WALDEMAR CUDNY University Of Łódź, POland FILM FESTIVALS IN ŁÓDŹ AS A MAIN COMPONENT OF URBAN CULTURAL TOURISM

In the early 19th century Łódź became a huge centre of textile production. However, the transformations in Poland after 1989 led to the decline of this industry. At present the city is looking for new forms of development, such as services, including tourism and culture. One of the most important elements of the cultural function in Łódź are film festivals, based on over 50 year long tradition of film making in this city. The aim of this article is to present the film festivals organized in Łódź, which are a tourist asset and a kind of tourist product (an event). They are at the same time an element of cultural tourism, part of which is event tourism, connected with festivals and film tourism.