The world is waking up – starts of the 18th Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival

This year’s edition of the biggest documentary film festival in Poland will be opened by a film about the famous climate activist “I am Greta”. It will also compete for the Millennium Bank Award – Grand Prix, which will be awarded by a jury with Agnieszka Holland. As a long-standing sponsor of the festival Bank Millennium supports initiatives, which reach important social goals. Apart from environmental subjects the festival programme and its accompanying events also emphasise the role of women as well as respect for diversity. The viewers will have an opportunity to see 150 documentary films from around the world. Close to half of them were directed by women.

On 3 September 2021 the 18th edition will start of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity documentary film festival, which has been enjoying the support of Bank Millennium for 16 years. The world is waking up – the motto of this year’s edition of the festival comes from a speech by Greta Thunberg, one of the most important eco-activists and the main character of the festival’s opening film – “I am Greta”. In the Swedish production directed by Nathan Grossman we find out what the famous teenager’s daily life is like and what problems she must face-up to. “I am Greta” will compete in the Main Competition for the Bank Millennium Main Prize – Grand Prix. 14 best documentary films from all over the world have been selected for this year’s competition, created by seven directresses and seven directors. The winner will be chosen by a jury made up of such eminent filmmakers as Agnieszka Holland, Christian Frei and Tomasz Wolski. In all the festival competition juries, which have 24 members altogether, there are 13 women and 11 men. During the festival the viewers will have the opportunity to see close to 150 films, with 45% of them directed by women and 55% by men. Apart from actions towards protection of the planet, the festival programme and its accompanying events also emphasise the role of women as well as respect for diversity.

– Values, which guide the festival, are very dear to Bank Millennium. As an institution of public trust we focus particular attention on having the initiatives we support forward important social goals – said Iwona Jarzębska, Director of the Public Relations Department of Bank Millennium. – The idea of protection of the natural environment and climate has been accompanying Bank Millennium Group for a long time now. We do realise that apart from life and health protection, climate change is one of the most defining challenges of this century and requires urgent and unprecedented actions. For a decade now we have been monitoring and reporting data regarding our emissions of greenhouse gases and are gradually working on reducing them. It is worth emphasising that historically the exposure of Bank Millennium in financing the coal mining and coal-fired power generation sector was significantly lower than the average for the banking sector – she added.

The aspect of actions undertaken by the bank for sustainable development is also raised by the spot prepared by the bank, which will be presented before the film shows at the festival. It is also available on the YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/jixbCGhtfio. Bank Millennium’s YouTube channel will also show the bank’s employees – festival fans, inviting to this year’s edition. The material will have its first airing at the galas inaugurating the festival in particular cities on 2 September 2021.

This year’s edition of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival will again be in hybrid format, as was the case last year. On 3-12 September in seven Polish cities (Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Lublin and Bydgoszcz) and then on 16 September – 3 October online on the festival’s platform mdag.pl. Additional as part of the Weekend with the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival event selected films will be shown in 27 cities in Poland. Last year’s edition of the festival had a total audience of more than 170,000, thus becoming the biggest film festival organised in Poland. Bank Millennium has been a sponsor of Millennium Docs Against Gravity since 2006. In 2016 it became the naming rights sponsor of this event.

Detailed information about the festival as well as accompanying events is available on: mdag.pl.

More about the bank’s activity in sustainable development on: bankmillennium.pl/o-banku/esg.

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Bank Millennium