MAGNUS VON HORN (SWEAT )
Magnus von Horn is a Swedish film director and screenwriter who lives and works in Poland. He graduated from the National Film School in Łódź in 2013 where he now teaches directing. A few months after he arrived in Poland he was brutally robbed, which resulted in him becoming interested in violent people. His first film was a short documentary about a young Polish criminal. His 2011 short film Without Snow was nominated for the Guldbagge Award for Best Short Film. His debut feature, The Here After, premiered in the Directors' Fortnight of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, won two Swedish Guldbagge Awards for Best Film & Best Director, toured several major international festivals, and was sold to more than 10 territories. Van Horn co-wrote the screenplay of Anna Kazejak The Word (screened in Austin at the 2015 APFF.)
Sweat, his latest film and the second feature length fiction garnered multiple awards.
JAKUB MICHALCZUK (THE IN-LAWS )
His first job was in a VHS rental shop, so he had all the time in the world to appreciate the jewels of popular cinema. He loves when each frame is visually crafted in a way that enhances and guides the storyline. Every detail has its own crucial role, no matter whether it’s in a commercial or part of an independent project. Kuba’s background in montage and post-production allows him to see the story through the lens of an editor. This makes him a true multidisciplinary artist for whom writing a classic script as well as coming up with specific VFX solution cause no fear. The ultimate judge of Kuba’s work is his 4-year old daughter Helena. Kuba admits it can add some pressure, but Helena’s approval brings him immense satisfaction.
MICHAŁ ROGALSKI (HITLER’S AUNT )
Michal Rogalski is a Polish film director, screenwriter, actor, editor, and cinematographer. He created documentaries, film series and features. After graduating with a degree in Journalism and Political Sciences from the University of Warsaw, he studied Film Directing at the Film School in Lodz and completed a feature film course at the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing. In 2008 he received his first prize in the national edition of Hartley Merrill screenplay competition and second prize in the international edition for the screenplay to “Summer Solstice”. He is also known for “Exterminator: Ready to Roll”, “Days of Honor”, “The War Girls”, “Century of the Guilty”.
JAN JAKUB KOLSKI (THE REPUBLIC OF CHILDREN )
Jan Jakub Kolski is a Polish film director, cinematographer, screenwriter, and founder of the film studio, Wytwórnia Doświadczalna. After graduating from the Łódź Film School in Direction of Photography, he created short films and documentaries on various subjects, such as art, education, or nature. His short documentary films have earned him the nickname of “the stuntman of the Polish short film”. As a director of auteur feature films, he often creates a magical, unreal land. He is the author of song lyrics for his films and has also published several books, novels, and collections of short stories. Kolski is a member of the European Film Academy and several of his films received major awards and recognitions.
IWONA SIEKIERZYŃSKA (THE AMATEURS )
Iwona Siekierzyńska has a degree in Psychology from the University of Gdańsk and in Film Directing from the Łódź Film School. In 1996 she was nominated for a student Oscar for the short film "Pańcia", supervised by Krzysztof Kieślowski and in 2000 she received a Cannes Film Festival scholarship. She directed and wrote scripts of feature films and theater performances. In 2015, she directed the play "It's my business" by Radosław Paczocha in a theater of intellectually disabled actors. In 2019/2020, she made the fictional film "Amateurs" with the participation of intellectually disabled actors and musicians. Among many awards the film garnered, the two most important in the context of the subject of the film was: the Acting Discovery Award at the festival in Koszalin and Best Actress Award for Marzena Gajewska (actress with Down's syndrome) at the International Festival in Shanghai.
MICHAŁ GRZYBOWSKI (BELOVED NEIGHBOURS )
Film and theater actor, director, screenwriter, graduate of the Łódź Film School and Wajda Film School. His comedy “Non Sono Pronto” about actors who are just starting their careers in film industry received an award in the independent cinema section of the Gdynia Film Festival. In 2014, the Munk Studio produced his “Hitler in the Opera” in which he cleverly takes on a subject of national prejudices. “Beloved Neighbors” is his full feature debut.
