The First New York Polish Film Festival was held May 5-11.

The festival's goal was to present and promote Polish and European Cinema in New York. The event was held under the honorary patronage of the Polish Ministry of Culture and the Polish Consulate General in New York.

The festival, which may become an annual cultural event in New York, included seven premieres of the latest Polish productions as well as co-productions, a retrospective, documentaries and short films by Polish filmmakers and promising film students -all in all more than 20 films. It started with the opening night at the Directors Guild Theater as a Polish nominee celebration. It presented Julia Walking Home (The Healer) directed by Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland, and this year's short-documentary Oscar nominee, The Children of Leningradzky by Hanna Polak and Andrzej Celiński. There was also a short film Fallen Art by Oscar-nominated director Tomasz Bagiński which had just been awarded at the Los Angeles Animated Film Festival. Among the presented premieres was also Ono by Małgorzata Szumowska, which straight from New York flew to the Cannes Film Festival. Among the guests of the Festival were Hanna Polak and actress Katarzyna Figura who flew in for the screenings of her two films: Żurek by Ryszard Brylski and Ubu the King by Piotr Szulkin. Although not commercial productions, they were already recognized by the audience in America-Żurek had scored a top prize at the recent Los Angeles Polish Film Festival with a jury composed of Oscar Academy critics. "I think this is a very important event and I hope in the future it will eventually reach a wider American audience," said the actress after the screenings in New York.

The NYPFF presented, for the first time ever in America, a retrospective of the outstanding Polish screen legend, actress Elżbieta Czyżewska. She was seen performing in films directed by such distinguished directors as Andrzej Wajda, Wojciech Has and Jerzy Skolimowski. Czyżewska, who has been living in New York since 1968, received during the opening gala a special medal of merit granted by Minister of Culture Waldemar Dąbrowski for her contribution to the Polish culture. The student etudes made with Czyżewska at the Łódź Film School in the early 1960s and never before shown publicly, had their premiere at the festival as well. For the closing of the Festival, the film Warsaw, winner of the Best Movie Award at the Gdynia Polish Film Festival in 2003, was presented by its creator, director Dariusz Gajewski.

The driving force behind the festival was Hanna Kosińska-Hartowicz, a long-time assistant director back in Poland to Oscar winning director Andrzej Wajda. She came to NYC in the 80s and said that had been dreaming about organizing such an event here ever since. Now she runs HankaHartowicz Production FILMART which together with Film Polski Agency co-produced the event. The festival's honorary board of directors also included Holland, cinematographer Ryszard Horowitz and graphic artist Rafał Olbiński. According to Hartowicz, an average American would be familiar with the works of such renowned Polish directors as Wajda, Krzysztof Kieślowski or Roman Polanski from the famous Łódź Film School. But the representatives of the new generation of Polish filmmakers remain virtually unknown. Now with the launching of the New York Polish Film Festival its organizers hope it will hold a permanent spot on New York's cultural map.