The festival of American cinema in Wroclaw is coming to an end. Winners of the 8th American Film Festival were announced at today's closing gala.

Traditionally, the audience was the jury of the AFF, by voting for their favorite films. Of the 13 films in the Spectrum section, the vote winner was John Carroll Lynch's Lucky, with the final role of Harry Dean Stanton, who previously starred in Twin Peaks and Paris, Texas. He plays a loner seeking answers to the meaning of the passage of time and gets help from a gaggle of stars, including David Lynch.

Of the 10 documentaries in the American Docs section, audience members chose The Work by Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous. The film is a visit to one of the worst places in the world, but, at the same time, it works as a kind of unusual therapy. We watch a group of people who let themselves get locked up twice a year in the notorious Folsom prison.

The winning films received prizes of $10,000 (feature) and $5,000 (documentary), funded by BNY Mellon.

This year, for the first time in AFF history, there was a new section called the Ale Kino+ Competition. A jury selected from the AFF’s most loyal viewers chose 3 out of 10 films, which will be shown on the Ale Kino+ cable channel in the coming months.

Ale Kino+ Competition Winners:

Alex Ross Perry's  Golden Exit - "For showing the ordinary lives of ordinary people in an extremely melancholic, nostalgic and emotional way."

Eliza Hittman’s  Beach Rats - "For subtle and empathic themes of adolescence and the discovery of one's sexuality."

Onur Tukel’s  The Misogynists - "For a bold, ironic and disturbingly current socio-political diagnosis that evokes laughter, trepidation and sorrow all at the same time."

We look forward to seeing you at the 9th American Film Festival next year!