Film Fund: Crossroads Director Wins Award at the Tirana Festival
Dominika Montean-Pańków received the Best Director Award at the Tirana European Youth Film Festival. Her film Crossroads was produced in cooperation with the Kujawy Pomorze Film Fund.
The Tirana European Youth Film Festival (TEYFF) focuses on emerging European cinema. Held in the Albanian capital since 2023, it showcases films made by young and debut filmmakers from across Europe. The festival’s fourth edition concluded on Sunday, 7 June.
Dominika Montean-Pańków returned from Tirana with the Best Director Award for Crossroads, her feature-film directorial debut. The film tells the story of Tadeusz, an 80-year-old retired hospital chief physician whose peaceful retirement is shattered by a tragic car accident. Forced to confront the consequences of the event, he embarks on what may be his final struggle: a fight for himself, his dignity, and the “peaceful death” he had once imagined very differently.
Tadeusz is portrayed—brilliantly—by Jan Englert, who made a remarkable return to the big screen after several years away. For this role, he received the Best Actor Award at the International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Camera in 2025. The same year, he was honored with the Pola Negri Film Award of the Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region at the Tofifest International Film Festival. “Crossroads is a film for people who enjoy listening and exploring the depth of another human being,” says Jan Englert.
The cast of Crossroads also includes Anna Romantowska, Michał Czernecki, Aleksandra Popławska, Martyna Byczkowska, and Daniel Namiotko. The film was produced in cooperation with the Kujawy Pomorze Film Fund and premiered in October 2024.
Dominika Montean-Pańków graduated in English Philology from Jagiellonian University and in Film Directing from the Faculty of Radio and Television at University of Silesia in Katowice. In 2025, she earned a doctoral degree in the arts, specializing in film and theatre arts, from the Łódź Film School. She currently lectures at the Warsaw Film School.
Her screenplay for Crossroads received the ZAiKS Association Award in the Script Pro screenwriting competition for its “modern take on the cinema of moral anxiety tradition.”
Dariusz Czołgowski
Department of Promotion
9 June 2026
-
- Kadr z filmu „Skrzyżowanie”, fot. materiały prasowe
-
- Kadr z filmu „Skrzyżowanie”, fot. materiały prasowe
