Studia Filmoznawcze Tom 45 (2023) Escape from the periphery. World-system of cinema and Polish film Abstract The main aim of this text is to outline the possibilities of applying Immanuel Wallerstein’s world-systems theory to the analysis of cinema. Concepts developed by Wallerstein, especially the notion of the relationship between the core and the periphery of international political-economic systems, can help in understanding the hegemony of Hollywood cinema in the global circulation of film content, as well as the positions smaller film industries occupy in relation to it. The assumptions of this theory will be tested using the example of the cinema of Central and Eastern Europe in recent decades, allowing for the determination of its relative hierarchy in the global chain of production and consumption of audiovisual content. Special attention has been paid to Poland, presented as a model example of a local film industry attempting to emerge from the peripheral position it occupied after the political transformation of 1989. Keywords world-systems, Hollywood, Polish cinema, Central and Eastern Europe Ucieczka z peryferiów. Filmowy system-świat i polskie kino https://doi.org/10.19195/0860-116X.45.1 Miłosz Stelmach ORCID: 0000-0003-4004-7121 Uniwersytet Jagielloński © Autor, 2023. Tekst opublikowany w otwartym dostępie przez Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego i Wydawnictwo „Szermierz” sp. z o.o., udostępniony na licencji Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa 4.0 (CC BY 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.pl.