About PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL

The 9th PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL will be held between May 11-20, 2012 in Warsaw and between May 14-20 in Wrocław, which will feature screenings of 40 films from this year's program. In keeping with the tradition, during the first weekend of PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL (May 11-13), the festival will be present in 20 Polish cities (as part of Digital PLANETE+ DOC Weekend)

Since its first edition in 2004, PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL has grown to become one of the largest events of its kind in the world, gaining dedicated fans both in Poland and abroad. This translates not only translates into cinemas jam-packed with documentary cinema enthusiasts, but also into numbers. While audience of the 2004 edition numbered 4500 viewers, in 2010 and 2011 the Warsaw audience alone accounted for 30000 viewers.

In 2009, the festival was recognized by the Polish Film Institute as "Key International Film Event" in Poland and in 2008, it received „Wdecha” award from Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper as Warsaw’s most interesting cultural event. Last year's edition in Warsaw's Kinoteka cinema was attended by over 31 000 viewers, which makes PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL the third most popular documentary film festival in Europe.

PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL shapes its viewers' opinions and inspires them to reflect on the condition of the world. The festival is an opinion-forming event that gathers audiences conscious of the choices they make who comprise the current and future elites of the country, along with most prominent Polish filmmakers and representatives or the arts and media. Guests to the festival included the likes of Werner Herzog, Sergei Dvortsevoy, Jørgen Leth, Raymond Depardon, Jane Goodall, Gari Kasparov, Andrzej Wajda, and Marcel Łoziński, while festival collaborators include Polish journalists Jacek Żakowski, Marek Ostrowski, Edwin Bendyk, Martyna Wojciechowska, Max Cegielski and Piotr Metz. PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL was where Bartek Konopka's Rabbit à la Berlin began its quick rise to fame and where such films as Waltz with Bashir, Encounters at the End of the World, The Yes-Men Fix the World and Cremaster had their Polish premieres.

PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL employs innovative techniques to promote documentary cinema, i.e. through simultaneous screenings in 20 cities as part of Digital PLANETE+ DOC Weekend and panel discussions with specialists that accompany selected screenings. The festival was the first to introduce a competition for best full-feature documentary film. Furthermore, PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL is the only Polish festival to organize a competition for films on environmental issues vying for Green Warsaw Award. The festival awards its own Amnesty International Film Prize to the best film about human rights.

PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL is a member of the prestigious Doc Alliance – a joint initiative of six key European documentary film festivals: CPH:DOX Copenhagen, DOK Leipzig, IDFF Jihlava, PLANETE+ DOC FILM FESTIVAL, FID Marseille i Visions du Reel Nyon. The festival federation runs its own VOD site devoted to documentary films - Docalliancefilms.com.