The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as the history of cinematography, and it has universally recognized achievements, even though Polish films tend to be less commercially available than films from several other European nations.
Andrzej Witold Wajda was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "Polish Film School". He was known especially for his trilogy of war films consisting of A Generation (1955), Kanał (1957) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958).
Kazimierz Kuratowski was a Polish mathematician and logician. He was one of the leading representatives of the Warsaw School of Mathematics. He worked as a professor at the University of Warsaw and at the Mathematical Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Between 1946 and 1953, he served as President of the Polish Mathematical Society.
Jane Krakowski is an American actress. She starred as Jenna Maroney in the NBC satirical comedy series 30 Rock, for which she received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Krakowski's other television roles have included Elaine Vassal in the Fox legal comedy-drama series Ally McBeal (1997–2002) and Jacqueline White in the Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020). For the latter, she received another Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series nomination.
Antoni Zygmund was a Polish-American mathematician. He worked mostly in the area of mathematical analysis, including especially harmonic analysis, and he is considered one of the greatest analysts of the 20th century. Zygmund was responsible for creating the Chicago school of mathematical analysis together with his doctoral student Alberto Calderón, for which he was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1986.
Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński is a Polish cinematographer and director.
Agnieszka Holland is a Polish film and television director and screenwriter, best known for her political contributions to Polish cinema. She began her career as an assistant to directors Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej Wajda, and emigrated to France shortly before the 1981 imposition of the martial law in Poland.
Magdalena Abakanowicz was a Polish sculptor and fiber artist. Known for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium and for outdoor installations, Abakanowicz has been considered among the most influential Polish artists of the postwar era. She worked as a professor of studio art at the University of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland, from 1965 to 1990, and as a visiting professor at University of California, Los Angeles in 1984.
The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences or Polish Academy of Learning, headquartered in Kraków and founded in 1872, is one of two institutions in contemporary Poland having the nature of an academy of sciences.
Andrzej Teodor Seweryn is a Polish actor and director. Regarded as one of the most successful Polish theatre actors, he starred in over 50 films, mostly in Poland, France, and Germany. He is also one of only three non-French actors to have been hired by the Paris-based Comédie-Française. In 2017, he received the Polish Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of painter Zdzisław Beksiński in the biographical film The Last Family. In 2023, he was honoured with the Polish Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in drama film Śubuk.
The Leon Schiller Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź, commonly known as Łódź Film School is a Polish academy for future actors, directors, photographers, camera operators and television staff. It was founded on 8 March 1948 in Łódź (Lodz).
Krystyna Jolanta Janda is a Polish film and theatre actress, director, and singer. She is best known internationally for playing leading roles in several films by Polish film director Andrzej Wajda, including Man of Marble and Man of Iron. She is widely considered one of the most popular and successful Polish actresses of her generation and an icon of Polish cinema.
Andrzej Chyra is a Polish actor and theatre director. He is a member of the Polish Film Academy and the European Film Academy. In 2006, he received the Polish Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Feliks Falk's drama film The Collector.
Maja Ostaszewska is a Polish actress. She made her screen debut appearing in small role in the 1993 historical drama film Schindler's List, before playing leading role in the drama film The Haven (1998), for which she received Polish Film Festival Award for Best Actress. She received her second Polish Film Festival Award for Best Actress for Prymas – trzy lata z tysiąca (2000). Since then, Ostaszewska appeared in more than 30 motion pictures and received six Polish Academy Award for Best Actress nominations, winning twice: for Jack Strong (2014) and Body (2015).
Agata Bronisława Buzek is a Polish actress and model. She began her career appearing in films The Ballad of the Windshield Washers (1998), The Gateway of Europe (1999), The Hexer (2001) and The Revenge (2002), receiving Polish Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for latter.
Kinga Anna Preis is a Polish actress. She is six-time Polish Film Awards–winner: four times for Best Supporting Actress in Tuesday (2001), In Darkness (2011), The Mighty Angel (2014), and I Never Cry (2020), and two times for Best Actress in Silence (2001) and The Collector (2005). She also four-time Gdynia Film Festival-winner.
Leonard Ian Abrahamson is an Irish film and television director. He is best known for directing independent films Adam & Paul (2004), Garage (2007), What Richard Did (2012), Frank (2014), and Room (2015), all of which contributed to Abrahamson's six Irish Film and Television Awards.
Agata Kulesza is a Polish actress who has appeared on film, television, and stage. She made her film debut playing the leading role in the 1993 comedy-drama Czlowiek z... and later appeared in films Poznań '56 (1996), The Spring to Come (2001), Moje pieczone kurczaki (2002), Expecting Love (2008) and Suicide Room (2011), for which she received Złota Kaczka Award for Best Actress.
Józef Razowski is a Polish entomologist and lepidopterist specializing in Tortricidae. He is an honorary member of the Polish Entomological Society and a working member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU). From 1988 to 1997, Razowski headed the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals.
Ryszard Lenczewski is a Polish film and television cinematographer with more than thirty feature film credits. Lenczewski has been the cinematographer for four of director Paweł Pawlikowski's feature films. His work on Pawlikowski's Ida (2014) has been widely recognized, garnering nominations for both the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award.