90th birthday tributes launched to filmmaker Wajda
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
03.03.2016 18:16
Tributes to celebrated director Andrzej Wajda began on Thursday at Poland's National Audiovisual Institute in the lead-up to the filmmaker's 90th birthday on 6 March.
Andrzej Wajda. Photo: Flickr.com/Piotr Drabik
The Warsaw-based institute is screening a series of restored films by the director - with English subtitles - from Thursday until Sunday and the showings are being complemented by a multimedia exhibition including sketches by the onetime art student.
A similar programme, also with English subtitles, is likewise being hosted at Warsaw's Kino Kultura. Entrance to Wajda screenings at both cinemas is free of charge.
Wajda, who is currently working on a new feature film about an artist who fell foul of Poland's communist regime, is widely regarded as one of the outstanding filmmakers to have emerged in Europe since World War II.
He won an honorary Oscar in 2000 for his lifetime achievement in film, and career highlights include the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1981 for the Solidarity-inspired classic 'Man of Iron'.
He has been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar four times, a feat achieved by no other Polish director. The nominated films were 'The Promised Land' (1975), 'The Maids of Wilko' (1979), 'Man of Iron' (1981) and 'Katyń' (2007).
Since World War II, Wajda has chiefly lived in the southern city of Kraków. A birthday concert will be held at the city's newly built ICE Congress Centre on Sunday, with the programme including scores from Wajda's films. (nh/pk)