This years film festival will run from the 7th to 23rd August 2026

Screenings of Andrzej Wajda’s films: 14th – 23rd August 2026

Chichester Film Festival

For 15 days each summer, the Chichester International Film Festival brings the best in cinema from the UK and abroad to the south coast of England.

Featuring an outstanding variety of films and talks, including UK premieres and previews, retrospectives on the world’s best filmmakers, treasures from the archives, and an exciting array of special events such as filmmaker Q&A’s (Alec Guinness, Ralph Fiennes, Kathleen Turner, Derek Jacobi for starters), open-air screenings and silent films accompanied by live music.

This renowned Film Festival was launched in 1992 as the flagbearer for the art of film at the Festival of Chichester, a summer programme of the arts in the city. Since then, it has developed into a nationally acclaimed Film Festival with a focus on quality cinema from all over the world.

Andrzej Wajda

A visionary master of world cinema and theatre, he stands as one of the most towering directors in film history, honored with a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award and the Cannes Palme d’Or for Man of Iron. He created timeless masterpieces including Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds, and The Promised Land, while directing genius stage productions that captivated audiences worldwide.

Fueled by profound personal resilience, as the son of a Polish officer murdered in the Katyń massacre, he used his art to champion truth. He bravely backed the anti-communist Solidarity movement, served as a Senator during Poland’s democratic rebirth, and co-founded Kraków’s Manggha Museum. A passionate mentor, he established the renowned Wajda School to inspire future filmmakers, leaving a lasting legacy of artistic courage and cultural triumph.

Featured Films & Talks at Chichester Film Festival 2026:

ASHES AND DIAMONDS | 14th August | 11:00AM | Main Auditorium

In the last days of the Second World War, Maciek, a Polish resistance fighter, is tasked with the assassination of a Communist official. When he meets Krystyna, he is offered a glimpse of a world beyond war and destruction, and questions his assignment. Wajda’s classic drama, which cemented his position as a world-class filmmaker, features an iconic central performance by Cybulski – the ‘Polish James Dean’ – who contributes immeasurably to this probing look at the complex post-war future for a new nation and its people. It’s essential viewing.

MAN OF MARBLE | 16th August | 11:30AM | Lumiere

In the 1970s, young filmmaker Agnieszka investigates the life of a 1950s bricklayer and worker’s hero. When she learns that the facts behind his story were suppressed, she has to decide whether to pursue the truth or not. Man of Marble is a thought-provoking examination of the moral responsibility of an individual and art in challenging dominant ideology, censorship and oppressive authorities. It’s a powerful milestone in Polish cinema.

MICHAEL BROOKE TALK ON WAJDA | 18th August

British film historian, writer and critic Michael Brooke to deliver a talk on Andrzej Wajda. Widely recognised for his authoritative expertise on Eastern European cinema, he is a prominent contributor to the BFI and has produced extensive historical analysis and audio commentaries on Wajda.

To mark the centenary of his birth and ten years after his death, this talk will look back at the astonishing career of the Polish auteur.

AFTERIMAGE | 21st August | 10:30AM | Lumiere

In his final film, Wajda returns to previously explored themes of personal and artistic resistance to an authoritarian state and ideology. Based on the life of avant-garde painter and theorist Władysław Strzemiński, the film chronicles his struggles against expulsion from state institutions, and erasure from a nation’s collective memory, as a result of political and artistic convictions that were at odds with the official Stalinist post-war doctrine.

KATYN | 22nd August | 13:00PM | Lumiere

Wajda focuses on personal stories and a wider human tragedy in this Oscar-nominated film, set against one of the most painful and politically sensitive topics in Polish history: the 1940 massacre of thousands of Polish soldiers and intellectuals in the Katyn forest. A personal project for Wajda, whose father was murdered in the massacre, Katyn poignantly frames historical events through the stories of women looking for the truth about their missing relatives.

KANAL | 23rd August | 20:00PM | Picturedrome, Bognor Regis

A unit of Polish freedom fighters goes underground to escape German troops, in the final stages of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Wajda’s claustrophobic, nightmarish masterpiece employs haunting images to convey their struggle as they journey through the city’s sewers. The film that brought international acclaim for the director, Kanal is based on true events. It is an evocative portrait of the Polish resistance movement and a heartbreaking depiction of strength, duty and hope in the face of insurmountable odds.

LINKS:

Visit the Official Chichester Film Festival Webpage

Andrzej Wajda at Chichester Film Festival

See the Full Film Listings Here

Details of Festival Venues Here

Dates

Tickets go on sale for Members from 10am on Wed 22 July

Tickets go on sale for General Public from midnight on the morning of Sat 25 July