Kujawy Pomorze Film Found. „Skrzyżowanie” wins the Main Award in the Audiodescription of the Year Competition
Dominika Montean-Pańków’s film received the main award in the 2025 Audiodescription of the Year competition. Crossroads was produced in cooperation with our Kujawy Pomorze Film Fund.
This was the first edition of the competition, organized by the De Facto Association and the Accessible Cinema Foundation in partnership with the Pomorskie Film Foundation in Gdynia – producer of the Polish Feature Film Festival. “We want audiodescription to be perceived not only as an accessibility tool, but also as an important element of film art. Behind every audiodescription are its creators, faced with a challenging task – translating images into words. Good audiodescription is a form of translation requiring exceptional sensitivity, knowledge of the language of cinema, a sense of rhythm and language, and responsibility towards the viewer. The competition is intended to draw attention to the field of cinema that is invisible to most viewers – audiodescription – and to recognize the people who create it,” the organizers explain.
The competition recognizes scriptwriters and their consultants. Thirty-seven audiodescriptions qualified for the first stage. In the second stage, the jury selected seven finalists, including Crossroads, directed by Dominika Montean-Pańków and produced in cooperation with our Kujawy Pomorze Film Fund.
The winners were announced on 25 September during the Young Gala of the 51st Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia. Two awards were presented: the Audience Grand Prize (PLN 5,000) and the Jury Distinction (PLN 2,500). “Skrzyżowanie” received the former. The script was written by Alicja Maciejewska, with Magdalena Dudowicz serving as consultant.
The Jury Distinction went to Bartosz Wokan (script) and Magdalena Dudowicz (consultation) for the audiodescription of 13 Days Until Vacation, directed by Bartosz Kowalski.
“It is a great honor that my film “Skrzyżownie” was among the finalists of the first edition of the competition for the best audiodescription of 2025 and received the Audience Grand Prize,” says Dominika Montean-Pańków. “Audiodescription creators must use precise descriptions, make accurate choices about details, convey emotions exceptionally well, and follow the film’s rhythm and style, while at the same time avoiding overwhelming the film with too much information or imposing their own interpretations, and preserving the filmmaker’s intentions. It is truly a difficult task to master all these aspects in order to convey as faithfully as possible the content of a film contained in its rich visual layer.”
Crossroads is Montean-Pańków’s feature directorial debut. It tells the story of 80-year-old Tadeusz, a former hospital department head. The quiet life of the retired doctor is turned upside down by a tragic car accident. He must suddenly embark on one more, perhaps final, struggle: for himself, his dignity and the “peaceful death” he had previously imagined quite differently.
Tadeusz is played by Jan Englert, who made a celebrated return to the big screen after several years. He received the Best Actor award for the role at the 2025 Off Camera International Independent Film Festival in Kraków. That same year, he received the Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region’s Poli Negri Film Award at the Tofifest International Film Festival in Toruń.
“Skrzyżowanie” is a film for people who like to listen and delve into another human being,” Englert says.
Other recipients of the Marshal’s Film Award
The screenplay for “Skrzyżowanie”, written by Montean-Pańków, received the ZAiKS Authors’ Association Award in the Script Pro competition for “a modern take on the conventions of the cinema of moral anxiety.”
Dariusz Czołgowski
Department of Promotion
28 September 2026