"Cold War" Nominated for the Oscars in Three Categories!

“Cold War” nominated for the 91st Academy Awards in three categories! Co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, the film will compete for Oscars in the categories of Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography. Nominees were announced on January 22, the winners will be announced on February 24, 2019.

The huge success of “Cold War”

Photo by Marcin Kułakowski/PISF

“There is no coincidence here, the level of the director’s artistry is not a subject for a discussion, however, it is worth noticing the big effort put into the production of this film. I congratulate you on your professionalism, which, with the high artistic level presented by its makers – director, cinematographer, actors, the whole crew, translates into this success. Without professional production work, this success can’t have been achieved” – said the Head of the Polish Film Institute, Radosław Śmigulski, during the meeting organized in the Kultura Cinema shortly after the nominations were announced.

“These are the nominations for the whole team, for the whole crew, for all those who have worked on this film. We managed to create an atmosphere in which we all worked on one effect, which is why these nominations are not only for Paweł, not only for the film, but for everyone, for the whole crew. I want to congratulate and thank everybody. I would also like to thank the Polish Film Institute for supporting this film and for their help” – thanked Ewa Puszczyńska, the producer of the film.

Łukasz Żal’s nomination

Photo by Marcin Kułakowski/PISF

“I am very moved and happy, I did not think about it until the nomination was announced, I tried to deny it. I am very happy that I could take part in the journey, which was making this film” – said Łukasz Żal sharing his first impressions after receiving the nomination.

Three historical nominations

Photo by Marcin Kułakowski/PISF

“Since the premiere in Cannes, till today, Ewa Puszczyńska and Paweł Pawlikowski have been working really hard. This is a continuous work, a continuous promotion of this film, but as you can see, it was worth the three historical nominations for the Polish film. I can only thank Ewa and Paweł, and congratulate Łukasz”, said the performer of the role of Kaczmarek – Borys Szyc. “I am very happy that I was invited to this project, it will be the fifth film of all my film nominated for an Oscar, in other words, it is the tenth Oscar director with whom I worked. I am very happy that there are three nominations, and the amazing fact is that it is the first film with three Oscar nominations in the history of our cinematography ” – said Waldemar Pokromski, the makeup artist of the film.

“Cold War” – another film by Paweł Pawlikowski with a chance for Oscar Award

This year, once again, Paweł Pawlikowski’s film has been nominated for the awards of the American Film Academy. The second Oskar nomination was received by Łukasz Żal, cinematographer of “Cold War”. The director’s previous film, “Ida”, won an Oscar in 2015. It was the first Oscar for the Polish film in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

Oscar Nominees in the categories:

Best Foreign Language Film:

“Cold War”, dir. Paweł Pawlikowski (Poland)
“Capernaum”, dir. Nadine Labaki (Lebanon)
“Roma”, dir. Alfonso Cuaron (Mexico)
“Never Look Away”, dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (Germany)
“Shoplifters”, dir. Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan)

Best Director:

Paweł Pawlikowski (“Cold War”)
Alfonso Cuaron (“Roma”)
Spike Lee (“BlackkKlansman”)
Yorgos Lanthimos (“Favorite”)
Adam McKay (“Vice”)

Best Cinematography:

Łukasz Żal (“Cold War”)
Alfonso Cuaron (“Roma”)
Matthew Libatique (“A Star Is Born”)
Caleb Deschanel (“Never Look Away”)
Robbie Ryan (“The Favourite”)

Polish-British-French co-production with the support of the Polish Film Institute

“Cold War” is a Polish-British-French co-production. The film’s producers are Ewa Puszczyńska and Tanya Seghatchian. The Polish producer of the film is Opus Film Studio, the British producer is Apocalypso Pictures, and the French producer is MK Productions. The film was co-financed, inter alia, by the Polish Film Institute, Film4, British Film Institute, CNC, ARTE France, Canal + Poland and the Eurimages Fund. The co-producers of the picture are, among others, Mazowiecki and Warszawski Film Fund, Łódź Film Fund, Silesian Film Fund and Podkarpacki Film Fund. MK2 Films and Protagonist Pictures are responsible for international sales. “Cold War”, distributed by Kino Swiat, has had over 940, 000 admissions to date in Poland and is available on DVD, Blu-ray and VoD services.

Paweł Pawlikowski’s film features Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc, Agata Kulesza. The screenplay was written by Paweł Pawlikowski in cooperation with Janusz Głowacki and Piotr Borkowski. Łukasz Żal is responsible for the cinematography, Jarosław Kamiński for the editing, Waldemar Pokromski for the make-up, Katarzyna Sobańska and Marcel Sławiński for set design and interior design, Aleksander Staszko for the costumes, Maciej Pawłowski and Mirosław Makowski for the sound and Marcin Masecki for music arrangement. DI Factory is responsible for the post-production of the image.

Another success of the “Cold War”

The Oscar nomination is consequent international success of Paweł Pawlikowski’s film, which has won, among others, an award for directing at the Cannes festival or five European Film Awards (the best European film, the best European director, the best European screenwriter, the best European actress and the best Editor). The film won ,inter alia, the FIPRESCI award at the Palm Springs IFF for the Best Actress in a non-English film (Joanna Kulig), the New York Film Critics Association Award for the best non-English film, the New York Film Critics Online Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category, New Mexico Critics’ awards in the best original screnplay category (second place) and the Best Cinematography, National Board of Review awards in the best foreign language category, and London Critics’ Circle Film Awards for the best non-English film and for Łukasz Żal for technical achievements, Silver Frog for Łukasz Żal at Camerimage Festival , „Golden Lions”, awards for sound and editing at the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia.

“Cold War” has been nominated for many other awards, including BAFTA, British Academy Awards (best foreign language film, best director, best original script, best cinematography) – award ceremony: February 10; American Association of Cinematographers (ASC) (nomination for Łukasz Żal) – award ceremony: February 9; Goya Awards (the best European film) – awards: February 2; Swedish Film Awards Guldbaggen (the best foreign language film) – award ceremony: January 28.

The Polish film has also been nominated for the Critics’ Choice Awards in the best foreign language film category; for awards granted by the Chicago and San Francisco Critics Association (nominations in Best Picture and Best Foreign Language categories), the Washington Critics Association Award, the British Independent Film Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category and the Satellite Awards (nominations in the best foreign language film and the best cinematography categories).

The successes of the Polish cinema

This is the fourth Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category since the creation of the Polish Film Institute in 2005. In 2008, the nomination went to Andrzej Wajda’s “Katyn”, in 2012 to “In Darkness” by Agnieszka Holland, in 2015 to “Ida” and in 2019 to “Cold War” by Paweł Pawlikowski.

In the Best Cinematography category Łukasz Żal and Ryszard Lenczewski were nominated for “Ida”. In 2018, “Loving Vincent” by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman was nominated in the category of Best Feature Animated Film. It was the first such an award for the full-length Polish animation.

The Poles also received three nominations in the category of Best Short Documentary Film – in 2010 “Rabbit à la Berlin” by Bartek Konopka was nominated, and in 2015 these were, “Joanna” by Aneta Kopacz and “Our curse” by Tomasz Śliwiński. In 2008, the Polish-British production “Peter and the Wolf” directed by Suzie Templeton won an Oscar in the Animated Short Film category.

This year, two other films co-financed by the Polish Film Institute stood the chance for the nomination: “Communion” by Anna Zamecka and “Ayka” by Sergei Dvortsevoy.