NEW PROGRAMME ARS INDEPENDENT FESTIVAL 2025

A twisted love story with a touch of the macabre, daring returns to the world of music videos and student film ROZBIEG. The highlights of the Ars Independent festival programme have been confirmed, and passes are still on sale.

We confirm and announce. Additional events have been added to this year's Ars Independent Festival programme. First up are tried-and-tested Ars classics, namely CHOKED&BLIND by Maciej Gryzełko and KLOPSZTANGA by Paweł Trzepizur, who, as usual, will provide the audience with a solid dose of audiovisual entertainment with a transgressive edge. CHOKED&BLIND. REVELATIONS will follow in the footsteps of the masters of progressive music videos, whose clips provoke with their form and focus on unrestrained authenticity of expression. KLOPSZTANGA 2.0 will select clips and animations that did not make it into the main competition but have been remembered: unconventional, wild, and untameable. We will also be delighted to take a look at the future of Polish cinema, which looks very promising, as we will see during the screening of short films produced by the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School. This year's selection for ROZBIEG – version 2.0 includes, among others, Gracjana Piechula's etude “Honey Bunny”, starring Artur Barciś and Alina Chechelska: a visually stunning story of a mature marriage, told with tenderness and humour.

Fans of unconventional love stories and full-blooded characters should not miss the first film to make it into the Black Horse Film competition. “Paul & Paulette Take a Bath” (dir. Jethro Massey) – a subversive romantic comedy about a young American photographer and a French woman with a penchant for the macabre – will win the hearts of both Wes Anderson fans and French New Wave enthusiasts. The film's director, Jethro Massey, will be a guest at both competition screenings. Zwierz Popkulturalny will moderate the meeting.  

This year's festival programme will feature a special event titled "Film and Dinner.", during which we will watch the film “Boiling Point” (2021, dir. Philip Barantini), and a top chef will create a special menu for the audience. Additionally, we will revisit the creators from the Oneiron circle and the theme of Śnialnia, inviting you to join us at the Piąty Dom for this event.

For more information about the current accompanying events, guests, creators, and artists of this year's AIF, visit https://arsindependent.pl/program

PASSES: EARLY HORSE AND BLACK HORSE

From 11 June until the full festival program is announced you can purchase the Early Horse regular pass for PLN 120 (PLN 96 with the Katowice Resident Card). The Early Horse basic pass includes an ID card entitling you to attend all screenings and festival events (except for the special Film and Dinner event) and a welcome pack containing promotional materials from the Festival and its partners.

A special Patron Pass, called Black Horse, is still available for purchase at a fixed price of PLN 240 for anyone interested in supporting the Festival.. In addition to the benefits included with the basic pass and the satisfaction of being a Festival Patron, you will also receive a black bag featuring with the Festival logo and admission to the Film and Dinner event.

Early Horse and Black Horse passes can be purchased at the Światowid Cinema box office and through  the Światowid Cinema and Ars Independent Festival websites. Additionally, Early Horse passes are available at the Miasto Ogrodów box office and online. The number of passes is limited.

For those who prefere not to buy a ‘pig (or in this case, a horse) in a poke’ and would rather  wait for the full event programme to be announced, a Regular Horse pass will be available for purchase at a price of 150 PLN/120 PLN (with the Katowice Resident Card): These passes can be purchased starting from the day the full festival program is revealed.

The Ars Independent Festival has been taking place since 2011Starting in 2024, it is jointly organized  by the Katowice Miasto Ogrodów cultural institution and the Silesia Film Institution in Katowice. This year's Ars will run from October 7 to 12. The organisers invite you to attend film screenings and events at the following cinemas in Katowice: Światowid Cinema and Kinoteatr Rialto, as well as the venues Piąty Dom and Drzwi Zwane Koniem. The festival will feature four programme sections: film, animation, video games and music videos. In addition, there will be special events and sections, concerts, meetings and discussions with artists.