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The Film School in Lodz, one of the oldest film schools in the world, puts special emphasis on practical work in its teaching program.
The school educates directors, directors of photography, animators, photographers, screenwriters, editors, film and television production managers and actors. Studies comprise practical workshop classes accompanied by history, culture and art theory contributing to a thorough artistic development. We are convinced that it is not until students get onto a real film set that they learn the profession and gain experience and independence. We provide future filmmakers with the latest generation sound and lighting equipment including digital cameras.
LODZ, Poland — Andac Karabeyoglu, a third-year student at the Lodz Film School, sat in a campus cafe on a recent day and explained why she had come all the way from her home in Ankara to study in Poland.
Part of the draw, she said, was that Lodz was one of the few film schools left in the world where students still learn on 35-millimeter and 16-millimeter film; but another attraction was the school’s unique way of teaching.
“Coming here gives you a different way of looking at things,” said Ms. Karabeyoglu, 27. “We have to write our own scripts, we have to edit, we have to do our own sound, so there is a huge process that you have to learn. The main aim is not the industry but about discovering yourself, what your strengths are.”
On Oct. 11, the Leon Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television and Theater, to give the school its full name, marked its 65th anniversary with huge ceremony and a bigger party. The Oscar-winning Austrian director Michael Haneke was awarded an honorary doctorate — Roman Polanski and Martin Scorsese are among a handful of other directors who have been granted that honor — and graduates and filmmakers from across the globe were invited to campus to celebrate.
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The school counts award-winning film directors like Mr. Polanski, Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Kiezlowski among its graduates, together with renowned cinematographers including Pawel Edelman, Dariusz Wolski and Andrzej Bartkowiak.
“When I was at school, as all other students, we believed we were wasting our time,” Mr. Polanski said by telephone. “But with the perspective of a few years, I realized how much I got from this school.”
“Teaching filmmaking is a paradox,” said the school’s rector Mariusz Grzegorzek, a Lodz graduate who has taught directing there for two decades. “If you are smart enough, you can learn the basics of filmmaking in two months. I don’t like it when film schools say, ‘We will teach you, we will train you — all the wisdom, all the rules.’ The most important thing about our school is this good balance between learning the craft, learning the theory and learning how to get your message across in your art.”
World War II saw Poland devastated by German and Russian invasions. By the time it ended, with the country under Soviet domination, many of its pre-war filmmakers and actors were dead or living in exile.
“1945 was pretty much year zero for the Polish film industry; they had to start from scratch, and Lodz was part of that,” said Michael Brooke, a British film historian and writer. “There was little money for filmmaking,” he added, “so many of the talented people went into teaching — so you had that right from the start, and they have maintained that tradition.”
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The filmmakers Andrzej Munk, Witold Sobocinski and Mr. Wajda — whose film “Walesa, Man of Hope” opened this month in Poland and Britain — were some of Lodz’s earliest students, becoming leaders of Polish New Wave cinema in the 1950s.
“The difference between Lodz and other films schools was that students were taught to be very analytical, very precise and very to the point,” said Jozef Robakowski, who teaches multimedia at the school and is one of Poland’s most influential video artists. “That was partially influenced by Soviet art and partially because of strong relations between the school and the Lodz Art Museum, founded by avant-garde artists in 1930. So those things had impact on movie making here.”
Students also learned — mostly from one another — how to use symbolism to put across political views while living in a totalitarian state. “Symbolism is a very big thing in the film language in Poland,” said Kathrine Windfeld, an Emmy-nominated Danish director who studied in Lodz in the early 1990s.
“Everyone, for example, knew that if a white horse crossed through a frame, it meant ‘we want a free Poland.’ I learned the language of symbolism there, that everything in filmmaking has to have layers,” she said.
ImageRoman Polanski, center foreground, who graduated from Lodz, in ‘‘End of the Night.’’
Roman Polanski, center foreground, who graduated from Lodz, in ‘‘End of the Night.’’Credit…The Lodz Film School
In the 1980s, during the years of martial law in Poland, innovative teachers including Mr. Robakowski — who had pressed the heads of the school to create a more multimedia platform — were dismissed from their positions or left in protest. But with the collapse of Communism in 1989 came a fresh openness to new technologies and media.
In 2011, a 30 million zloty, or $10 million, new media center opened — with facilities for animation, special effects, photography and editing — partly financed by the European Union. “We are changing some traditions,” said Ryszard Lenczewski, who teaches cinematography.