MARIUSZ WILCZYŃSKI (KILL IT AND LEAVE THIS TOWN )
photo: Mateusz Skwarczek/AG
Mariusz Wilczyński is a painter, performer, set designer, and a self-taught animation artist who has been creating animated auteur cinema for over twenty years. Retrospectives of his films were held, among others, at MoMA in New York, National Museum of Brasília, Tokyo International Forum, and The National Museum in Warsaw. His animations have been shown around the world, in Europe, Australia, and the Americas. He creates improvised live animation performances with symphony orchestras from Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo, Geneva, Lviv, and Warsaw. In 2007, the New York Times called him "one of the most important contemporary creators of artistic animation.” He is a professor of animation at the Film School in Łódź.
MARIUSZ PALEJ (THE BLACK MILL )
Mariusz Palej is a film director and cinematographer. He graduated from the Academy of Photography in Warsaw and from the Łódź Film School in Cinematography. He worked on many documentaries and TV theater plays. Paleja gained experience as a director while shooting music videos, TV series, and the reality docu-series "The Miracle of Birth".
He directed and adapted for film for young audience "Behind the Blue Door" awarded for the film debut at the festival "Ale kino!", "In the Clouds", and many more around the world (2016). His film “Black Mill” got an award at the Schlingen Festival and “Ale kino!” festival in 2020. He is currently working on a production of another film for young people "Detective Bruno".
MARCIN GŁOWACKI (1800 GRAMS )
Marcin Głowacki is a writer, journalist, film and TV series director and producer. He graduated in Sociology from the Jagiellonian University in Karkow, Poland. His short stories debut was published in 1994 and the first novel „Hanibal Lecter and Friends” in 2002. He created short films and several TV programs. His feature film debut “My Own Pole” made for TVN won an Award of Excellence at the LA Polish Film Festival. Głowacki is on faculty of the AMA Film Academy, a post-secondary School of Film and Art.
MAŁGORZATA SZUMOWSKA (NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN )
Malgorzata Szumowska, is a film director, screen writer, and producer. Her work includes narratives and documentaries. She garnered numerous awards at international and Polish film festivals. After two well-received shorts, her first feature, “Happy Man” (2000) was nominated for Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards and won the Special Prize in Thessaloniki. Her second feature, “Strangers” (2004) was presented at Sundance and Berlinale; “33 Scenes From Life” (2008), won her the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Festival. She later directed “Elles” (2011) with Juliette Binoche, and “In The Name Of” (2013), which won the Teddy Award at Berlinale. She returned to the Berlin festival with “Body” in 2015 and “Mug” in 2018, which won her the Silver Bear for Best Director and Grand Jury Prize, respectively. Her first English language feature, “The Other Lamb” (2019) was screened in Toronto, San Sebastian, and London. Her last feature film is “Never Gonna Snow Again.”
MICHAŁ ENGLERT (NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN )
Warsaw-born cinematographer, screenwriter and producer Michal Englert is a graduate of the Cinematography Department at the ŁódźFilm School, where he met Malgorzata Szumowska. Their documentary short “Silence”(1997) won him an award for best cinematography at a film festival in Mexico. Since then, Szumowska and Englert have made over a dozen documentary and feature films together, becoming a renowned artistic duo whose cooperation runs far deeper than that of most directors and cinematographers.
Their filmography includes “33 Scenes from Life”(2009) which won Englert the award for best cinematography at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, as well as “In the Name Of…”(2013), “Body”(2015) and “Mug”(2018), which all won awards at the Berlinale. In 2013, Englert received the Best Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival for his work on Jacek Borcuch’s “Lasting”. He was part of several international projects, such as Ari Folman’s “The Congress” (2013) and Etienne Kallos’ “The Harvesters”(2018), both shown in Cannes. He was also the cinematographer on Krzysztof Skonieczny’s, HBO-produced series “Blinded by the Lights”(2018), based on Jakub Żulczyk’s bestselling novel.
