The annual Polish Film Festival returns for an extra special 10th birthday edition, from 8-22 March 2012. Bringing together the leading lights of Polish Cinema, the festival will offer internationally acclaimed titles of the last 12 months including debut filmmakers, new works from illustrious auteurs, award-winning screen performances, Oscar nominees and exciting collaborations with visual artists and musical icons. And it’s all on our doorstep! Marvellous!

It all kicks off with a special gala screening of Malgorzata Szumowska’s stunning new film, Elles, starring Juliette Binoche, presented by Szumowska herself at Curzon Soho on 8th March. The award-winning 33 Scenes From Life director’s new film follows Anne (Binoche), a wealthy Paris-based mother of two and investigative journalist, and her meetings with two fiercely independent young women whilst researching a piece about student prostitution. Juliette Binoche can usually be relied upon to be relentlessly charming in basically everything, and seeing as it’s not out in the UK till late April, at the very least you’ll feel like you’re LIVING IN THE FUTURE.

Over the two week festival there’s loads and loads of stuff to choose from – new releases such as Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness and Courage – a new take on the Cain And Abel story, and classic Polish epics as chosen by the very finest in Polish film-making: screenings of A Short Film About Killing, Article Zero, Ashes and Diamonds, Chips, Kanal, Knife in the Water and more. There are countless little screenings dotted across the finest venues in London town (and by that we mean the incomparable Prince Charles Cinema, The Roxy Bar and Screen, The Curzon and Riverside Studios, champions one and all).

There will also be events at the Tate Modern and The National Gallery exploring the link between film-making and visual arts; presenting documentaries, exhibitions and installations in what promises to be a “unique digital film tapestry”. We’re not completely sure what that means either, but it sounds damn exciting all the same.

If your Belfast or Edinburgh-based it’s not quite as exciting, sadly, but you can still expect to see exclusive pre-release screenings of films such as In Darkness, Suicide Room, The Mole and Courage.

Anything going on you think we should know about? Get in touch and we’ll promote the Polish bananas out of it. Email [email protected] and let’s make sure Mondays continue to be a thing of beauty.