Paweł Pawlikowski | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Pawlikowski in 2015 | |
| Born | Paweł Aleksander Pawlikowski (1957-09-15)15 September 1957 (age 68) Warsaw, Poland |
| Alma mater | Oxford University |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
Paweł Aleksander Pawlikowski (Polish:[ˈpavɛwalɛˈksandɛrpavliˈkɔfskʲi]; born 15 September 1957) is a Polish filmmaker. He garnered early praise for a string of documentaries in the 1990s and for his award-winning feature films of the 2000s,Last Resort (2000) andMy Summer of Love (2004). His success continued into the 2010s withIda (2013), which won theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, andCold War (2018), for which Pawlikowski won theBest Director prize at theCannes Film Festival and was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Director, while the film received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
Pawlikowski was born inWarsaw,Poland, to his father Wiktor, who was a doctor and Zula, his mother, who started as a ballet dancer and later became an English literature professor at theUniversity of Warsaw.[1][2] In his late teens, he learned that his paternal grandmother wasJewish and had been murdered inAuschwitz.[3][4]At the age of 14, he left communist Poland with his mother for London. What he thought was a holiday turned out to be a permanent exile. A year later he moved to Germany, before finally settling in Britain in 1977. He studied literature and philosophy atOxford University.[5]
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Pawlikowski was best known for his documentaries, whose blend of lyricism and irony won him many fans and awards around the world.From Moscow to Pietushki was a poetic journey into the world of the Russian cult writerVenedikt Erofeev, for which he won anEmmy, anRTS award, aPrix Italia and other awards.[6][7] The multi-award-winningDostoevsky's Travels was a tragi-comic road movie in which a St Petersburg tram driver and the only living descendant ofFyodor Dostoevsky, travels rough around Western Europe haunting high-minded humanists, aristocrats, monarchists and theBaden-Baden casino in his quest to raise money to buy a secondhand Mercedes.[citation needed]
Pawlikowski's most original and formally successful film wasSerbian Epics (1992), made at the height of the Bosnian War. The oblique, ironic, imagistic, at times almost hypnotic study of epic Serbian poetry, with exclusive footage ofRadovan Karadžić and GeneralRatko Mladić, aroused a storm of controversy and incomprehension at the time, but has now secured it something of a cult status. The absurdistTripping with Zhirinovsky, a surreal boat journey down theVolga with controversial Russian politicianVladimir Zhirinovsky, won Pawlikowski theGrierson Award for the Best British Documentary in 1995.[citation needed] Pawlikowski's transition to fiction occurred in 1998 with a small 50-minute hybrid filmTwockers, a lyrical and gritty love story set on a sink estate in Yorkshire, which he co-wrote and co-directed withIan Duncan.
In 2000 he wrote and directedLast Resort starringDina Korzun andPaddy Considine, which won a BAFTA, the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at Edinburgh and many other awards. In 2004 he wrote and directedMy Summer of Love starringEmily Blunt andNatalie Press, which won a BAFTA, the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film and many other awards.[8]
In 2006, he filmed about 60% of his adaptation of Magnus Mills'The Restraint of Beasts when the project was halted—his wife had fallen gravely ill and he left to care for her and their children.[9]
In 2011, he wrote and directed a film loosely adapted from Douglas Kennedy's novelThe Woman in the Fifth, starringEthan Hawke andKristin Scott Thomas.[10]
On 19 October 2013, his filmIda (starringAgata Kulesza) won the Best Film Award at theLondon Film Festival, on the same night thatAnthony Chen, one of his students at theNational Film and Television School, won theSutherland Prize for the Best First Film, forIlo Ilo.[11]Ida won the 2015 Academy Award for Foreign Language Film on 23 February 2015, the first Polish film to do so. In the same year, he was a member of the jury headed byAlfonso Cuarón at the72nd Venice International Film Festival.
