Overview
Millennium Docs Against Gravity (MDAG) is Poland's largest documentary film festival and the second-largest documentary festival in Europe. Founded in 2004 by Artur Liebhart, who continues to serve as Festival Director, MDAG operates as a multi-city event held simultaneously across seven Polish cities: Warsaw, Wroclaw, Gdynia, Poznan, Katowice, Lodz, and Bydgoszcz. The 22nd edition in 2025 (May 9 to 18 in cinemas, May 20 to June 2 online) attracted a record 181,542 attendees, an increase of more than 16,000 over 2024's 165,255. The 23rd edition is scheduled for May 8 to 17, 2026 in cinemas, with the online segment running May 19 to June 1.
MDAG was officially recognized as an Oscar-qualifying festival in 2024 in the Best Feature Documentary category. The winner of the Grand Prix, the Bank Millennium Award, becomes eligible for Academy Award submission. In 2025, the Grand Prix went to Yintah, which also won the Online Audience Award. In 2026, the Grand Prix was awarded to To Hold a Mountain (dir. Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazic, Serbia/Montenegro), which had previously won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
The festival is also admitted by the European Film Academy to the group of major European film festivals, giving it the right to recommend films for the European Film Awards. In 2026, MDAG introduced the FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix, a new annual award presented at the opening gala to the best documentary of the previous year as selected by international film critics.
Key Sections
- International Competition (Main Competition) - feature documentaries over 45 minutes competing for the Grand Prix, the Bank Millennium Award. Films must have their Polish premiere at the festival.
- Polish Documentary Competition - new Polish nonfiction films
- Special Programs - thematic sections and retrospectives
- Online Program - festival films available online for two weeks following the in-cinema edition
- Local City Awards - awards presented by juries in each festival city outside Warsaw
Submission Details
Submissions are made through Eventival at vp.eventival.com/mdagff/2026. The festival does not use FilmFreeway.
Submission Deadline (2026 Edition):
- January 9, 2026
Entry Fee:
- EUR 20 per film (for the 23rd edition in 2026)
- EUR 15 per film (for the 22nd edition in 2025)
- Fee waivers are available through partnerships. For example, Italian films submitted through Cinecitta are exempt from the admission fee, though the Entry Form must still be completed.
Eligibility:
- Films must have their Polish premiere at the festival
- Films must be over 45 minutes in duration
- Only feature-length documentaries are accepted for competition sections
- Submissions must include an online screener with English subtitles
Contact: submission@againstgravity.pl
What Filmmakers Should Know
Oscar-qualifying status: MDAG became an Oscar-qualifying festival in 2024 for the Best Feature Documentary category. The Grand Prix winner (Bank Millennium Award) becomes eligible for Academy Award submission. This makes MDAG one of a limited number of documentary festivals worldwide with this status, significantly increasing its strategic value for documentary filmmakers aiming for awards recognition.
Multi-city reach: The festival's touring model screens selected films in seven Polish cities simultaneously, providing national reach that most festivals cannot match. In 2025, the in-cinema portion attracted 108,427 attendees across the seven cities, with an additional 73,115 estimated online viewers (43,009 e-tickets sold, multiplied by 1.7 per international standards). This gives selected films exposure to one of Europe's most engaged documentary audiences.
European Film Academy membership: MDAG is admitted to the group of major European film festivals by the European Film Academy, giving it the right to recommend films for the European Film Awards. This provides an additional pathway to awards recognition for selected films.
FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix: Starting in 2026, MDAG hosts a new annual FIPRESCI award presented at the opening gala to the best documentary of the previous year, selected by international film critics. A separate three-person FIPRESCI jury also awards a critics' prize in the Main Competition.
Local city awards: In addition to the main Grand Prix, local juries in each festival city present their own awards: the Lower Silesia Grand Prix (Wroclaw), the Silesian Audience Award (Katowice), the Mayor of Gdynia Award, the City of Poznan Freedom Award, and the Bydgoszcz Art.Doc Award. This means a single film can win multiple awards across different cities.
