Agnieszka Holland to Receive Honorary Dragon Award

The Polish master director Agnieszka Holland has played a decisive role in European cinema for more than five decades. In January, she will attend the Göteborg Film Festival to receive the international Honorary Dragon Award. During the festival, her new film Franz, a personal portrait of Franz Kafka, will be screened, alongside a retrospective of her most influential works.

Agnieszka Holland is one of the most distinctive voices in European cinema and one of the most vital filmmakers of our time. With films such as Europa Europa and In Darkness, she has explored historical and contemporary crises through an uncompromising humanist lens. Moving effortlessly between intimate character studies and politically charged narratives, her work is marked by precision, empathy, and fearless artistic integrity.

Throughout her career, Holland has combined artistic power with an unwavering political commitment. Several of her films have been banned, she herself has been arrested, and most recently Green Border sparked political outrage in her home country. These reactions are a direct result of her persistent determination to confront Europe’s darker realities, past and present.

“Agnieszka Holland has repeatedly demonstrated how cinema can be both artistically groundbreaking and deeply rooted in the moral questions of our time,” “To welcome a filmmaker who for decades has explored the many layers of truth - the uncomfortable, the contradictory, and the profoundly human - is particularly meaningful this year, when the festival’s focus is precisely on truth”, says Pia Lundberg, Artistic Director of Göteborg Film Festival.

During the festival, Holland will present her latest film Franz, a personal and playful interpretation of the life and legacy of Czech writer Franz Kafka. The film, Poland’s submission for the Academy Awards and which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, weaves together biographical fragments, fourth-wall breaks, and contemporary reflections in a freely flowing portrait of the man behind one of the most mythologized authorships of the 20th century.

The retrospective will feature several of Holland’s most influential films, including Europa Europa, Green Border, The Secret Garden, Screen Tests, and Liberation.

Agnieszka Holland will receive the Honorary Dragon Award at Stora Teatern on January 30. This marks her return to the Göteborg Film Festival, which she first attended in 1979 at its inaugural edition, as one of the directors behind the opening film Screen Tests.

Franz is distributed by TriArt Film and will have its Swedish theatrical release on March 27.

The 2026 Göteborg Film Festival takes place January 23–February 1. The full programme will be announced on January 7.