Komasa was raised in Warsaw, where his family moved in 1988. He attended Stanislaw Moniuszko Primary Music School. He, along with his siblings, was a child actor in television shows, programmes and movies due to his mother's professional engagement at Polish Television.
In the upcoming years he focused on directing music videos, commercials with the exception of full-length documentary film The Flow (2007) which premiered at Kraków Film Festival and television film Wroclaw's Golgotha (2008) which won lead actor's award at Monte-Carlo Television Festival along with Grand Prix and 5 other awards at Polish Radio and Television Dramatic Art “Two Theatres” Festival.
He created a concept of a unique full-length documentary he directed - Warsaw Uprising (2014) which was a critical and box office success with 700.000 viewers in Polish cinemas. The film received very good reviews from Los Angeles Times (“Warsaw Uprising” is not only a unique, remarkably assembled documentary-narrative hybrid but also a powerful look at the personal and public devastation that can occur during wartime. Movies rarely feel as authentic as this”[17]) to Village Voice (Despite its context in a global conflict, “Uprising” is a strangely intimate film.[18]) to Times of Israel(…a mesmerizing account of the fierce house-to-house fighting against the German.[19]) Warsaw Uprising was awarded with Golden Reel Award 2015 for Best Documentary[20] and Polish Film Award for Best Documentary and Best Sound Design.
His biggest box office success came with a blockbuster he wrote and directed - an epic period film Warsaw 44 (2014). He wrote the script in January 2006 and the film took 8 years to produce. Warsaw 44 depicts a tragic story of young people fighting in Warsaw Uprising. The film premiered at Busan Film Festival,[21] won Golden Lions for Best Actress, Best Sound, Best Special Effects at Gdynia Film Festival, received Polish Film Awards for Discovery of the Year, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Film award at China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers FF and was followed by 1.800.000 admissions to Polish cinemas and a worldwide distribution.
In 2015 he directed second season of crime series Blood Of The Blood, a format based on Dutch series Penose starring Agata Kulesza.
2016 was a year in which Komasa switched from film set to a theater stage to create an epic contemporary dance multimedia show Ksenophony at Malta Festival Poznań to commemorate 60th anniversary of his hometown's Poznań protests of 1956.[22] In the show a rare technic of algorhytmic kinetic lights was used.
His film The Hater (2020) became one of the first movies disrupted by COVID-19 outbreak premiering on 6 March 2020 in Poland before the cinemas in the country were closed down 6 days later due to partial national lockdown administered by the Polish government. To mitigate inevitable losses and take advantage of still ongoing advertising campaign The Hater began being distributed on VOD platforms domestically on 18 March. The Hater was selected to International Main Competition at 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, which ultimately went online due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The film won Best International Narrative Feature[31] award and its world rights were acquired by Netflix.[32]
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.
Polish Film Award, or Eagle is the national film award of Poland. It has been delivered annually since 1999, with the first event held on 21 June, by the National Chamber of Audiovisual Producers (KIPA). Since 2003 they have been awarded by the Polish Film Academy.
Krystyna Jolanta Janda is a Polish film and theater actress best known internationally for playing leading roles in several films by Polish director Andrzej Wajda, including Man of Marble and Man of Iron.
Borys Lankosz is a Polish film director.
Suicide Room is a 2011 Polish drama thriller film written and directed by Jan Komasa, and starring Jakub Gierszał as a popular high school student whose life quickly deteriorates into ostracisation and depression.
Wojciech Kasperski is a Polish screenwriter, film director and producer. In 2006 he received the Grand Prix for The Seeds for Best Documentary at Kraków Film Festival, and went on to win several prestigious awards including Sterling Short Grand Jury Award at AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival. His short films won over forty awards and recognitions around the world and garnered extensive media attention and critical acclaim. Winner of Golden Laurel, Russian Film Academy Award for Best Short Documentary.
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.
Jewish Motifs International Film Festival is a major Jewish-themed film festival held annually in Warsaw, Poland. The festival has been held every year since 2004.
Warsaw 44 is a 2014 Polish war film written and directed by Jan Komasa. The film depicts the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 during the German occupation of Poland.
Zbigniew Bzymek is a filmmaker, experimental theatre and music video artist who lives and works in New York City. He is best known for his film Utopians, which premiered at The 61st Berlin International Film Festival and for winning the Grand Prix at the 31st Rencontres Henri Langlois. He has been called "a young filmmaker to follow" by Stéphane Delorme in the French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma. In theatre, he has worked with Krystian Lupa and Elizabeth LeCompte and has been a longtime member of The Wooster Group.
Aleksandra Konieczna is a Polish film and stage actress. She is a three-time Polish Film Award winner for her roles in The Last Family (2016), A Cat with a Dog (2018) and Corpus Christi (2019). Her television credits include Na Wspólnej (2008–present), Diagnosis (2017–2018) and Belfer (2017).
The El Gouna Film Festival is an annual film festival established in 2017, held in the Red Sea resort town of El Gouna, Egypt. The inaugural festival started September 22, 2017. The psychological thriller Scary Mother, by Georgian first-time director Ana Urushadze, took the Golden Star, the festival's top feature film competition prize. Oscar-winning actor-director Forest Whitaker was feted with a lifetime achievement award.
Bathtubs Over Broadway is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Dava Whisenant. Comedy writer Steve Young’s assignment to scour bargain-bin vinyl for a late-night segment becomes an unexpected, decades-spanning obsession when he stumbles upon the strange and hilarious world of industrial musicals. The film premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was released on November 30, 2018 by Focus World.
The 76th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 28 August to 7 September 2019.
Corpus Christi is a 2019 drama film directed by Jan Komasa and written by Mateusz Pacewicz. An international co-production between Poland and France, the film stars Bartosz Bielenia, Aleksandra Konieczna, Eliza Rycembel, Tomasz Ziętek, Leszek Lichota, and Łukasz Simlat. Inspired by real-life events, it follows a 20-year-old man who experiences a spiritual transformation while living in a youth detention center.
Bartosz Bielenia is a Polish film and stage actor.
Łukasz Palkowski is a Polish film director and screenwriter.
Mateusz Pacewicz is a Polish award-winning screenwriter and film director.
Tomasz Ziętek is a Polish film and theatre actor as well as musician and guitarist.
The Hater is a 2020 Polish social thriller film directed by Jan Komasa and written by Mateusz Pacewicz. The plot centres around an expelled university student from Warsaw who attempts to steer the internet, causing widespread hatred and violence. It premiered on 6 March 2020 in Poland and went on to win the Best International Narrative Feature Award at Tribeca Film Festival.
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