Politics - Film Industry Watch https://filmindustrywatch.org Exposing the shell games of the film industry - we won't let them hide. Fri, 07 Mar 2025 15:43:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://filmindustrywatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Favicon.png Politics - Film Industry Watch https://filmindustrywatch.org 32 32 POLAND: A Success Story – Polish Film Institute Falling Into Ruin, Corrupted Head Fired https://filmindustrywatch.org/poland-polish-film-institute-falling-into-ruin/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=poland-polish-film-institute-falling-into-ruin https://filmindustrywatch.org/poland-polish-film-institute-falling-into-ruin/#respond Sun, 04 Aug 2024 12:16:36 +0000 https://filmindustrywatch.org/?p=6437 Thanks to readers contribution, we’re bringing you a success story from Poland, where the local filmmakers were able to bring about the replacement of an allegedly corrupt head of the Polish Institute, appointed by the previous anti liberal and anti democratic government. Below are translations of articles published in the Polish media. The situation in […]

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]]> Thanks to readers contribution, we’re bringing you a success story from Poland, where the local filmmakers were able to bring about the replacement of an allegedly corrupt head of the Polish Institute, appointed by the previous anti liberal and anti democratic government.

Below are translations of articles published in the Polish media. The situation in Poland was similar to the one we’ve recently reported concerning the Israeli Film Funds where heads of two of the funds have been in power for more than 20 years, with dozens of instances of alleged corruption and nepotism have been reported over the years, including an allegedly corrupted relationship with political officials. However, unlike in Israel, the calls of the Polish filmmakers resulted eventually with the replacement of the head of the Polish Film Institute. The story is detailed below.

“Several thousand people have signed a letter concerning the Polish Film Institute. People of culture are demanding that the Minister of Culture dismiss the director of the Polish Film Institute, Robert Śmigulski. The authors of the letter claim that Śmigulski used censorship and exerted pressure on creators — reports “Gazeta Wyborcza”.

Radosław Śmigulski has been the head of the Polish Film Institute since 2017. He previously worked with Przemysław Wipler (president of the “Republikanie” Association, previously a politician of the Congress of the New Right and KORWiN parties), and also served as president of Totalizator Sportowy. He was appointed director of the Polish Film Institute in place of Magdalena Sroka, whom, as “Wyborcza” recalls, the PiS government’s culture minister, Piotr Gliński, wanted to remove from her position. In 2022, Śmigulski was elected for another term, which is to last until 2027.

Several thousand people oppose this: directors, screenwriters, actors. They wrote a letter to the Minister of Culture Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, in which they ask for “urgent intervention in the matter of the collapse of the Polish Film Institute”. The document was signed by, among others, the Wajda Studio and School, Women of Film and the Trade Union of Polish Directors. According to unofficial information, in recent days the Polish Film Association has added its signature (initially “GW” reported that the president Jacek Bromski opposed it , which the SFP denied in a statement on Facebook).

The signatories to the letter state that in 2017 the previous director was forced to resign from her position, and Śmigulski was appointed to her position. “Under the domineering rule of Radosław Śmigulski, PISF has completely ceased to fulfill its fundamental tasks,” they write. They accuse the PISF director of, among other things, destroying the organizational structure of the institute, long-term fulfillment of the political agenda of an undemocratic political camp, using censorship, actions bearing the signs of mobbing, and destroying control mechanisms.”

The article announcing the firing:

“Publicly, filmmakers spoke about Radosław Śmigulski either well or not at all. Many stories were never told.

I must admit that I write this with undisguised satisfaction: Radosław Śmigulski has been dismissed from his position as director of the Polish Film Institute . This information was announced at a conference on Thursday by the Minister of Culture, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz. This is great news for many Polish filmmakers, for whom the last few years have been associated with constant fear.”


SOURCES:


https://kultura.onet.pl/film/wiadomosci/apel-do-ministra-sienkiewicza-w-sprawie-pisf-popada-w-ruine/t1zpy7v

https://wyborcza.pl/7,101707,30878413,arogancja-i-buta-na-szczescie-robert-smigulski-nie-bedzie-juz.html

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