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Mr. Lenczewski, for example, has his students finding and using professional cinematography apps for smartphones and tablets. But students are still required to take classical courses, including the history of art, music and literature.
“You learn how artists like Rembrandt played with light,” said Wojciech Pus, a video and installation artist who teaches a workshop on the use of light as a medium. “Students learn to see film not only as something technical or as a profession but that there are also very strong aspects of academia in filmmaking.”
While filmmaking in the last decade has gone almost completely digital, many current students say that what drew them to Lodz was the rare chance to get to work with 16 millimeter and 35 millimeter film. Students in their first two years must shoot short films on both formats.
“Most students I have met at film festivals say that shooting on film, if their school even offers that, is the last thing they get to do,” said Pawel Maj, a Polish-Canadian fifth-year directing student. “In directing, we shoot documentaries on 35 millimeter, which is practically unheard of in the world these days.
“Very few people make documentaries on film, but that is the idea,” he added. “You cannot just roll your camera and shoot everything; you have to make a plan, storyboard the shoot and do a lot of research.”
Another aspect that has been a draw to students — past and present — is that the vast majority of the teachers are also professional filmmakers. “I remember two workshops with Wojciech Sobocinski, who had worked on films with Wajda and Polanski,” said Dariusz Wolski, the cinematographer on films including “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Prometheus.”
“He talked to us about reshooting, real problems of being on set, and those things have stayed with me to this day.”
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Classes are small, and students spend up to 14 hours a day on campus. Intense bonds grow not only between classmates but also with tutors and professors.
“We would learn a lot from each other,” Mr. Polanski said. “There are these big wooden stairs on which — even when I last visited the place — students still sit on those, as we would sit and talk. We would discuss, fight a lot, sometimes literally, physically; and we all remember, all students, those wooden stairs.”
Mr. Maj said that in meeting professors both in and out of the classroom, an important rapport develops. “You have these partners in crime as opposed to people who are leading you,” said Mr. Maj, who has a degree in film studies from the University of British Columbia. “I have had Skype conversations with my tutor at 1 a.m. because I needed to talk to him. I could never imagine that from a standard institution in North America.”
Over the last 15 years, a new generation of talented filmmakers has emerged from the school— including “Elles” director Malgorzata Szumowska, Palme d’Or winner Emily Young and Oscar-nominated Slawomir Fabicki.
Entry to the school is fiercely competitive — in recent years, for example, more than 150 applicants from around the globe have competed annually for seven spaces in the five-year master’s course in directing.
“Lodz has an important reputation, big time,” said Ms. Windfeld, who has directed shows like “The Killing” and “The Bridge.” “It is like going to Eton,” she added, referring to the exclusive English school near London. “You see people’s eyes change when you tell them you went to school there. They are always very impressed.”
6 Must-Know Directors from the Łódź Film School
The rebirth of cinema in Poland after World War II is inextricably linked to the Łódź Film School, an oasis of progress and artistic freedom amid the stifling culture controls of the communist regime. Here are six of the Łódź Film School’s famous alumni.
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is one of the world’s most renowned filmmakers. His impressive resume boasts over 50 documentary and feature films, and a long list of awards and honours including an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Wajda’s career spanned over significant historical events and eras, both for Poland and for Polish film. He graduated from the Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź in 1953 with a major in Directing, and within the next 5 years he released Generation, Canal, and Ashes and Diamonds, three films that initiated a new current called ‘the Polish Film School.’ It tells the stories of heroes from both during and after the war and challenges the national tradition of martyrdom and romantic heroism in art.
Later on, his adaptations of Polish literature (The Promised Land, 1975), commentary on Polish life under communism (The Maids of Wilko, 1979 and Man of Iron, 1981), and tackling of the horrific Katyń massacre (Katyń, 2007) earned him four Academy Award nominations.
Man of Iron by Andrzej Wajda – Image Gallery
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+ 15Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski gained worldwide renown for the Decalogue series, The Double Life of Veronique and Three Colors: Blue, Red and White. A filmmaker of unparalleled merit whose simple stories deal with difficult, fundamental and universal questions about complex human feelings. In an interview, Kieślowski said, ‘Everyone wants to change the world whenever they make the effort to do something. I don’t think I ever believed the world could be changed in the literal sense of the phrase. I thought the world could be described.’
Kieślowski graduated from the Łódż Film School in 1968 with a love for documentary films. In the years 1966-80, he produced more than a dozen documentary films most of which explored social, economic and political realities in the Polish People’s Republic. While he abandoned the genre for the freedom of feature film, his attention to visual aesthetics and observation can be derived from his experience as a documentary filmmaker.
