Andrzej Wajda

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Andrzej Witold Wajda (6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director.

Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "Polish Film School".

He was known especially for his trilogy of war films consisting of A Generation (1954), Kanal (1956) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958).He is considered one of the world's most renowned filmmakers whose works chronicled his native country's political and social evolution and dealt with the myths of Polish national identity offering insightful analyses of the universal element of the Polish experience - the struggle to maintain dignity under the most trying circumstances. Four of his films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: The Promised Land (1975), The Maids of Wilko (1979), Man of Iron (1981) and Katyn (2007).

Early life

Wajda was born in Suwałki, the son of Aniela (née Białowąs), a school teacher, and Jakub Wajda, an army officer. Wajda's father was murdered by the Soviets in 1940 in what came to be known as the Katyn massacre. In 1942, he joined the Polish resistance and served in the Home Army. After the war, he studied to be a painter at Kraków's Academy of Fine Arts before entering the Łódź Film School, where many famous Polish directors, such as Roman Polanski, studied.

Personal life and death

Wajda was married four times. His third wife was actress Beata Tyszkiewicz with whom he had a daughter, Karolina (born 1967). His fourth wife was the theatre costume designer and actress Krystyna Zachwatowicz.

In September 2009, Wajda called for the release of director Roman Polanski after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.

Wajda died in Warsaw on 9 October 2016 at the age of 90 from pulmonary failure. He was buried at Salwator Cemetery in Kraków.

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Early career

Wajda had the opportunity to direct his own film following Wajda's apprenticeship to director Aleksander Ford. Generation (1955) was his first big film. Wajda began his career as a director in theatre, including Michael V. Gazzo's A Hatful of Rain (1959), Hamlet (1960), and Two for William Gibson's Seesaw (1963). Wajda made two more successful films, one of which was later on the A Generation: Kana (1957) (Special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1957, shared with Bergman's The Seventh Seal) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958) with Zbigniew Cybulski.

Wajda, although able to produce standard commercial fare (often dismissed as "trivial" by analysts, was more interested in works of allegory and symbolism, as well as certain symbols (such as lighting a glass of wine, representing youthful imagination that was stifled by the war) recur in his films. Lotna (1959) is full of bizarre and symbolic scenes, but he did manage to explore other genres, including music by Krzysztof Komeda, starring Roman Polanski and Jerzy Skolimowski (who was also a co-script writer) in the episodes. Samson (1961), then Wajda's story of Jacob, a Jewish boy who wants to escape during Poland's Nazi occupation. The Ashes (1965), based on the Polish writer Stefan eromski's book, was produced in Wajda, Czecholski's book, and several films have been shot in other countries: Love at Twenty (1962), Gates To Paradise (1968), Love at Twenty (1962).

Cybulski was killed in a train accident in 1967, whereupon the director expressed his sadness with Everything for Sale (1968), one of his most personal films, used the technique of a film-within-a-film to tell the tale of a film maker's life and work. He produced an ironic satire Hunting Flies in the year following, with Janusz Góuchocki's script and a short television film called Przek'adaniec based on Stanis' screenplay.

Career after 1990

Andrzej Wajda was honoured by the European Film Awards in 1990 for his lifetime work, only the third director to be honoured, after Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman. He was elected senator and then appointed artistic director of Warsaw's Teatr Powszechny in the early 1990s. In The Crowned-Eagle Ring (1993) and Holy Week (1995), he continued to film sets during World War II, including Korczak (1990), a tale about a Jewish-Polish doctor who cares for orphanage children. Wajda performed his own film adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot in the film Nastasja, starring Japanese actor Tamasobando in the dual role of Prince Mishkin and Nastasja in 1994. Pawe Edelman, the film's cinematographer, went on to become one of Wajda's finest collaborators, was the film's cinematographer. With Miss Nobody, a coming-of-age drama that delves into the darker and more spiritual facets of a girl's friendship, the director took a different path in 1996. Wajda Film Pan Tadeusz, based on the epic poem of Polish 19th-century romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, was released in 1999.

