Young Movie

An open-air show of animated films by art and computing students from Lublin and Warsaw, about stress, social-media addiction and depression in the teenage years. It stands outdoors beside the Kościuszko Manor House in the UMCS Botanical Garden, and you watch it on your own phone by scanning QR codes, until 31 October 2026. The garden publishes no English text, so the quotation below is our translation of its Polish description.

UMCS Botanical Garden on the exhibition:

The animations are grouped into themed categories such as “Taming Stress”, “Senses and Emotions”, “Addictions and Depression”, “An Addiction Called #Like” and “Sport Is My Life”. They take up the problems that young people face today - addiction (especially to social media), peer violence, a lack of self-acceptance and a distorted self-image, and depression - while pointing to possible ways out: contact with nature, physical activity and care for one’s inner growth.

What to expect

There is no gallery room here. You start each film yourself by scanning a QR code and watch it on your phone screen, standing outside the manor house. The garden does not say how many films there are or how long they run. At the 2024 edition of the series the codes were printed on boards showing stills from the films, according to Polish Radio Lublin; the university says nothing about this year’s layout.

The films were made by students of the UMCS Faculty of Arts in Lublin and of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (PJATK) in Warsaw, and were chosen in a competition. They are not premieres: they were first screened on 9 April 2025 at an open day of the UMCS Faculty of Political Science and Journalism. The outdoor show opened on 1 June 2026, together with two outdoor exhibitions of student sculpture.

Short on time? Start with the three films the jury gave prizes to:

• “Spójrz” (Look), directed by Marta Domżał (PJATK) - first prize.
• “Prawdziwe kolory” (True Colours), directed by Mateusz Cyrankowski (PJATK) - second prize.
• “Bańki (Bubbles)”, directed by Anita Kalińska (UMCS) - third prize, the only one of the three by a Lublin student.

The jury also gave four honourable mentions, all to PJATK students. The curator and artistic supervisor is Joanna Polak, an animation professor at UMCS; Małgorzata Stępnik, also a UMCS professor, oversaw the psychological side.

Where exactly: the garden’s own page puts the show outdoors beside the manor house, so go by that. A May 2026 listing on the student portal Student News placed all three June shows in the Rosarium section, and a July report on the local news site Lublin112 says one stands by the manor and two in the Rosarium. If you find no codes by the porch, walk round the rose garden.

Context

Augmented reality (AR) combines the real world with computer-generated images, usually by laying graphics over the live picture from a camera. The garden does not explain what the AR element consists of here; all it says is that each film opens once you scan its code.

“Young Movie” is the fourth edition of a student series called “Movie”. In 2024 the garden showed student animations called “Freedom Movie” beside the manor house, and in 2025 “60 Fruits Movie”, films about plants in the garden’s collections made for its 60th anniversary, which the university calls the third show of the series. This year the theme moves from plants to mental health, prompted by a 2023-2025 Polish science ministry grant on healthy lifestyles run by four UMCS institutes.

Joanna Polak is an animation director; her 2021 puppet film “Meblościanka” (The Wall Unit) has won festival awards in Poland and abroad. For 15 years she worked with the Borderland centre (Pogranicze) in Sejny, north-eastern Poland, and in 2025 the garden showed her own AR films from that work.

Tickets and time

There is no separate ticket. The show is outdoors, so by the garden’s price list a garden ticket should cover it: 16 PLN standard, 11 PLN reduced, 45 PLN family. The higher prices of 18 PLN and 15 PLN are for entry into the manor house itself.

The university does not say in so many words that the outdoor show is covered by the garden-only ticket; that is our reading of the price list. Children under five and holders of the UMCS Alumni Card get in free, and the price list has no free-admission day.

Garden hours matter, not manor hours. From Tuesday to Friday the manor’s rooms open only 10:00-14:00, but the films are in the open air.

According to the chart on the garden’s opening-hours page, the garden is open daily, 9:00-18:00 in September and 9:00-17:00 in October. The ticket office sells tickets until 17:30. In October, arrive early: a 17:00 closing time does not square with ticket sales until 17:30, and the page does not say which applies.

Bring a charged phone. The garden says only that the films can be watched after scanning the QR codes. It does not say whether an app is needed or whether there is Wi-Fi, so keep your mobile data on.

Allow 30-45 minutes for the films if you want more than the three prize-winners. That is our estimate, since the garden gives neither the number of films nor their length. The whole 21-hectare garden takes two to three hours.

English on site: the garden’s website is in Polish only and says nothing about English subtitles or captions. Most film titles are Polish only. Animation can work without words, but the garden gives no assurance of that here.

Who it is for: parents of teenagers and teachers looking for a way into a conversation about social media, stress and self-esteem; anyone curious about student animation; and anyone visiting the garden anyway. Who can skip it: visitors after a proper indoor exhibition, and anyone who does not want to watch films on a small screen. The films deal with addiction, peer violence and depression, so watch them together with younger children.

What the press says

No English-language coverage was found, and nobody has reviewed the show, as of 23 September 2026. There are two Polish news items, both based on the organisers’ material:

• Student News Lublin (27 May 2026): a listing for the 1 June opening at 13:00 of three shows in the “Master and Student” series, “Young Movie” among them - link .
• Lublin112.pl (18 July 2026, text and photos by Leszek Mikrut): a report on three outdoor shows in the garden, with a photo gallery; its headline promises you cannot miss them on a walk - link .

See also

• Kościuszko Manor House - the venue: a reconstructed manor linked to Tadeusz Kościuszko’s family, with the lime avenue and the Kościuszko Ramparts in the same garden.
• Reminiscences - sculpture by Piotr Zieleniak - outdoor sculpture on the same ticket; Zieleniak also supervised the two student sculpture shows that opened on the same day as “Young Movie”.
• In the Flower Garden - Chodzież porcelain - a show inside the manor house, for anyone who pays the combined-ticket supplement of 2 PLN (4 PLN on a reduced ticket).
• Lublin Village Open-Air Museum - the open-air museum of rural architecture about 1.5 km from the garden; it needs an afternoon of its own.

Opening hours are on the UMCS Botanical Garden’s hours page , prices on its price list , and the full exhibition text with the list of prize-winning films on the exhibition page (all in Polish).

Museum profile: Kościuszko Manor House .