The Storied History of the Illustrious Łódź Film School
The Leon Schiller State Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź was born in 1958 out of the merger of two Łódź schools that had been running since 1948 – the State Acting School (renamed the Leon Schiller State Theatre School in 1954) and the State Film School.
Roman Polański
Roman Polański is the most recognisable Polish director by English speaking audiences and is among the most decorated, and most controversial. He joined the Film School in Łódż in 1954. While there, his first student-film exercises already demonstrated the bedrock of Polański’s style, as well as the themes which are reiterated in his future films through the following decades.
Polański’s oeuvre is suspended somewhere between the absurd and the serious. It oscillates between a faith in the power of cinematic convention and an untamed imagination. Mariola Dopartowa, author of the monograph The Labyrinth of Polański, remarked on how Polański addresses existential issues, all the while mocking, provoking and irritating.
Polański first generated acclaim with his feature film, Knife in the Water. In the late 1960s, he relocated to Hollywood, where he would become famous as the director of The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974). His 2002 historical drama The Pianist netted Polański numerous awards, including the Oscar for Best Director.
Posters from Roman Polański’s films – Image Gallery
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+ 4Andrzej Munk
Andrzej Munk’s youth fell under the time of Nazi occupation. He took part in the armed resistance movement, later took on various jobs, working as a labourer and a technician. He graduated from the Łódż Film School in 1951 and from 1957 until his death he was a lecturer at the Łódź Film School. He was killed in a car crash in 1961, leaving the film Pasażerka (Passenger) unfinished. Since 1965, the Łódź film School has granted an annual Andrzej Munk Award for the best directing debut.
Munk’s personal experiences influenced the feel and depth of his works. He started his career as a documentary director filming propaganda productions about workers performing daily tasks but eventually wanted to pass on his own message. Munk claimed that his films were ’a response to the official tone of the documentaries of the time, to their laconic, over-optimistic tone. I tried to show issues that had been made banal, I wanted to show the hardship, sacrifice, heroism, the beauty of everyday work.’ His two most famous films, Eroica and Bad Luck, were prime examples of the Polish Film School trend but were not traditional stories of heroism. Film critic Ewelina Nurczyńska-Fidelska wrote,
Making Eroica and Bad Luck Munk stood next to those who play the role of ‘mockers’ in processes of shaping national and cultural awareness. Their scorn and mockery fulfils a cleansing function, though, aimed at rejecting mythologised values and developing new ones.
Eroica by Andrzej Munk – Image Gallery
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+ 4Krzysztof Zanussi
Krzysztof Zanussi films cannot be considered along any clearly defined track or trend in Polish or international filmmaking. As a director, he is not subject to others’ tastes or styles. He is a philosophical director, examining the perennial problem of love, death, happiness and conscience, looking at how they manifest themselves in the world today.
The quintessential hero of Zanussi’s films is a man faced with a choice between values and the temptation of their rejection. The hallmark characteristic is moral sensitivity expressed in the compromise between the sphere of dreams regarding individual freedom and a life practice restricting this freedom. This character appears in several of Zanussi’s films including Family Life, Behind the Wall, Illumination, Camouflage and Spiral.
Zanussi graduated from the Łódż Film School in 1966.
Behind the Wall – Krzysztof Zanussi
Behind the Wall, one of the best productions in the history of Polish television, is a 1971 film by Krzysztof Zanussi. Less than an hour long, this quiet drama about a meeting between a well-organized assistant professor and a depressed PhD student surprises the viewer with the richness of observations and the natural performances of the actors.
Marek Koterski
Marek Koterski came to Film School in Łódż relatively late in life after his early career as a theatre scholar. Having started out as an assistant director and a documentary filmmaker, it was not until Marek Koterski made his feature films that he touched on what was the most important to him – family trauma and personal problems. He debuted as a feature film director at the age of 42 in 1984 with his film The House of Fools about a devastatingly toxic family situation.
An interesting aspect of Koterski’s films is that they all have the same main character, a man named Miauczyński. Never trying to improve reality, Miauczyński is completely immersed in his world of neuroses, fears and frustrations. A run down intellectual, trying to get by on a meagre salary, he lives in a block of flats alone or with his ex-wife, and reads poetry to school kids. Through the life of his hero, Koterski explores and attempts to exorcise the demons that eat at him: an unhappy childhood, a failed marriage, his unrequited first love, obsessive ambitions and addictions.
