98th Academy Awards® FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
in all categories including
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Official selection – Poland
from Academy Award® nominee
Agnieszka Holland

Play the trailer

Synopsis

Award-winning director Agnieszka Holland embarks on her most ambitious project to date: a biopic of the iconic 20th-century Czech writer Franz Kafka. Conceived as a kaleidoscopic mosaic, the film follows the imprint Kafka left on the world from his birth in 19th-century Prague to his death in post-WW1 Vienna. FRANZ gives the audience a brand new perspective on the life of the man behind the literary giant.

Academy and Guild Screenings

LOS ANGELES – December 5, 2025 at 3:00pm
UTA Building, 9336 Civic Center Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Reception with Agnieszka Holland
For further information please contact [email protected]

COPENHAGEN – December 4 at 7:00pm
Grand Teatret, Mikkel Bryggers Gade 8, 1460, København
For further information please contact [email protected]

Upcoming North American screenings:

Screening Date Festival Dates City State Venue Festival
12/12/2025 12/3 – 12/21/2025 Silver Springs MD AFI Silver Springs AFI EU Film Showcase
12/19/2025 AMPAS qualifier NYC NY The Quad The Quad / Landmark
12/19/2025 AMPAS qualifier PHX AZ Mary D Fisher Mary D Fisher
12/19/2025 AMPAS qualifier LA CA Laemmle Monica Laemmle
1/16/2026 AMPAS qualifier San Francisco CA Cinelounge Tiberon Indy
1/5 & 1/9/2026 1/2 - 1/12/2026 Palm Springs CA Venue TBA Palm Springs
1/14 - 1/29/2026 Miami FL Venue TBA Miami Jewish Film Festival
2/18 - 3/15/2026 Atlanta GA Venue TBA Atlanta Jewish Film Festival

Agnieszka Holland

Agnieszka Holland is a Polish film director and scriptwriter, born in Warsaw in 1948. After graduating from FAMU Prague in 1971, she began her film career working as an assistant director for Krzysztof Zanussi and was mentored by Andrzej Wajda. Her visionary and humanistic career in filmmaking has garnered her numerous honours including three Academy Award® nominations for ANGRY HARVEST (1985), EUROPA EUROPA (1990), and IN DARKNESS (2012). Her penultimate film, GREEN BORDER, won the Special Jury Prize in Venice, and was nominated for the European Film Awards in the categories of Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. It also won many awards around the world (including in France, Italy, Morocco, and Turkey) and has been included in the competition sections of film festivals worldwide, including New York and Toronto.

Cast and Crew

CREW

Director
Agnieszka Holland
Scriptwriter
Marek Epstein
Producers
Šárka Cimbalová; Agnieszka Holland; Marlene Film Production
Co-producers
Metro Films — Marcin Wierzchosławski, Alicja Jagodzińska (Poland); X-Filme Creative Pool — Uwe Schott, Jorgo Narjes (Germany);
Funds
Eurimages; Polish Film Institute; Czech audiovisual fund; Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg; Deutscher Filmörderfonds; Prague audiovisual fund; Ústí region; Pilsen region
Co-producers
Barrandov Studio; Telewizja Polska; Czech Television; Canal+; Czech Anglo Productions; NeoSynCon; Bac Films – David Grumbach; Saudade Film; Film Code Production
Partners
Volapuk; Němec a Syn; Bluetech
Cinematographer
Tomasz Naumiuk
Editor
Pavel Hrdlička
Music by
Mary Komasa, Antoni Komasa Łazarkiewicz
Sound
Marek Hart, Michaela Patríková
Production Design
Henrich Boráros
Costumes
Michaela Horáčková Hořejší
Make Up
Gabriela Poláková
Casting
Simone Bär, Alexandra Montag, Anna Slater, Madla Zachariášová
Assistant Director
Jan Menšík
Line Producer
Ondřej Nerud
Executive Producers
Mike Downey, Kevan Van Thompson, Daniel Bergmann, Jeff Field, Emir Külal Haznevi

CAST

Idan Weiss
Franz Kafka
Peter Kurth
Hermann Kafka
Jenovéfa Boková
Milena Jesenská
Ivan Trojan
Siegfried Löwy
Katharina Stark
Ottla Kafka
Sandra Korzeniak
Julie Kafka
Sebastian Schwarz
Max Brod
Aaron Friesz
Oskar Baum
Carol Schuler
Felice Bauer
Gesa Schermuly
Grete Bloch
Josef Trojan
Jizchak Löwy / The Traveler
Jan Budař
The Officer – In the Penal Colony
And many more

About Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a German-language writer from Prague whose imagination changed literature forever. His masterpieces—The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle—capture the essence of modern existence: loneliness, confusion, and the sense of being trapped in a world that makes no sense. 

Kafka worked as an insurance clerk while writing in his spare time. He came from a middle-class Jewish family and had a difficult relationship with his domineering father. He was engaged three times and never married. He died at the age of 40, unaware of how important his work would become.