100 years of Polish animation — from pre-war experiments to the digital revolution — a fascinating journey through the history of Polish animation. Fanatics: The History of Polish Animated Film shows how Polish animation reflected social change and made Poland one of the most recognized voices in world animation.

Through archival materials, iconic scenes and interviews with the legends of the genre, the film traces the evolution of techniques and themes — from the stop-motion puppet films of Władysław Starewicz, whose audiences believed he had actually trained beetles, to the avant-garde experiments of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson, for whom film was an extension of visual poetry.

The breakthrough comes with the manifesto of Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica, announcing the birth of the Polish school of animation. In its wake follow Witold Giersz, painting directly onto celluloid with oil paint, and Jerzy Kucia, creating what critics call animated documentary — films about states of mind and the human condition, recognized at every major festival in the world. Zbigniew Rybczyński — Poland's Oscar winner — spends a year exposing the same negative frame by frame, creating ‘Tango’ — a film about time locked in a single room.

Alongside ambitious auteur cinema, the film reveals the other side of Polish animation — Bolek and Lolek, sold to over eighty countries. And the moment when Tomasz Bagiński's Oscar-nominated ‘The Cathedral’ brought Polish computer animation onto the world stage. Together with a new generation of filmmakers — Izabela Plucińska and Marta Pajek — who give Polish animation a new, intimate dimension.

A chronicle of artistic triumphs and an intimate portrait of a medium that constantly redefined the boundaries of imagination.

Fanatics: The History of Polish Animated Film | Zapaleńcy. Historia Polskiego Filmu Animowanego

Directed by: Marcin Giżycki, Jacek Knopp, Michał Mróz
Production: Kalejdoskop Film
Country: Poland
Year: 2025
Running time: 88 min.
Categry: documentary