Alumni of the Lodz Film School
A
- Andrzej Adamczak (empty)
- Włodzimierz Adamski (1 F)
- Jerzy Afanasjew (2 F)
- Jerzy Antczak (3 F)
B
- Filip Bajon (2 F)
- Jadwiga Barańska (7 F)
- Andrzej Barański (1 F)
- Marek Barbasiewicz (2 F)
- Artur Barciś (1 C, 6 F)
- Stanisław Bareja (2 C, 16 F)
- Piotr Barełkowski (1 F)
- Renata Berger (1 F)
- Adrianna Biedrzyńska (3 F)
- Piotr Bikont (9 F)
- Szymon Bobrowski (3 F)
- Małgorzata Bogdańska (3 F)
- Katarzyna Bonda (5 F)
- Olga Borys (4 F)
- Barbara Borys-Damięcka (5 F)
- Karolina Breguła (1 F)
- Stanisław Brejdygant (2 F)
- Jacek Bromski (1 C, 4 F)
- Balbina Bruszewska (1 F)
- Monika Buchowiec (2 F)
- Ryszard Bugajski (6 F)
- Piotr Bujnowicz (empty)
- Grażyna Błęcka-Kolska (2 F)
C
- Leon Charewicz (2 F)
- Sylwester Chęciński (3 F)
- Jacek Chmielnik (1 F)
- Dorota Chotecka (1 F)
- Beata Chruścińska (1 F)
- Rafał Cieszyński (5 F)
- Sebastian Cybulski (2 F)
- Sambor Czarnota (2 F)
- Krzysztof Czeczot (2 F)
- Ireneusz Czop (empty)
D
- Danuta Beata Postnikoff (1 F)
- Leszek Dawid (3 F)
- Elisabeth Duda (actress) (4 F)
- Agnieszka Dygant (7 F)
- Marta Dzido (2 F)
- Krzysztof Dzikowski (1 F)
- Bogdan Dziworski (1 F)
- Maria Dębska (3 F)
E
- Paweł Edelman (2 F)
F
- Sławomir Fabicki (1 F)
- Feliks Falk (7 F)
- Zuzanna Falzmann (1 F)
- Jacek Filipiak (1 F)
- Michał Filipiak (1 F)
- Darek Foks (2 F)
- Aleksandra Ford-Sampolska (empty)
- Małgorzata Foremniak (11 F)
- Marek Frąckowiak (2 F)
- Piotr Friedrich (2 F)
G
- Janusz Gajos (13 F)
- Ewa Gawryluk (2 F)
- Paulina Gałązka (2 F)
- Przemysław Glapiński (1 F)
- Katarzyna Glinka (15 F)
- Robert Gliński (6 F)
- Dorota Gorjainow (1 F)
- Arkadiusz Gołębiewski (2 F)
- Jerzy Gruza (4 F)
- Jadwiga Gryn (2 F)
- Mariusz Grzegorzek (1 F)
- Józef Gębski (1 F)
H
- Antoni Halor (6 F)
- Mirosław Haniszewski (1 F)
- Cezary Harasimowicz (3 F)
- Eugenia Herman (2 F)
- Jan Holoubek (filmmaker) (4 F)
- Jan Hryniak (1 F)
I
- Krzysztof Ibisz (9 F)
- Sławomir Idziak (7 F)
J
- Dariusz Jabłoński (1 F)
- Krzysztof Janczar (3 F)
- Jerzy Janeczek (2 F)
- Juliusz Janicki (2 F)
- Elżbieta Jarosik (3 F)
- Monika Jarosińska (5 F)
- Elżbieta Jaworowicz (5 F)
- Stanisław Jędryka (4 F)
- Aleksandra Justa (1 F)
- Sylwia Juszczak-Krawczyk (3 F)
- Zdzisław Jóźwiak (1 F)
- Joanna Jędryka (1 F)
K
- Mieczysław Kalenik (1 F)
- Krzysztof Kalukin (1 F)
- Jerzy Kamas (2 F)
- Kazimierz Karabasz (3 F)
- Jacek Kawalec (6 F)
- Izabela Kała (1 F)
- Jan Kidawa-Błoński (2 F)
- Krzysztof Kiersznowski (2 F)
- Krzysztof Kieślowski (1 C, 20 F)
- Henryk Kluba (2 F)
- Agnieszka Kluk-Kochańska (9 F)
- Krystyna Kołodziejczyk (3 F)
- Jan Jakub Kolski (1 C, 12 F)
- Jacek Koman (2 F)
- Emilia Komarnicka (1 F)
- Andrzej Kondratiuk (6 F)
- Tomasz Konieczny (5 F)
- Łukasz Konopka (3 F)
- Jarosław Kopaczewski (1 F)
- Jacek Kopczyński (11 F)
- Witold Kopeć (2 F)
- Andrzej Kopiczyński (11 F)
- Joanna Koroniewska (4 F)
- Marek Koterski (1 C, 13 F)
- Andrzej Kotkowski (3 F)
- Halina Kowalska (1 F)
- Paweł Kowalski (1 F)
- Maciej Kozłowski (1 C, 7 F)
- Antoni Krauze (11 F)
- Krzysztof Krauze (7 F)
- Maria Krawczyk (1 F)
- Mikołaj Krawczyk (3 F)
- Jan Paweł Kruk (1 F)
- Grażyna Krukówna (1 F)
- Grzegorz Królikiewicz (2 F)
- Weronika Książkiewicz (3 F)
- Robert Kudelski (1 F)
- Joanna Kulmowa (1 F)
- Izabela Kuna (4 F)
- Joanna Kupińska (2 F)
- Izabela Kurczewska (1 F)
- Joanna Kurowska (1 P, 4 F)
- Kazimierz Kutz (17 F)
- Grzegorz Kędzierski (1 F)
- Dorota Kędzierzawska (4 F)
- Włodzimierz Kłopocki (1 F)
L
- Borys Lankosz (1 F)
- Jerzy Łapiński (3 F)
- Czesław Lasota (1 F)
- Stanisław Lenartowicz (2 F)
- Szymon Lenkowski (1 F)
- Ilona Łepkowska (4 F)
- Michał Lesień (2 F)
- Zbigniew Lesień (3 F)
- Jan Łomnicki (1929-2002) (1 F)
- Lech Łotocki (1 F)
- Jacek Lusiński (1 F)
M
- Jan Machulski (2 C, 9 F)
- Juliusz Machulski (3 C, 5 F)
- Kamil Maćkowiak (4 F)
- Magdalena Płaneta (1 F)
- Magdalena Majewska (2 F)
- Janusz Majewski (9 F)
- Robert Majewski (actor) (1 F)
- Wojciech Malajkat (7 F)
- Zygmunt Malanowicz (3 F)
- Krzysztof Malkiewicz (empty)
- Tomasz Mandes (1 F)
- Mirosława Marcheluk (1 F)
- Wojciech Marczewski (3 F)
- Magdalena Margulewicz (3 F)
- Włodzimierz Matuszak (1 F)
- Andrzej May (1 F)
- Wiesława Mazurkiewicz (2 F)
- Tomasz Mędrzak (17 F)
- Wojciech Medyński (3 F)
- Piotr Miazga (4 F)
- Agnieszka Michalska (9 F)
- Igor Michalski (2 F)
- Hanna Mikuć (2 F)
- Janusz Morgenstern (5 F)
- Andrzej Munk (6 F)
- Gabriela Muskała (1 F)
N
- Wanda Neumann (3 F)
- Marta Nieradkiewicz (2 F)
- Aleksandra Nieśpielak (9 F)
- Robert Ninkiewicz (1 F)
- Anna Nowak (1 F)
- Włodzimierz Nowak (1 F)
- Bartłomiej Nowosielski (1 F)
O
- Edyta Olszówka (4 F)
- Kazimierz Orzechowski (3 F)
- Mirosław Orzechowski (2 F)
- Agnieszka Osiecka (1 C, 6 F)
- Joanna Osyda (2 F)
P
- Władysław Pasikowski (3 F)
- Bogusława Pawelec (1 F)
- Iwona Katarzyna Pawlak (2 F)
- Cezary Pazura (13 F)
- Radosław Pazura (4 F)
- Jan Paweł Pełech (2 F)
- Czesław Petelski (2 F)
- Jacek Petrycki (1 F)
- Jan Piechociński (1 F)
- Maciej Pieprzyca (2 F)
- Marek Piestrak (1 F)
- Leonard Pietraszak (4 F)
- Radosław Piwowarski (1 F)
- Marek Piwowski (2 F)
- Filip Pławiak (3 F)
- Roman Polanski (2 C, 1 P, 35 F)
- Piotr Polk (6 F)
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