In 2017, Pawlikowski adaptedEmmanuel Carrère's biographical novelLimonov (2011), based on the life ofEduard Limonov, into a screenplay.[12] Pawlikowski planned to direct the film adaptation but revealed in 2020 that he lost interest in the character and abandoned plans to direct.[13]
His most recent film,Cold War earned him theBest Director Award at the2018 Cannes Film Festival. It also won five awards at the2018 European Film Awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress Awards. In 2019, he was announced as one of the members of the jury at theCannes Film Festival.[14]
In October 2022, reports emerged that Pawlikowski's next film, under the working titleThe Island, was scheduled to begin filming in 2023. The film is inspired by true events and castJoaquin Phoenix andRooney Mara as an American couple in the 1930s, who leave behind civilization to live on a deserted island.[15]
In May 2023, production forThe Island was halted, weeks before filming was set to begin, as a result of the impending2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[16] In December 2023, cinematographerŁukasz Żal stated that the project was unlikely to ever be made.[17] In February 2024, Mara stated that herself, Phoenix, and Pawlikowski are still committed to make the film, but was unsure of when it may be filmed.[18]
Pawlikowski grew up a Catholic and considers himself one up to this day, but says that he finds the Catholic Church in Great Britain to be easier to grow in faith in than that in Poland.[3][4]
Pawlikowski was a Creative Arts Fellow atOxford Brookes University from 2004 to 2007. He teaches film direction and screenwriting at the National Film School in the UK and the Wajda Film School in Warsaw. In addition to his native Polish, he speaks six languages including German and Russian.[citation needed]
Pawlikowski's first wife, who was Russian, developed a serious illness in 2006 and died several months later.[19][20] They have a son and a daughter. After his children left for university, Pawlikowski moved to Paris, and later relocated to Warsaw, where he lives close to his childhood home.[19] At the end of 2017, he married Polish model and actressMałgosia Bela.[21]
Short film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Muse | Yes | No |
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | The Stringer | Yes | Yes | |
| 2000 | Last Resort | Yes | Yes | |
| 2004 | My Summer of Love | Yes | Yes | |
| 2011 | The Woman in the Fifth | Yes | Yes | |
| 2013 | Ida | Yes | Yes | |
| 2018 | Cold War | Yes | Yes | |
| TBA | 1949 | Yes | Yes | Post-production |
Writing credit
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Lost in Karastan | No | Yes | |
| 2024 | Limonov: The Ballad | No | Yes |
Television
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Open Space | Yes | No | No | TV series |
| 1990 | From Moscow to Pietushki with Benny Yerofeyev | Yes | Yes | No | TV movies |
| 1991 | Dostoevsky's Travels | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 1992 | Serbian Epics | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 1994 | Tripping with Zhirinovsky | Yes | No | Yes |
1987 StasysFilm
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Twockers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-directed with Ian Duncan |
Academy Awards
| Year | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Best Director | Cold War | Nominated |
British Academy Film Awards
| Year | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Best British Film | Last Resort | Nominated |
| Most Promising Newcomer | Won | ||
| 2005 | Best British Film | My Summer of Love | Won |
| 2018 | Best Direction | Cold War | Nominated |
| Best Original Screenplay | Nominated |
Golden Globe Awards
| Year | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Best Foreign Language Film | Ida | Nominated |
European Film Awards
| Year | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Best Documentary | Dostoyevsky’s Travels | Special Mention |
| 2001 | European Discovery | Last Resort | Nominated |
| 2005 | Best Film | My Summer of Love | Nominated |
| Best Director | Nominated | ||
| 2014 | Best Film | Ida | Won |
| Best Director | Won | ||
| Best Screenwriter | Won | ||
| People's Choice Award | Won | ||
| 2018 | Best Film | Cold War | Won |
| Best Director | Won | ||
| Best Screenwriter | Won |
Polish Film Awards
| Year | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Best European Film | My Summer of Love | Won |
| 2014 | Best Film | Ida | Won |
| Best Director | Won | ||
| Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||
| 2019 | Best Film | Cold War | Won |
| Best Director | Won | ||
| Best Screenplay | Won |
British Independent Film Awards
| Year | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Best Director | Last Resort | Nominated |
| Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||
| 2004 | Best Director | My Summer of Love | Nominated |
| 2014 | Best Foreign Independent Film | Ida | Nominated |
| 2018 | Cold War | Nominated |
Film festivals and other award ceremonies
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 38th National Polish Film Festival | Golden Lions for Best Film | Ida | Won |
| 2014 | 30th Seattle International Film Festival | Best Director | 3rd runner-up | |
| 2018 | 71st Cannes Film Festival | Best Director | Cold War | Won |
| 43rd National Polish Film Festival | Golden Lions for Best Film | Won |
Critics' Circle
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 9th Dublin Film Critics' Circle Awards | Best Director | Ida | #3 | |
| Indiewire 2014 Year-End Critics Poll | #10 | ||||
| 2019 | 39th London Film Critics' Circle Awards | Cold War | Nominated | [22] |
Other distinctions
Pawlikowski was made Honorary Associate ofLondon Film School. In 2019, he was awarded the title of anhonorary citizen ofWarsaw.[23]
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)