The foundation stone for the construction of the CAMERIMAGE European Film Centre (ECFC) has been laid in Toruń. Apart from the Polish History Museum, this is the largest cultural investment construction project in Poland. “The cost of the investment is PLN 600 million, including PLN 400 million from the state budget and PLN 200 million donated by the City of Toruń”, reports the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (MKiDN).

The investment is being developed on the initiative of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Piotr Gliński, Mayor of Toruń Michał Zaleski and Marek Żydowicz – director of the Tumult Foundation, organiser of the CAMERIMAGE, the world’s largest festival dedicated to the art of cinematography.

The CAMERIMAGE European Film Centre is intended to fill a gap in Poland’s cultural infrastructure and contribute to the development of the region. A number of buildings serving culture have been constructed in recent years, but none of them meets the standards necessary to host world film premieres and international film art festivals.

The agreement to establish and co-manage a cultural institution called the European Film Centre CAMERIMAGE was signed in September 2019 by the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Culture and National Heritage Piotr Gliński, Mayor of Toruń Michał Zaleski and President of the Tumult Foundation Marek Żydowicz.

The ECFC headquarters is to be a facility that will allow both a large international festival and individual events to be organised at the same time. It will enable educational and artistic activities. It will be a venue for congresses and symposia, world premieres and film reviews, special visual shows using state-of-the-art projection techniques, as well as stage concerts, music and theatre performances or exhibitions.

The centre was designed by the architectural office Baumschlager Eberle Lustenau GmbH. Construction is due to be completed in 2025.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński