Paul Kowalski | |
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| Born | Paul John Kowalski 13 May 1981 |
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Paul Kowalski (born 13 May 1981) is a Polish-British film director and screenwriter based in Los Angeles.
Paul Kowalski | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | Paul John Kowalski 13 May 1981 |
| Education | |
| Occupations |
|
| Spouse | |
Paul Kowalski (born 13 May 1981) is a Polish-British film director and screenwriter based in Los Angeles.
Kowalski was born in Epsom, England to Polish immigrants and raised in North Africa, England, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Poland and across the USA. While living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s, he worked as an actor for a children's program on English-language channel Saudi TV-2. [1] [2]
Kowalski studied literature and writing at Brown University, where he also made his earliest films. He later received his MFA in film directing at the AFI Conservatory. [3]
Kowalski's films center around identity, exile and obsession, often featuring dark psychologies and the supernatural. [4] [5] As a film director and screenwriter, he has won recognition from the American Society of Cinematographers, Austin Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Indy Shorts International Film Festival, Beijing Film Academy, CINE, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, deadCENTER Film Festival, Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival and Beverly Hills Film Festival, among others. [6] [7]
His debut feature, Paper Tiger, premiered at Austin Film Festival in 2020, winning the Audience Award and a Jury mention. [8] [9] [10] The film was sold by The Gersh Agency and distributed by Gravitas Ventures. [11]
In 2021, Kowalski was named one of “25 Screenwriters To Watch” by Austin Film Festival. [12] [13]
In 2024, he won Grand Prize Best Director at the Rhode Island International Film Festival for his short film Sardinia, about a serious man trying to avoid catching a deadly laughing plague in a growingly polarized and dystopian society. [14] The film stars Philip Ettinger, Emmy-winner Martha Plimpton, Olek Krupa and Breeda Wool. [15] In November 2024 Patton Oswalt boarded the film as Executive Producer, calling the film "an effortlessly original piece of work" and "beyond timely”, with Deadline naming the film an Oscar contender for 2025 Best Live Action Short. [16] [17]
Kowalski is married to actress Sorel Carradine. [18]
His uncle, Lech Kowalski, directed punk rock documentary, D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage , and East of Paradise which won at the Venice Film Festival. The film is about Paul Kowalski's grandmother's escape from a Soviet workcamp during World War II. [19]
Patton Peter Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His acting roles include Spence Olchin in the sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007) and narrating the sitcom The Goldbergs (2013–2023) as adult Adam F. Goldberg. After making his acting debut in the Seinfeld episode "The Couch", he has appeared in a variety of television series, such as Parks and Recreation, Community, Two and a Half Men, Drunk History, Reno 911!, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Archer, Veep, Justified, Kim Possible, Modern Family, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and We Bare Bears. He portrayed Principal Ralph Durbin in A.P. Bio (2018–2021) and Matthew the Raven in the TV series The Sandman (2022–present).
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Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state.
Big Fan is a 2009 American dramedy film written and directed by Robert D. Siegel, and starring Patton Oswalt, Kevin Corrigan, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Michael Rapaport, and Scott Ferrall. The story revolves around the bleak yet amiable life of the self-described "world's biggest New York Giants fan", Paul Aufiero (Oswalt). Big Fan garnered positive reviews at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The film had a limited release in the United States beginning on August 28, 2009.
Eye of God is a 1997 crime drama film written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson and adapted from his stage play of the same name. It stars Martha Plimpton, Kevin Anderson, Nick Stahl, and Hal Holbrook. The film follows two plot lines which are revealed to be connected in a nonlinear narrative.
Forgiveness, also known as Esther's Diary, is a 2008 American dramatic Holocaust film written and directed by Polish-American director Mariusz Kotowski, with a screenplay by Allan Knee. The film is marked as being the director's first feature-length film.
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Nerdland is a 2016 American adult animated comedy film directed by Chris Prynoski and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The film stars Paul Rudd, Patton Oswalt, Hannibal Buress, Kate Micucci, Riki Lindhome, John Ennis and Mike Judge. The film received a one night only special screening on December 6, 2016, before being released on video on demand by Samuel Goldwyn Films on January 6, 2017, and on DVD and Blu-ray on February 7, 2017, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Please Stand By is a 2017 American comedy-drama film directed by Ben Lewin and based on the 2008 short play of the same name by Michael Golamco, who also wrote the screenplay. The film stars Dakota Fanning, Toni Collette, Alice Eve, River Alexander and Patton Oswalt, and was distributed by Magnolia Pictures.
Gravitas Ventures is a film distribution company owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles, California in 2006 and moved its headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio in 2019. It focuses on the distribution of Independent feature films and documentaries.
Katharine O'Brien is an American film director, screenwriter, film editor, camera operator, art director, and executive producer best known for her work on The Automatic Hate and Lost Transmissions.
Philip Ettinger is an American actor. He first gained attention for his supporting role as the troubled environmental activist, Michael, in Paul Schrader's First Reformed (2017). Other significant roles have been as Garrett Drimmer in the CBS All Access series One Dollar (2018), as the young-adult version of Mark Ruffalo's twin characters, Dominick and Thomas Birdsey, in HBO's I Know This Much is True in 2020, and in the lead role of Cole Freeman in Braden King's cinematic adaptation of the Carter Sickels' novel The Evening Hour (2020).
Martin Edralin is a Canadian film director. His first short film, Hole, won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015, the Grand Prix at the 2015 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2015, and a jury award at the 2014 Locarno Festival.
Paper Tiger is a 2020 American drama thriller film written and directed by Paul Kowalski.
Lunch Ladies is a 2017 American comedy horror short film which was created and written by Clarissa Jacobson; produced by Rebel Minx, J.M. Logan, Joe Bratcher, Matt Falletta, and Jessica Janos; and directed by J.M. Logan. It won Film Threat! Best Short, and was screened at Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in Opening Program and the Tous à Table Section.
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Sardinia is a 2024 satirical drama short film written and directed by Paul Kowalski, about a serious man who tries to avoid catching a deadly laughing plague in a growingly polarized and dystopian society.