Wajda was given an honorary Oscar at the 2000 Academy Academy Awards for his contributions to world cinema; he later donated the award to Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Wajda directed The Revenge, a film adaptation of his 1980s comedy theatre production, starring Roman Polanski in one of the main roles. In February 2006, Wajda was named an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival. Katyn was released in 2007, as part of a well-received film about the Katyn massacre, in which Wajda's father was assassinated; the director also showed the difficult situation of those who are waiting for their relatives (mothers, husbands, and children). In 2008, the film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

With Sweet Rush (2009), Wajda created a central role. It is based on a short Jarosaw Iwaszkiewicz book. Edward Kosiski, Janda's husband, a cinematographer, and a long-time Wajda friend and coworker who died of cancer the same year. At the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival, Alfred Bauer Prize was given to Wajda for this film. During the 2009 European Film Awards, he was awarded the Prix FIPRESCI. Wales is a republic in Wales. Man of Hope (Wasa). The original Czowiek znadziei) Wajda's biography Lech Wajda, based on a script by Janusz Glowacki and starring Robert Wizner in the title role, had its world premiere at the 2013 Venice International Film Festival. Bogus, a polish avant-garde painter, appeared in the 2016 Afterimage (Powidoki), his last film.

In Kraków, Wajda established The Japanese Centre of Art and Technology in 1994. With Polish filmmaker Wojciech Marczewski, he founded and managed his own film school in 2002. Different film courses run by well-known European film makers enroll students of Wajda School.

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Awards and honours

• 2012: Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary;
• 2011: Order of the White Eagle (the highest Polish distinction), Commander of the Order of Three Stars (Latvia);
• 2010: Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation, Order of Danica Hrvatska (Croatia);
• 2008: Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (Ukraine), Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana (Estonia);
• 2007: Nomination for an Academy Award for Katyń;
• 2006: Order for Merits to Lithuania;
• 2006: Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival;
• 2005: Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis;
• 2001: Commander's Cross of Legion d'Honneur of the French Republic, Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Doctor Honoris Causa of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography;
• 2000: Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences;
• 2000: Doctor Honoris Causa of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic;
• 1999: Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Freedom Award for film-making and for "unparalleled commitment to freedom" at the Freedom Film Festival in Berlin, the Crystal Iris for life achievement at the National Film Festival in Brussels;
• 1997: Praemium Imperiale Award of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Art, Silver Bear for life achievement and, specifically, for Holy Week, at the 46th Berlin Film Festival (1996); Best Director Award for Miss Nobody at the 13th Festroia International Film Festival, Portugal;
• 1997: Honourable Mention at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival for Miss Nobody;
• 1996: Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival for Wielki tydzień;
• 1995: Order of the Rising Sun (Japan), Doctor Honoris Causa of Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, Witkacy Prize - Critics' Circle Award of the Polish ITI Centre for the promotion of the Polish theatre abroad and Doctor Honoris Causa of the Lumière University Lyon 2 in Lyon, France;
• 1994: Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France);
• 1990: European Felix Award for life achievement and an outstanding achievement and artistic conduct at the Cannes International Film Festival;
• 1989: Doctor Honoris Causa of the Jagiellonian University;
• 1988: Nomination for the Golden Bear at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival for Les Possédés;
• 1987: Kyoto Prize of the Japanese Inamori Foundation for contribution to the development of science, technology and ideas;
• 1986: The Luigi Pirandello Award for activity and achievement in the area of theatre;
• 1985: Herder Prize for contribution to strengthening cultural relations with nations of Eastern and Southern Europe;
• 1983: César Award of the French Academy of Film Art and Technology for Danton;
• 1982: Knight of Legion d'Honneur (France); Onassis Foundation Award for work for human rights and dignity;
• 1981: Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Man of Iron;
• 1981: Nomination of an Academy Award for Man of Iron;
• 1981: Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Washington;
• 1980: FIPRESCI and Basque Cultural Society awards at the San Sebastián International Film Festival for The Orchestra Conductor;
• 1979: Golden Lions at the 6th Gdynia Film Festival for The Maids of Wilko, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes International Film Festival for Without Anesthesia, Life Achievement Award at the La Rochelle International Film Festival and Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius for contribution to the development of Polish-Bulgarian cultural co-operation;
• 1979: Nomination for an Academy Award for The Maids of Wilko;
• 1978: Golden Lions at the 5th Gdynia Film Festival for Without Anesthesia, Jury Award and Best Director Award at the 18th Cartagena Film Festival (Colombia) for Promised Land;
• 1976: Journalists Award at the 3rd Brussels International Film Festival for Promised Land, Golden Spike for The Promised Land at the Valladolid Film Festival;
• 1975: Golden Prize at the 9th Moscow International Film Festival for The Promised Land.;
• 1975: Nomination for an Academy Award for The Promised Land;
• 1973: Silver Shell at the San Sebastian International Film Festival for directing The Wedding;
• 1964: Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta;
• 1959: Jury and FIPRESCI Award at the Venice Film Festival for Ashes and Diamonds, Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta;
• 1957: Special Jury Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival for Kanał.