The Polish Film Institute has picked Agnieszka Holland‘s Kafka, a non-chronological and playful biopic on iconic Czech writer Franz Kafka, to be Poland’s candidate for the 2026 Oscars in the best international feature category.
In her latest feature, Holland, an Oscar nominee for In Darkness (2011), Europa Europa (1990), and Angry Harvest (1985), combines recreated scenes from Kafka’s life with sequences from modern-day Prague, which show how the master of alienation and angst has been turned into a brand to attract tourists and sell tchotchkes.
Newcomer Idan Weiss plays Kafka. Peter Kurth (Babylon Berlin) plays Kafka’s overbearing father, Carol Schuler his long-suffering partner Felicie Bauer, and Gesa Schermuly and Jenovefa Bokova his romantic interests Grete Bloch and Milena Jesenska.
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Poland has been nominated 13 times for the best international feature Oscar and has won the prize once, for and won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film once, for Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida in 2015.
The Academy will announce the first shortlist of 15 films in contention for the 2026 best international feature Oscar on Dec. 16, 2025. The final nominations will be announced on Jan. 22, 2026. The 98th Academy Awards Ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on March 15, 2026.
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