Two Oscars for Polish creators. Over a hundred Poles worked on the awarded film

The first Pole to win was the conductor Leopold Stokowski, who received a statuette from the Academy for his contribution to the production of the animated film “Fantazja” by Walt Disney in 1941. After 12 years, another statuette went to Bronisław Kaper for the music to “Lili”. Over time, the number of awards given to Poles began to increase.

Oscars 2024. Two statuettes for Poles

In 2000, the Academy awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement to Andrzej Wajda. In recent years, there has been a Polish accent among the nominees almost every year. In 2023, “IO” by Jerzy Skolimowski competed for the Oscar, and a year earlier “The Dress” by Tadeusz Łysiak.

When the nominations for the 2024 Oscars were announced, Polish filmmakers were counting on a nomination for “Peasants” directed by DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman. Unfortunately, the Academy omitted the title, but this does not mean that the gala took place without Polish accents. Two statuettes went to the creators of “Strefa Biznesu”.

“Business Zone” with two Oscars. Over 100 Poles worked on the film

Jonathan Glazer’s latest film received five Oscar nominations. The creators left the gala with two statuettes – for the best sound and the best international film. It is worth noting that the producer of the picture is Ewa Puszczyńska, who, like Radosław Śmigulski, director of the Polish Film Institute, and Jędrzej Sabliński, a member of the Polish Film Academy, appeared at the ceremony in Los Angeles.

The contribution of Poles to the film “Business Zone” was very large. Over a hundred of our compatriots worked on the production. Łukasz Żal was responsible for the photos, Waldemar Pokromski for the make-up, Joanna Maria Kuś and Katarzyna Sikora were responsible for the set design, and Małgorzata Karpiuk was responsible for the costumes, among others.

While accepting the Oscar, director Jonathan Glazer thanked from the stage both the Polish Film Institute, which partially financed the production, and the Auschwitz Museum, with which the creators consulted on substantive issues crucial to the production.

“I have not seen a better or more important film on the subject of the Holocaust. History has shown us that there is atrocity that cannot be described by any metaphor. There are no epithets for it in dictionaries, there are no color palettes, and the screen is sometimes not fair enough. Jonathan Glazer’s work defies the usual clichés of the war narrative and what is most striking is what it does not show,” I wrote in my review of “Zones of Interest.”