Film Script Open Group
Group Mentor: Jagoda Szelc
The Film Spring Open Foundation invites you to take part in the work of the Film Script Open screenwriting group, mentored by Jagoda Szelc – a film and theatre director, screenwriter, lecturer, and one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Polish cinema.
Film Script Open is designed for those who want to think of a screenplay not only as a text, but also as the living structure of a future film – a space for artistic, dramaturgical, and directorial decisions. During the group sessions, participants will develop their own fiction film ideas, confront them with the mentor’s perspective, and learn how to consciously build stories, characters, scenes, and dramatic tension.
Jagoda Szelc will share with participants her creative experience and practical workshop knowledge, covering both screenwriting and directorial thinking: the relationship between text and image, rhythm, actors, casting, and the film crew. The meetings will offer an opportunity to discuss how intuition, observation, and personal impulses can be shaped into material that may become the basis for a short or feature-length film.
We invite those who wish to develop treatments for fiction films as part of the Film Spring Open Workshops in Kraków to apply. The group work under Jagoda Szelc’s guidance will focus on deepening projects, refining their form, and searching for an individual method of working on a screenplay.
I invite everyone who wants to develop their own methodology for working on a screenplay.
This course is dedicated to those who want to expand their field of inspiration.
Join us!
Jagoda Szelc
Group members will work on developing their original screenwriting ideas. Projects may concern both short and feature-length films. The group may include a maximum of 30 people: 8 participants whose texts will be discussed during the meetings, and 20 auditors.
Those selected on the basis of previously submitted treatments will develop their screenplays in dialogue with the mentor and the other group participants. The collaborative work will include analysis of dramaturgical assumptions, scene construction, relationships between characters, the language of film, and the directorial potential of individual projects. The workshop process will be complemented by lectures from outstanding specialists, broadening participants’ perspectives on various areas of contemporary filmmaking practice.
Those interested in joining the group are asked to submit a treatment for a fiction film – either short or feature-length – of no more than 2 pages to: biuro@filmspringopen.eu. The application deadline is 20 September 2026.
Jagoda Szelc
Film and theatre director, screenwriter. In 2006, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. In 2004, she was a scholarship holder at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and in 2012 she received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture. In 2018, she graduated with distinction from the Directing Department of the Łódź Film School.
Her films have been screened at festivals such as the Berlinale, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Hot Docs, Cannes Short Film Corner, New Horizons, Brooklyn Film Festival, and many others. In 2017, she made her feature debut with “Tower. A Bright Day”, which received the awards for Best Debut and Best Screenplay at the 42nd Polish Film Festival, as well as many other international awards. The film was screened at the Berlinale in the prestigious Forum section.
In 2018, Jagoda Szelc was awarded the Polityka Passport. That same year, she completed her second feature film, “Monument”, which had its international premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival.
Jagoda teaches Film Set Practice and Working with the Camera at the AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Wrocław.
According to the weekly magazine Polityka, her theatre production “Maszyna” was one of the 10 best performances of 2021. It won the Audience Award at the Interpretations Festival. She created her second production, “Uśmiechnięty”, at Nowy Teatr in Warsaw. In 2026, at the Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw, she directed the widely discussed “Muszenie.”
The series she directed, “Mothers of Penguins” which premiered in November 2024, was one of the most-watched series of 2024.
She is currently preparing to adapt Małgorzata Lebda’s acclaimed novel “Łakome” for the screen. Filming is scheduled to take place in 2027.
in English 
in French 
in German 