Past Editions
The Kosciuszko Foundation Polish Film Festival launched its inaugural edition in Washington, D.C. in 2024, marking a significant milestone in bringing Polish cinema to the capital of the United States. The debut festival showcased both emerging and acclaimed Polish filmmakers and presented awards in several categories, including Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, and the Audience Award.
2024
Building on this success, the inaugural Kosciuszko Foundation Rocky Mountain Polish Film Festival welcomed audiences in the U.S. Rocky Mountain region on November 16–17, 2024. The event featured a curated selection of contemporary Polish films and reflected the Foundation’s growing commitment to sharing Poland’s vibrant cinematic storytelling with a broader American audience.
Feature Films:
As part of its 2024 program, the Kosciuszko Foundation Rocky Mountain Polish Film Festival presented three acclaimed feature films that offered audiences a powerful and diverse view of contemporary Polish cinema.
Scarborn (Kos), winner of the Best Film Award at the Gdynia Film Festival, is a sweeping historical drama about General Tadeusz “Kos” Kościuszko’s return to Poland in 1794 after supporting George Washington in the American Revolution, as he prepares to ignite an uprising against Russian forces.
The Feast of Fire (Święto Ognia), directed by Kinga Dębska and starring Paulina Pytlak (Best New Actress) and Kinga Preis (Best Supporting Actress), tells the moving story of two young women—a ballerina and a child with a debilitating illness—who confront their physical limits and ultimately triumph in spirit.
Doppelgänger (Sobowtór), a gripping psychological thriller set in the late 1970s, explores espionage, identity theft, and moral ambiguity through a distinctly Polish lens. The film, which earned multiple awards at the Gdynia Film Festival, including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Cinematography, delivers a nuanced, John le Carré-style reflection on duplicity and human nature.
Short Films:
The short film selection at the festival highlighted emerging Polish filmmakers and offered intimate, thought-provoking perspectives on contemporary life.
The Mandala (Mandala), directed by Mikołaj Janik, portrays a mother’s struggle to overcome haunting memories and violence in a moving exploration of trauma and resilience.
In Mom Is Coming Back (Mama wraca), also directed by Janik, a mother redefines caregiving by embracing her passions and including her child with cerebral palsy in every adventure, from everyday activities to cross-country skiing.
My Old Gals (Moje Stare), directed by Natasza Parzymies, follows two elderly friends on a joyful escape from a nursing home, a touching reflection on friendship, memory, and freedom.
Count My Lov3 (Il3 mni3 kochasz) by Ewa Japola adds a playful twist to the program—a witty, modern story about a woman seeking love through numerical formulas, questioning whether data can ever capture the essence of human emotion.
Jury:
The Jury of the inaugural Kosciuszko Foundation Rocky Mountain Polish Film Festival brings together distinguished professionals from across the international film and cultural landscape.
Liliana Komorowska, a graduate of the Theatre Academy in Warsaw with a Master's degree in Fine Arts, is an actress and director of documentaries. She worked with Masters of Polish Cinema, Kawalerowicz, Majewski, and Zanussi, and starred in American blockbusters "The Assignment" and "The Art of War," sharing the screen with esteemed actors including Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Wesley Snipes.
Driven by her passion for filmmaking, she debuted with the documentary "Beauty and the Breast." People's Choice Award for Best Feature Documentary at the Montreal International Film Festival. Committed to preserving her Polish cultural heritage, she established the Liliana Komorowska for the Arts Foundation and was honored with the Silver Medal of Merit.
A member of the Canadian Film and Television Academy and the Polish Filmmakers Association, Liliana currently works on the documentary "WAJDA." Through her dedication to cultural advocacy, she is a board member of EKRAN TPFF.
Ron Henderson is the co-founder of the Denver Film Society and the Denver Film Festival, which is now in its 47th year. He also served as the artistic director of the Starz Film Center (now the Sie Film Center), the year-round home for Denver Film. Throughout his career, Ron has directed numerous film festivals, including the Nashville Film Festival, the National Student Film Festival in New York City, and the Breckenridge Film Festival. He has also been a program consultant for the Taos Talking Film Festival and the Mar del Plata Film Festival in Argentina.
Ron has traveled to major film festivals across the globe, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Karlovy Vary, Shanghai, and Gdynia. A former book editor at The Macmillan Company, he is also the author of two books on film. Over the years, Ron has earned numerous accolades for his contributions to cinema, including the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the University of Colorado’s Distinguished Community Service Award, the Denver Film Festival’s John Cassavetes Award, and two prestigious honors from Poland: the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and the Golden Ciupaga Award from the Polish Film Festival in America (Chicago), both in recognition of his efforts in promoting Polish cinema in North America.
Dr. Beata Lisowska is a film and culture expert, cultural anthropologist, and university lecturer. She currently serves as an assistant professor in Cultural Studies at the Academy of Humanities and Economics in Łódź and lectures in Graphic Design at WIT Academy in Warsaw.
In 2020-2021, she headed the Culture Center at the University of Łódź, and from 2011-2018, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Visual Culture at the Institute of Cultural Sciences at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Since 2024, she has been the academic coordinator for the University of the Third Age at AHE in Łódź. She also collaborates with various foundations as a coordinator of education programs in film and culture.