2026 competition jury: The 2026 Main Competition jury was composed of Oscar-nominated filmmaker Talal Derki (Of Fathers and Sons), Oscar-shortlisted filmmaker Lea Glob (Apolonia, Apolonia), and Oscar-nominated producer Jessica Hargrave (Come See Me in the Good Light). The jury awards the Grand Prix as well as prizes for Best Cinematography and Best Editing.
Online component: The festival's online segment extends the reach of selected films for two weeks after the in-cinema edition. In 2025, 43,009 e-tickets were sold for the online program, reaching audiences outside the seven festival cities and those who cannot attend in person.
Major Awards
- Grand Prix, Bank Millennium Award - top prize in the Main Competition, Oscar-qualifying for Best Feature Documentary
- Special Mention (Main Competition) - jury commendation
- Best Cinematography Award - for outstanding cinematography in a competition film
- Best Editing Award - for outstanding editing in a competition film
- FIPRESCI Award - international critics' prize in the Main Competition
- FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix - annual award for the best documentary of the previous year, presented at the opening gala
- Best Polish Film Award - for the best Polish documentary
- Maciej Szumikowski Award for Best Cinematography in a Polish Film - craft award for Polish films
- Audience Award (Warsaw Documentary Award) - voted by Warsaw audiences
- Online Audience Award - voted by online viewers
- Amnesty International Poland Award - for a film addressing human rights
- Green Warsaw Award - for a film addressing environmental issues
- Arthouse Cinema Association Award - in the Polish Competition
- Lower Silesia Grand Prix (Wroclaw) - local jury award
- Silesian Audience Award (Katowice) - local audience award
- Mayor of Gdynia Award - local jury award
- City of Poznan Freedom Award - local jury award
- Bydgoszcz Art.Doc Award - local jury award
Festival History
MDAG was founded in 2004 by Artur Liebhart, who continues to serve as Festival Director. The festival's multi-city model was established early and has remained central to its identity and audience reach. The festival was the first in Poland to introduce a competition for the Best Feature-Length Documentary, sponsored by Bank Millennium, which has been the titular partner for over 20 years.
The festival has grown from a small documentary event into the largest film festival in Poland by attendance. The 20th edition in 2023 was the most popular film event held in Poland, with 138,000 attendees. By 2025, attendance had grown to 181,542, a record for the festival. The festival's touring model, which brings documentary cinema to seven Polish cities simultaneously, has built an unusually broad national audience for documentary film in Poland.
In 2024, MDAG was officially recognized as an Oscar-qualifying festival in the Best Feature Documentary category. In 2022, the festival was admitted by the European Film Academy to the group of major European film festivals. In 2026, MDAG introduced the FIPRESCI Documentary Grand Prix, a new annual award for the best documentary of the previous year.
The festival is sponsored by Bank Millennium and supported by the Polish Film Institute and partner institutions across the seven host cities.
Past Winners
The Grand Prix, Bank Millennium Award, is the festival's top prize and carries Oscar-qualifying status. The EUR 8,000 prize is awarded by an international jury to the best feature documentary in the Main Competition. MDAG has an extraordinary track record of Grand Prix winners going on to Academy Award recognition.
Recent Grand Prix winners:
- 2026 - To Hold a Mountain (dirs. Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazic, Serbia/Montenegro), which previously won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance
- 2025 - Yintah (dirs. Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michor, Michael Toledano, Canada), which also won the Online Audience Award
- 2024 - No Other Land (dirs. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Palestine/Norway), which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
- 2023 - Apolonia, Apolonia (dir. Lea Glob, Denmark/Poland/France), which was later Oscar-shortlisted
- 2022 - The Pawnshop (dir. Lukasz Kowalski, Poland), which also won the Gdynia Mayor Award and Silesian Audience Award
- 2021 - Flee (dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Denmark/France/Norway/Sweden), nominated for three Academy Awards
- 2019 - Honeyland (dirs. Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov, North Macedonia), the first-ever dual Oscar nominee for Documentary Feature and International Feature
- 2018 - Minding the Gap (dir. Bing Liu, United States), nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
Notable Alumni Films and Where They Ended Up
MDAG's Grand Prix winners have an exceptional downstream trajectory, with multiple films going on to Oscar nominations and wins. The festival's Oscar-qualifying status, granted in 2024, has further increased its strategic value.
