The AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL , the first film event in Eastern Europe completely devoted to classic and contemporary American independent works, will take place from October 20 to 24, 2010 in the historic city of Wroclaw, Poland. The Festival is the brainchild of Roman Gutek, a pioneering distributor who has been the prime mover in bringing world cinema to his native Poland in the past two decades.

Roman Gutek has worked as a committed distributor of auteur films in Poland for almost 20 years. He founded Gutek Film (http://www.gutekfilm.com.pl/history) in 1994 and in 2001 launched the Era New Horizons Festival, which has become the most important film event in Poland. Also managing director of the Muranow arthouse cinema in Warsaw (named Best Cinema of the Europa Cinemas Network in 2004), Gutek is spearheading another breakthrough with the launch in October of the AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL, a Deauville Film Festival-inspired American film event in the heart of Eastern Europe.

During the Cannes Film Festival, Gutek found time in his hectic schedule is sit with Dorota Hartwich of the CINEUROPA website (www.cineuropa.org) to discuss how his company has been instrumental in bringing European and world cinema to Poland and in growing the local audience interest in international cinema.