We are very happy to announce that the world premiere for Ania Winiarska’s feature film Good Girls will take place in the main competition of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival 2026.
Good Girls takes us inside a correctional centre for teenage girls in Łódź, Poland, where the girls are taught to become “good citizens” under strict conservative rules. Phones, freedom, and privacy are taken away and are replaced by discipline, constant surveillance, and lessons in cooking, sewing and religion. Some girls end up here for running from abuse, others for skipping school, drinking, dating, or simply rebelling. Regardless of background – in the centre they are all considered as outcasts and treated as such. Through the girls’ eyes, the film reveals a microcosm where identity, faith, and obedience collide, reflecting the wider pressures placed on young women in contemporary Poland.
Read the interview with director Ania Winiarska in Variety: ‘Good Girls’ Director on Life in Girls’ Correctional Center in Poland: ‘It Damages You Even More’
Good Girls is produced by Melissa Lindgren / Story in co-production with Film i Väst and Tekele Productions, with associate producers Ström Pictures and UNI-SOLO Studio, and with support from the Swedish Film Institute, the Finnish Film Foundation, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, the Creative Europe Media Programme and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
October 28, 2026