Kujawy Pomorze Film Fund. Good Boy „Dobry chłopiec” Wins Four Awards at the Gdynia Film Festival

Jan Komasa’s thriller, produced in cooperation with the Kujawy Pomorze Film Fund, received the prestigious Audience Award at the 51st Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia.

But this was not the end of the accolades for Komasa’s latest film. Anson Boon, who plays the title character, won the award for Best Actor. The jury of the 51st Polish Feature Film Festival, chaired by Krzysztof Zanussi, also honored the screenwriters of Good Boy, Bartek Bartosik and Naqqash Khalid, as well as editor Agnieszka Glińska.

Good Boy is a thriller about Tommy, a young man involved in a world of drugs and violence. One day, the 19-year-old is kidnapped by a mysterious man who wants to rehabilitate him and turn him into a “good boy.” The cast features major stars. The lead role is played by Anson Boon, whose talent we have seen in productions including 1917 and the miniseries Pistol, about the history of the Sex Pistols. Stephen Graham, known for the series Adolescence and films such as Pirates of the Caribbean and The Irishman, plays Chris, the man who kidnapped Tommy. His wife is played by Andrea Riseborough, who received an Oscar nomination for her performance in To Leslie.

Good Boy was released in Polish cinemas on 6 March. It premiered in the United States on the same day, where it was released under the title Heel. Prestigious American newspapers, including The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, published favorable reviews of Komasa’s film on their websites. The latter, among other things, praised the outstanding acting: “Lively Boon reveals the vulnerability of his brash character with stunning effect – Tommy is a difficult role, but Boon knows how to make it revelatory and gripping. As the perceptive patriarch, Graham is intriguingly far removed from the troubled father he played in Adolescence, while the wonderfully eccentric Riseborough makes excellent use of the rawness of her quiet mother.”

Jan Komasa is the director of, among other films, Suicide Room, Warsaw 44 and Corpus Christi, which was nominated for an Oscar in the Best International Feature Film category. Good Boy, released in 2025, is his second English-language film. His debut in English was the psychological thriller Anniversary, released in 2024 and starring Hollywood stars Diane Lane and Kyle Chandler.

One of the producers of Good Boy is Jerzy Skolimowski, one of Poland’s most distinguished filmmakers. He is a director, screenwriter, actor, poet and painter. In 2022, he received the Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region’s Poli Negri Film Award for lifetime achievement.

Other recipients of the Marshal’s Film Award

The jury awarded the Golden Lions – the main prize of the 51st Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia – to Through the Wall, directed by Maciej Sobieszczański. Sixteen films competed in the main competition.

Dariusz Czołgowski
Department of Promotion

28 September 2026