Audience Award

All the films presented during the Warsaw International Film Festival take part in the Audience Poll for the best film. Before each screening, members of the audience receive a coupon on which they mark the film as “very good”, “good”, “so-so”, “poor”, „bad”.
The coupons are collected after the screening.
The poll results are announced once all the votes have been counted. The winner is the film given the highest marks by audiences. The winning film receives the Audience Award; this is not a cash prize.

The Audience Award is an important indicator for film distributors. For some years now, films chosen by the festival’s audiences have always found Polish distributors and have been shown at cinemas all over the country.

Winners of the Audience Award:

2009

feature films category – ex aequo:
"The Dark House" / „Dom zły” by Wojciech Smarzowski, Poland
"Welcome" by Philippe Lioret, France

documentary films category:
"Defamation" / „Hashmatsa” by Yoav Shamir, Israel / Denmark / Austria / USA

short films category:
"The Pig" / „Grisen” by Dorte W. Hogh, Denmark

2008

feature films category: „Waltz with Bashir” by Ari Folman, Israel / Germany / France

documentary films category:
„Young@Heart” by Stephen Walker, UK

2007

"The Band's Visit" / "Bikur Ha-Tizmoret" by Eran Kolirin, Israel / France / USA

2006

"The Lives of Others" / „Das Leben der Anderen” by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Germany

2005

"Adam's Apples" / „Adams æbler” by Anders Thomas, Denmark

2004

„Control” / „Kontroll” by Nimród Antal, Hungary

2003

“Buddy“ by Morten Tyldum, Norway

2002

"Elling" by Petter Naess, Norway

2001

"Italian for Beginners" / „Italiensk for begyndere” by Lone Scherfig, Denmark / Sweden

2000

"Loners" / "Samotari" by David Ondricek, Czech Republic

1999

"Children of Heaven" / „Bacheha-Ye aseman” by Majid Majidi, Iran

1998

"Life Is Beautiful" / "La vita e bella" by Roberto Benigni, Italy

1997

"The Full Monty" by Peter Cattaneo, UK

1996

"Trainspotting" by Danny Boyle, UK

1995

"Before the Rain" by Milcho Manchevski, Macedonia

1994

"Arizona Dream" by Emir Kusturica, France / USA

1993

"Coffee and Cigarettes (Somewhere in California)" by Jim Jarmusch, USA

1992

"Prospero's Books" by Peter Greenaway, UK

1991

„The Double Life of Veronique” / „La double vie de Veronique” by Krzysztof Kieślowski, France / Poland

1990

"Dead Poets Society" by Peter Weir, USA

1989

"Drowning by Numbers" by Peter Greenaway, UK

1988

“Koyaanisqatsi“ by Godfrey Reggio, USA

1987

"Birdy" by Alan Parker, USA