Bursztynowe Lwy (Amber Lions) for The House of Good. Smarzowski’s Film Was a Box-Office Hit

The most talked-about Polish film of recent months has received another award. The House of Good was made with the support of our Kujawy Pomorze Film Fund.

The first awards were presented at the 51st Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia. The winners were announced on Friday (25 September) during the Young Gala, held ahead of the main ceremony scheduled for Saturday evening.

One of the non-competition awards presented annually in Gdynia is the Amber Lions. The award is presented by the Polish Cinema Association to the creators of the Polish film that attracted the largest cinema audience during the previous season. The winners receive a statuette and commemorative diplomas.

This year, the Amber Lions went to the team behind The House of Good. Wojciech Smarzowski’s acclaimed film was made with the support of our Kujawy Pomorze Film Fund. The production was handled by Bydgoszcz-based Lucky Bob, headed by Wojciech Gostomczyk, who accepted the statuette at the Young Gala.

Despite its difficult subject matter – domestic violence – the film became a major box-office hit, attracting nearly 2.5 million viewers to cinemas. It was also recognized for its artistic achievements, receiving five Polish Film Awards, the “Polish Oscars” known as the Eagles, in 2026. These included all the major categories: it was named the best film of the past year; Smarzowski received the Eagle for directing; Agata Turkot and Tomasz Schuchardt were honored for their leading acting performances; and Mikołaj Trzaska received the award for music.

At the beginning of July, The House of Good won the Polish Films Competition at the Tofifest International Film Festival in Toruń, with the winner selected by the audience. “I don’t make films for awards, but for viewers. That is why audience awards will always be the most important to me. Thank you very much for this one. Since filmmaking is a collective effort, I would like to thank everyone I had the pleasure of working with on The House of Good: the actors, crew, co-producers, producers and partners,” Smarzowski wrote to the audience at the time.

At the end of January, Smarzowski’s film debuted on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming platform. It has been available on HBO Max since July.

Last October, Wojciech Smarzowski received the Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region’s Poli Negri Film Award.

Dariusz Czołgowski
Department of Promotion

26 September 2026