Full Breakdown
MDAG 2026 Awards Overview
5/20/2026, 1:15:51 PM
Festival Profile and Context
Founded in 2004, MDAG has become a trans-national platform for documentary cinema, drawing juries of Oscar-nominated filmmakers, critics and human-rights advocates. This year’s program featured ten films in the Polish Competition and a broader international selection, underscoring the festival’s commitment to both regional voices and global issues.
Award-Winning Filmmakers and Jury Members
International winners included Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazic for *To Hold a Mountain* (Grand Prix – Bank Millennium Award) and the duo Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya Akhlaghi for *A Fox Under a Pink Moon* (Special Mention, FIPRESCI, Amnesty International Poland). Polish honorees featured director Michal Marczak (*Closure* – Best Cinematography) and Sara Dosa (*Time and Water* – Best Editing). Jurors comprised Oscar-nominated director Talal Derki, filmmaker Lea Glob, producer Jessica Hargrave, critics Bartolomé Armentano, Igor Anjelkov and Sylwia Szostak, among others.
Award Categories and Winners
- Grand Prix – Bank Millennium Award: *To Hold a Mountain* (Tutorov/Glomazic)
- Special Mention (International): *A Fox Under a Pink Moon* (Oskouei/Akhlaghi)
- Best Cinematography: *Closure* (Michal Marczak)
- Best Editing: *Time and Water* (Sara Dosa) – editors Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput, Mark Harrison
- FIPRESCI Award: *A Fox Under a Pink Moon*
- Amnesty International Poland Award: *A Fox Under a Pink Moon*
- Mayor of Gdynia Award & City of Poznan Freedom Award: *Mariinka* (Pieter-Jan de Pue)
- Best Polish Film: *Candidates of Death* (Maciej Cuske)
- Special Mention (Polish): *Traces* (Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk) – also Smakjam Award for Production
- DOC Award: *Bugboy* (Lucas Paleocrassas)
Local juries in each host city presented additional honors; the Audience Award (Warsaw Documentary Award) and the Onet Big Screen Doc award were slated for later release.
Significance for Documentary Cinema
The selections underscore documentary film’s capacity to engage pressing social debates—refugee crises, climate change, wartime gender-based violence—while offering intimate narratives of family, identity and resilience. By rewarding both technical craftsmanship and thematic depth, MDAG reinforces the genre’s role as a catalyst for public reflection and policy discourse.
Jury Summaries
Jury statements highlighted the films’ ability to merge aesthetic beauty with urgent storytelling. The Grand Prix jury praised *To Hold a Mountain* for its “magical world” and portrayal of familial bonds within a natural landscape. The editing jury described *Time and Water* as an “emotionally resonant message to the future,” intertwining climate history with personal memory. The cinematography jury noted *Closure* balances “an expansive river panorama” with the inner life of a grieving father, linking personal intimacy to nature’s vastness. The DOC Award panel emphasized *Bugboy* as an “inspiring portrait of coming of age” that frames courage as embracing a hostile world.
Verbatim Quotes
- “The film takes us into a magical world – a chosen solitude shared between an aunt and her niece, redrawing for us the beauty of family bonds within an enchanting natural landscape and rural tradition filled with love and patience,” — Grand Prix jury
- “The film awarded today reminds us of one of the most important functions of documentary cinema – its ability to respond to current issues, ask difficult questions, and compel us to reflect on the world we live in.” — FIPRESCI jury
- “Bugboy is an inspiring portrait of coming of age, showing that courage does not lie in the absence of fear of rejection, but in embracing a world that at first glance seems hostile.” — DOC Award jury
- “An emotionally resonant message to the future, shaping memories built by eyes, water and stone into a visual form. Interweaving layers of family heritage and climate history, the film presents glaciers as both forms and characters, shaped by time and by humanity, laced with persistent hope for the power of change.” — Editing award jury
- “Balanced between an expansive river panorama and the inner layers of a grieving father’s mind, the visuals of this film transmit a message tying the intimacy of the father’s beliefs to the vastness of nature and its power.” — Cinematography award jury
Gaps and Upcoming Announcements
The Audience Award (Warsaw Documentary Award) and the Onet Big Screen Doc award remain pending, as do additional prizes from Wroclaw and Katowice. Their outcomes will complete the festival’s final tally.
What’s Next
MDAG will continue online through June 1, after which the remaining audience-chosen honors and local city awards will be disclosed, finalizing the festival’s comprehensive recognition of documentary excellence.
