EXCLUSIVE: The Polish Movie Institute (PISF) is about to start its seek for a brand new director following the departure of Karolina Rozwód, who left the function late final yr following a dispute in regards to the allocation of manufacturing funds.
Deadline understands that the Institute is at present consulting native business our bodies, such because the Producers Guild of Poland, asking for suggestions on the construction of the recruitment course of, together with the choice committee and expectations for the function. PISF didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Sources on the bottom in Warsaw instructed us they welcome the PISF’s efforts to rejig the director function and hope it’s going to deliver a renewed deal with long-term coverage. The profitable candidate would be the Institute’s third director in seven years.
Rozwód was appointed in June 2024 however left the function round 5 months later. In an open letter, Rozwód set out her model of occasions, stating that she resigned, later withdrew her resignation however was in the end pressured out by Polish Tradition Minister Hanna Wróblewska.
Wróblewska accused Rozwód of breaking Polish regulation after awarding funding to Aurum Movie’s indie pic Altar Boys regardless of an ongoing investigation into financing beforehand handed to the manufacturing firm by the PISF’s former boss, Radosław Śmigulski.
“Ms. Rozwód, realizing that the case was beneath the prosecutor’s scrutiny, paid out public funds. This could not have occurred,” Wróblewska stated. “Whatever the final result of the investigation, paying out funds in an ongoing case, with full data of the state of affairs and pending notifications, is a violation of the Public Finance Act.”
An lawyer for Rozwód stated in December that she plans to launch authorized motion over her departure.
Altar Boys completed capturing in November and is at present in put up. The pic is directed by Piotr Domalewski. Aurum Movie, an area powerhouse, was based by producers Leszek Bodzak, Aneta Hickinbotham, and Agnieszka Dziedzic. The corporate is finest identified for pics just like the Oscar-nominated Corpus Christi (2019) and the Venice competitors entry Depart No Traces (2021).
In a press release, Aurum Movie stated: “PISF has filed a report of a suspected crime in reference to the [former] Director of PISF exceeding his powers, issuing a call to award a subsidy to Aurum Movie in violation of the laws relating to the phrases and deadlines for submitting purposes. Virtually 4 months after submitting the report, PISF signed an settlement with us, the topic of which is the co-financing of the movie Ministranci [Altar Boys], ensuing from the choice that’s the topic of the investigation. Furthermore, PISF is fulfilling the obligations arising from this settlement, together with the cost of 80% of the subsidy, which was allotted for the manufacturing of the movie.
“All through all the technique of signing the settlement, Aurum Movie by no means as soon as obtained a sign that PISF was contemplating not signing it or that the subsidy was fraught with irregularities. We had no concept of any premises that would threaten the correctness of receiving the subsidy. We are actually the topic of insinuations, caught between public establishments and their methods relating to the settlement of the previous director of PISF.”