Dr. Beata Lisowska is an author of numerous publications in the fields of film and media and supervises diploma theses. Her teaching areas include film, photography, media, visual culture, anthropology, popular culture, and cultural promotion.
Piotr Gzowski is a passionate advocate for the arts, with a diverse background in theater, film, and education. He earned a BA in English Literature from Fordham University and went on to receive an M.F.A. in Theatre/Acting from NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. Piotr has held several academic positions, including Assistant Professor at Sacred Heart University and Adjunct Professor at Albertus Magnus College.
In addition to his teaching career, he is an accomplished writer, producer, and director. His staged epic, Grudka Ziemi: Song of a Beloved Country, explored Polish history and was performed in Bridgeport and New Haven, Connecticut. Piotr’s acting talents led him to work with the Donna Baldwin Agency in Denver, Colorado.
As the President and co-founder of The Humanities Touring Group, Piotr produced and co-authored "The Greeks: In the Beginning and The Renaissance", which earned a New Haven Award in 1993. He has also contributed his talents as a translator for the Denver Film Festival, translating Polish to English, and as a contributing author of film commentaries for "Życie Kolorado".
Piotr has been deeply involved with the Polish Club of Denver, having served as Secretary on the Board of Directors and as Vice President of the club. His love for film and storytelling remains a driving force in his life, as does his ongoing work as a cultural advocate within the Polish-American community.
Craig Volk holds an MFA in playwriting and screenwriting from the prestigious Yale School of Drama. His work as a playwright has been recognized three times by the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Volk was also notably the first American playwright invited to the National Russian Conference in Schelykovo. His play, "Mayakovsky" takes the Stage, earned him the 2007 PEN-USA Award for Best Drama. With 12 years of experience in Hollywood, he contributed as a staff writer on the Emmy Award-Winning series "Northern Exposure". In addition, Volk has served as the screenplay head curator for the Denver Film Festival and documentary head curator for the Breckenridge Film Festival.
Katarzyna Niezabitowska-Szczuka A Polish philologist and editor, Katarzyna Szczuka-Niezabitowska has been collaborating with Polish Television for over a decade as a journalist, publisher, and programme director. With a longstanding involvement in cultural programming at TVP Kultura, she has focused primarily on cinema. Katarzyna is the co-author of the documentary series "Monuments of History: Trail of Extraordinary Places" and contributed to segments of the "Wielki Test" series on TVP1. She originated and directed the "eMocje" programme on TVP ABC and has created numerous behind-the-scenes segments from various film sets.
In addition to serving as a juror for the "Zabytkomania" film awards, organized by the National Heritage Institute, Katarzyna has maintained a long-term collaboration with the Polish Film Institute and has been involved in launching the School Film Archive Workshops throughout Poland. She also partners with the National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute, conducting original journalism and cinema workshops for young people, including events at the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia.
Board of Directors:
The Kosciuszko Foundation Rocky Mountain Polish Film Festival is led by professionals dedicated to promoting Polish culture and cinema in Colorado.
Marek Gołkowski was born in Katowice, Poland and moved to the United States when his mother was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Cornell University. He completed his BS in Electrical Engineering at Cornell before moving across the country to California where he earned his MS and PhD at Stanford University. Dr. Gołkowski moved to Colorado in 2010 to join the faculty at University of Colorado Denver. He is currently the Department Chair of Electrical Engineering and performs research in space sciences, plasma physics, and applied electromagnetics. Marek is president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Kosciuszko Foundation
Kasia Hypsher was born in Poznań, raised, and educated in Kraków. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts with a degree in Interior Architecture. Since 1999, Kasia has lived in Denver, Colorado, where she has made lasting contributions to the local Polish community.
In 2009, she founded Życie Kolorado, a Polish-language monthly publication, and served as its editor through 2024. For 15 years, Życie Kolorado has played a vital role in uniting the Polish community in Colorado while promoting Polish history, culture, and traditions abroad.
Kasia remains an active member of the Polish community in Colorado, assisting with marketing materials for the Polish Club of Denver. Most recently, she launched the inaugural edition of the Rocky Mountain Chapter Polish Film Festival, further contributing to the cultural life of the region.
Professionally, Kasia works as an interior architect, designing both public and commercial spaces throughout the Denver Metro Area.
Malgorzata Schwab is an Information Technology executive specializing in multi-industry digital transformation, with a focus on leveraging AI-augmented technologies to enable innovative business strategies. She holds a Master's Degree in Computer Science from the Warsaw University of Technology, in collaboration with the Polish Academy of Sciences. She also earned an MBA from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, and most recently, a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Colorado in Denver.
Malgorzata is actively involved in community outreach, teaching at several local community colleges and serving as a speaker at the Western Summit of Women in Technology. Originally from Lublin, she has made Colorado her second home, where she remains deeply engaged with the Polish Club of Denver and contributes as an author for Życie Kolorado, a Polish-language newspaper.
Passionate about her community and professional work, Malgorzata is now bringing her experience from the DC Polish Film Festival to the Rocky Mountain chapter of The Kosciuszko Foundation, helping to launch a similar initiative in the region.
