Andrzej Wajda – Patron of 2026
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By decision of the Senate of the Republic of Poland, 2026 has been declared the Year of Andrzej Wajda.
In 2026 we celebrate the centenary of the birth and 10th year of passing of Andrzej Wajda, Polish film and theatre director, screenwriter, and one of the most important creators of Polish culture of the 20th and early 21st centuries.
Andrzej Wajda (March 6, 1926 in Suwałki – October 9, 2016 in Warsaw)
Wajda, who was awarded an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2000, became a filmmaker only after being rejected by the army in 1939.
His achievements – stretched over six decades – include dozens of film and theatre productions, including over 40 feature films that have entered the canon of Polish and world cinema. In 2000, he was honored with the Academy Honorary Award. He also won m.in the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Man of Iron (1981), the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival (1998), and the Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement at the Berlinale Festival (2006).
Wajda was one of the filmmakers who co-founded the so-called Polish film school and for years set the directions for the development of Polish cinematography.
Andrzej Wajda is the founder of, among m.in, the Wajda School & Studio (together with Wojciech Marczewski), the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Krakow and the Kyoto-Krakow Foundation.
A Glimpse of His Filmography
The story of charismatic painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski, who opposed social realism and maintained his own artistic freedom in spite of political obstacles.
The depiction of the life of Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Poland’s Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa, as events in the 1970s lead to a peaceful revolution.
Polish historical drama film about the 1940 Katyn massacre. It is based on the book Post Mortem: The Story of Katyn by Andrzej Mularczyk. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for the 80th Academy Awards.
A free adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s classic novel “The Idiot”. Here, two Japanese actors perform the key roles of a man in love with a woman who chooses the love of another man.The double role of Myshkin and Nastasia was played by Tamasaburō Bandō, an excellent actor of Japanese kabuki theater, playing only female roles.
