We are happy to announce that The 14th FilmAT Festival – the International Festival of Tourist Films, Documentaries, TV Reports and Corporate Films – was a big successes. October 16th -18th, great winners from all around the World, came to Warsaw to accept the prizes and to see the beautiful capital of Poland. 

Foreign guests were invited to The Wilanów Palace Museum, former residence of King Jan III Sobieski. By the jury’s decision Wilanów Museum becomed one of winners of the international competition. Film „Shadow and Robots” produced for museum won an award as The best film in category History & Heritage . Royal interiors from the 17th century made a great impression on our guests, who learned a lot about Jan III Sobieski as a famous,thoroughly educated monarch and commander, as well as they get know a story of his rmoantic love for his wife Maria Casimira. 

Thanks to intensive learning of languages and many travels, he became a polyglot, who acquired fluent knowledge of Latin, French, German and the basics of Italian, Turkish and Greek. Later, he also learned the basics of the Tatar language, to be able to talk personally with Tatars taken prisoners after battle of Vienna. At the age of 50, he began learning Spanish so that he could read freely. At the same time, he was the real host of his estate, for whom very important was the beautiful gardens surrounding the palace, which we had the opportunity to admire, as well important were the large storehouse for winter. 

We finished our trip in a scenery of Polish golden autumn with a walk along Warsaw’s Royal Route, through Krakowskie Przedmieście, Nowy Świat, to the narrow streets of the Old Town … 

Solemn Gala of 14th FilmAT Festival took place October 17th, in the beautiful interiors of OLIMP Room, on the top floor of the Grand Mercure Hotel at Krucza street, in the heart of Warsaw. With a tasty dinner and a beautiful concert of the famous saxophonist Alina Mleczko, who received the traditional special TOURIST 2019 statuette for promoting Poland in the World, we could celebrate great victories. We must emphasize at this point that the special tourist statuette has already been awarded to such famous people and institutions as: Krzysztof Zanussi, Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polański, Studio Se-Ma-For, Łódź Film School … The main partners of the Solemn Festival’s Gala were: International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals CIFFT, General Inspectorate of Road Transport, Polish Tourism Organization and Диво России (Wonder of Russia). The main media partner was „Poland Today”. 

We were honored by the presence of such excellent guests as: Minister Alvin Gajadhur – Chief Inspector of Road Transport, Mrs. Urszula Nowinowska – President of Euro Controle Route, Mrs. Agnieszka Jędrzejczyk – Vice President of the Polish Tourist Organization, Mr. Alexander V. Kammel – Director of International Tourism Film Festivals CIFFT, Mr. Pedro Machado – President of Turismo Centro Portugal, Mr. Jorge Almeida – Vice President of Turismo Centro Portugal, Ms. Adriana Rodrigues – Director of Turismo Centro Portugal, Ms. Marina Edranowa – Director of Диво России (Wonder of Russia), Ms. Fidan Aliyeva – Director of the Azerbaijan Tourist Organization, Mrs. Nadezdha Alexandrova – Viceminister of Tourism of Tver Region, Mrs. Azaliia Kagarmanova – from the Centre of Tourism Development of the Republic of Bashkortostan and Mr. Pavel Borovikov from Ministry of Tourism of Kaliningrad Region. 

Gala started with music video „White roses” by Mała Armia Janosika (Small Army of Janosik). First awards went to Damian Pałasz („White roses”), Grzegorz Gajewski („Wieniawa”), Damian Bieniek („Kochanowski- Laments”) and Institute of National Remembrance („The Unconquered”) and Sergey Cichanowicz (“Poles in East”). Films were awarded for patriotic values by the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining independence. Also the film „The future of Warsaw”, awarded in corporation film categoryrefered to this topic. It shows, how Warsaw changes and despite war demages becomes an important, growing and attractive for investors metropoly. 

The awarding of the Tourist Owl statuette is always a great event, because the Academy does not decide to award it every year. The Tourist Owl statuette is an award of the International Tourfilm Academy for documents that have scientific values. 

Alexander V. Kammel – President of the International Tourfilm Academy and Director of the International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals CIFFT during the Festival’s Gala in Grand Mercure Hotel in Warsaw presented the film „Filling Poland with Power! PSE Impact Report” and the Tourist Owl statuette of 14th FilmAT Festival. This year, the Academy decided to give one statuette of the Tourist Owl to Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne S.A. for a valuable and necessary document for the world of science. The award was received by Mrs. Małgorzata Jachimowska-Noworyta – Plenipotentiary for Sustainable Development at the PSE Capital Group, who by this occasion told the public about the strategic importance of PSE’s operations. This is the second statuette awarded to Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne S.A. during the long history of the FilmAT Festival. 

On occasion of Polish presidency of the Euro Controle Route, the leading topic of this year edition was a Road Safety category. Many of good films have participated at the festival’s competition. Films were awarded by an international jury and by the board of the International Tourfilm Academy for valuable consideration of this topic. During the gala of 14th FilmAT Festival awards in ths category were hand out by Urszula Nowinowska – President of Euro Controle Route, Alexander V. Kammel – President of the International Tourfilm Academy and Director of the International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals CIFFT and Zbigniew Żmudzki – President of the International Jury. 

For the first time in Festival’s international competition we got so many films representing Russia, we are glead that some of this interesting productions were awarded. Among winners were also films from Spain, France, Italy, Great Britain, Austria, Germany, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Taiwan and India. 

This is difficult to mention all the winners in this report. Please refer to the presentation of the list of winners. We should to emphasize that this year we recived many excellent films, so the jury’s meetings was extremely intensive and sometimes stormy. 

The international jury chaired by Zbigniew Żmudzki decided that the Grand Prix Tourism statuette of 14th FilmAT Festival is going to the series of films „Insiders guide to Riga” produced for RIGA TOURISM DEVELOPMENT BUREAU. 

The national jury chaired by Kuba Sito decided that the best Polish film of the Filmat Festival 2019 and the winner of GRAND PRIX TOURISM is the film „The Last Judgment” promoting the National Museum in Gdańsk. 

Sincere Congratulations to all Winners! 

We could enjoy sweet end of the gala with cakes, decorated with images of both films Grand Prix winners, prepared by the famous Patisserie Olczak and Son. Beautiful and delicious! 

As a goodbye gift all guests recived small pot with rosemary, symbol of charity. It was a present from Sue Ryder Foundation, because documentary about famous British social activist got one of awards. Sue Ryder during WW II was working for Special Operations Executive which was supporting resistance in occupied Europe. Her after war activity focused on help for poor and disabled people, also in Poland. We are proud that this wonderful woman loved Poland and identified with our country.