love Tasting.
Lidia Duda, director of the film Forest, is a two-time winner of the Grand Prix at the Krakow Film Festival. Her previous film Fledglings won the Marco Zucchi Award at the Locarno Film Festival 2022, as well as four awards at the MDAG Festival.
Alys Tomlinson and Cécile Embleton, co-directors of the film Mother Vera, are acclaimed visual artists. Tomlinson is an award-winning photographer (known for the series Ex Voto), and Embleton has received several accolades for her short films.
Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie co-directed the film Sugarcane. NoiseCat, a writer and journalist, is making his debut as a filmmaker, while Kassie, an investigative journalist, has won numerous awards for her reporting and documentaries.
Klara Tasovská, director of the film I Am Not Everything I Want To Be, is a graduate of FAMU in Prague and the author of award-winning documentaries. Libuše Jarcovjáková, the subject of her film, documented the lives of minorities in Czechoslovakia and Germany.
Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Balal, and Yuval Abraham co-directed the film No Other Land, which received the Grand Prix – Bank Millennium Award. Adra and Balal are Palestinian activists and documentarians, while Szor and Abraham are Israeli filmmakers and journalists.
Lea Hartlaub, director of the film sr, creates films and video installations. She studied photography and media and completed postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.
Karolina Domagalska, director of the film Abortion Dream Team, is a reporter, activist, and author of the book I Won’t Apologize for Giving Birth: Stories of Families with IVF. She is also the creator of the podcast Something with A about abortion.
Johan Grimonprez, director of the film Soundtrack to a Coup d'État, is a Belgian multidisciplinary artist. His works have been exhibited in museums worldwide, and his films have won awards at festivals such as Berlinale and Tribeca.
Rachel Ramsey, co-director of the film Copa 71, made her debut as a co-director of a feature documentary screened at TIFF 2023. She previously produced documentaries such as End of the Storm and Sachin: A Billion Dreams.
The 21st edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity presented a wealth of perspectives, deep reflection, and inspiring stories that connect documentary filmmakers and audiences.
Feedback from foreign guests INVITED IN 2024:
“Everything was absolutely perfect not only around the film but also the organization of Libuše’s exhibition! You are all absolutely wonderful, I’m glad I could come back 2x and I will come again next time! We praised you at the Bildrausch film festival, but they already heard everything good about you and your festival.
”
“Words cannot express how grateful I am for my time with all of you in Warsaw. Thank you for welcoming and embracing me in such a warm manner that I immediately felt at home. Seeing the fantastic community you built and continue to foster around documentaries, and being in your company and in the company of your guests, expanded my mind and capacity for empathy as a person and sharpened my instincts as a critic and curator.”
“Thank you all so much for everything! For the wonderful care, patience, and understanding. You made me feel safe, and I felt 100% taken care of. My producer Monika and the protagonists were also very satisfied (Marion was partying at the after-party until midnight).”
“With all sincerity, I feel that MDAG is “firing on all cylinders” - really a top-class international film festival. You have reached a level where everything you are doing - industry days, official programming, guest networking - is absolutely relevant. The difficult part is to maintain that level, but I am confident that MDAG will find its way. Thank you so much for inviting me to participate. I greatly enjoyed all aspects of my time at MDAG and will forever hold it in my heart.”
“I have no remarks regarding the festival. Well, maybe just one... the bar is being set higher and higher, and I’ll really have to get creative to qualify for the next festival. Thank you for organizing the Tour de la Pologne, which was logistically well-prepared, always with a specific contact person—allowing me to easily navigate around Poland. Excellent teams in every city. Thank you for a wonderful festival experience.”
“How can I thank you enough for such an extraordinary time in Warsaw? It was an absolute joy to be at MDAG, to share my film with audiences, to meet so many other incredible and interesting filmmakers and writers, and most of all, to meet you. Thank you for making this experience one of the best of my life. I know and saw how much work it was - and I am really grateful. Counting down the days until I can come to Warsaw again.”