Warsaw Cinemas Guide: Kinoteka, Iluzjon and Where to Watch

Warsaw's cinema culture runs from palace-screen classics to the national film archive. Here is where to watch, verified from the cinemas themselves.

Kinoteka - cinema in the Palace of Culture

Kinoteka continues the tradition of three cinemas: Młoda Gwardia and Przyjaźń, opened in 1955 together with the Palace of Culture and Science, and the unique Kino Dobrych Filmów Wiedza, created in 1960. More than 8.3 million viewers have watched a film at Kinoteka, which also hosts conferences, concerts and its open-air Kino Zachodzącego Słońca (Cinema of the Setting Sun) cycle launched in 2023.

Kino Iluzjon - the archive cinema

Run by the National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute (FINA), Kino Iluzjon screens classics and curated cycles: a monthly Filmweb audience vote, the Iluzjonowy Klub Filmowy film club now in its sixth season, and screenings from the Lista Polskiego Dziedzictwa Filmowego, the Polish Film Heritage List FINA launched in 2025 for its 70th anniversary. The box office opens Monday-Friday 14:00-20:30 and on weekends an hour before the first screening. Iluzjon also programmes themed nights such as the Mroczne taśmy Halloween screenings of Polish genre cinema on 31 October.

Multiplexes

For mainstream releases, Multikino at Złote Tarasy runs eight cinema halls under the centre's glass roof, open daily until the last screening. See also the Fotoplastikon, the city's 1905 stereoscopic peephole theatre, for cinema's prehistory.