- *No Other Land (2024)* - Won the Grand Prix at MDAG 2024. The jury praised its "power in crystallizing grave injustice into a story of friendship." The film then won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 97th Oscars in March 2025, despite initially lacking US distribution.
- *Flee (2021)* - Won the Grand Prix at MDAG 2021, with the jury led by Agnieszka Holland praising it unanimously. The animated documentary was then nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature, and Best International Feature.
- *Honeyland (2019)* - Won the Grand Prix at MDAG 2019 after winning three jury prizes at Sundance. It became the first film ever nominated for both Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature at the Academy Awards.
- *Minding the Gap (2018)* - Won the Grand Prix at MDAG 2018. Hulu acquired distribution rights, and the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It also won a Peabody Award and the New York Film Critics Circle award.
- *5 Broken Cameras (2012)* - Won the Grand Prix at MDAG 2012. The Palestinian-Israeli co-production was then nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
The 2024 Main Competition jury included Oscar-nominated filmmaker Talal Derki and Oscar-shortlisted filmmaker Lea Glob, reflecting the festival's commitment to jury members with Academy Award experience.
Submission Tips Specific to This Festival
MDAG requires films to have their Polish premiere at the festival. This is a hard requirement, not a preference. If your film has already screened publicly in Poland, it is ineligible for competition. Plan your festival circuit accordingly.
The Main Competition accepts only feature-length documentaries over 45 minutes. Short documentaries are not eligible for the main competition sections. Ensure your film meets the minimum duration before submitting.
Submissions are handled through Eventival, not FilmFreeway. The submission portal is at vp.eventival.com/mdagff/2026. The entry fee is EUR 20 per film, with fee waivers available through partnerships (for example, Italian films submitted through Cinecitta are exempt).
The festival values documentaries with strong authorial vision and social relevance. Past winners have addressed topics including forced displacement (No Other Land), refugee experiences (Flee), environmental issues, and human rights. Films that combine cinematic craft with pressing social themes tend to perform well in competition.
The multi-city model means your film screens in seven Polish cities simultaneously. Prepare promotional materials that work across multiple venues. The online component extends reach for two weeks after the cinema edition, so your film will have a long tail of visibility.
Industry Reputation Notes
MDAG is the second-largest documentary festival in Europe by attendance, with 181,542 attendees in 2025. Compared to IDFA in Amsterdam, which attracts approximately 70,000 attendees, MDAG has a significantly larger audience base. However, IDFA maintains a larger industry market and broader international industry presence.
MDAG's Oscar-qualifying status, granted in 2024, places it in a small group of documentary festivals worldwide with this designation. Compared to Hot Docs in Toronto, which is also Oscar-qualifying, MDAG offers a European audience base and a multi-city touring model that Hot Docs cannot match. Hot Docs has a larger industry conference and market, but MDAG's seven-city simultaneous release creates unmatched national reach.
The festival is a founding member of Doc Alliance, a federation of seven European documentary film festivals. This network connects MDAG with partners including Cinéma du Réel (Paris), DOK Leipzig, and Jihlava IDFF. The Doc Alliance selection platform gives films additional digital distribution across the network.
Industry professionals value MDAG for its audience engagement and its growing awards track record. The festival's Grand Prix winners have received five Academy Award nominations and one win in recent years, making it one of the most reliable predictors of Oscar success among documentary festivals.
Watch
See Also
For documentary filmmaking guidance, see Documentary Filmmaking Guide. For Central European film markets, see International Film Markets. To calculate whether festival submission fees are worth it for your budget, use the Festival Entry Fee ROI Calculator.
