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Over 2,000 classic films and TV shows from the archives of Poland’s state broadcaster, TVP, are set to be digitally restored and made available online free of charge. The project will be completed over the next four years thanks to €7 million in funding from the European Union.
Documentaries, feature films, TV series and news reporting will be digitised from magnetic and photosensitive tapes and upscaled to HD quality. All materials will also feature captions for those with impaired hearing.
Among the titles included in the project are Incredibly Peaceful Man (Niespotykanie spokojny człowiek) from 1975 by iconic director Stanisław Bareja and 1990’s Escape from the ‘Liberty’ Cinema (Ucieczka z kina “Wolność”) by Wojciech Marczewski.
TVP will also restore The Career of Nikodemus Dyzma (Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy), a comedy television miniseries that aired in 1980, as well as Weekend Stories (Opowieści weekendowe) by renowned director Krzysztof Zanussi.
Aż 2100 archiwalnych produkcji Telewizji Polskiej – zarówno filmy dokumentalne i fabularne, jak i seriale oraz reportaże – zostanie odnowionych cyfrowo, a następnie bezpłatnie udostępnionych w serwisach TVP.https://t.co/qGDe6OHueF
— tvp.info 🇵🇱 (@tvp_info) July 15, 2025
A total of 41.6 million zloty (€9.8 million) will be spent on the restoration project, with close to 80% coming from the EU’s European Funds for Digital Development programme.
“Digital restoration is a technologically advanced process that requires precision, which is why it’s carried out by a team of experienced professionals,” said Ewelina Sapińska from TVP’s Documentation and Programme Collections Centre.
“Each frame of a given broadcast is individually scanned, image and sound reconstructed, and colour corrected. We use top-of-the-line equipment for this purpose and, when processing the materials, we pay particular attention to respecting the creator’s original vision and the integrity of the work,” she added.
TVP owns more than 1.5 million audiovisual programmes, which are a major part of Poland’s cultural heritage. To date, the broadcaster has digitised more than 2,500 archival productions and made them available online free of charge.
Hundreds of classic Polish films have been made available to watch online for free, all with English subtitles.
Among them are works by famed directors Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Kieślowski. The website also features thousands of communist-era newsreels https://t.co/01C99P3rGn
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 18, 2022
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: TVP (screenshot)
Agata Pyka is an Assistant Editor at Notes from Poland. She specialises in Central and Eastern European affairs, cybersecurity, and investigative reporting. She holds a master’s degree in political communication from the University of Amsterdam, and her work has appeared in Euractiv, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), and The European Correspondent, among others.
