Including new 4K restorations of ASHES AND DIAMONDS, KANAL, A GENERATION,
MAN OF MARBLE, MAN OF IRON, and much more
Co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute New York and Di Factory
And co-financed by the Polish Film Institute
Commemorating the centennial of the great Polish director with ANDRZEJ WAJDA 100, a three-week, 25-film retrospective of Central and Eastern Europe's most provocatively political post-war filmmaker, will run from Friday, October 2 through Thursday, October 22 at Film Forum.
The great Polish director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016) was just fourteen when his father was killed by Stalin’s troops; two years later, he was a resistance fighter against the Nazis. These experiences informed the classic War Trilogy, A GENERATION (1955), KANAL (1957), and ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958) which launched his prolific career. Drawing on his training as a visual artist and on his parallel career as an innovative theater director, Wajda made a wide range of films, yet almost all of them focus on the ways we are shaped by the forces of history. His trilogy MAN OF MARBLE (1977), MAN OF IRON (1981) and WALESA: MAN OF HOPE (2013) traced the conflict between Communism and democracy that sparked the Solidarity movement. Wajda’s filmography contains many lesser-known gems, including, INNOCENT SORCERERS (1960), a freewheeling film about youthful unrest co-written by Jerzy Skolimowski, THE MAIDS OF WILKO (1979), a poetic pastorale about a disaffected city bachelor who revisits the country estate, and women, of his youth, and the French production DANTON (1983) starring Gerard Depardieu, in which the French revolution becomes an allegory for Polish history.
The key to Wajda’s artistry is that his films are at once specific to the Polish experience and universal in their human drama. As Agnieszka Holland explained “As Wajda searched for the essence of a historical experience, he portrayed the nation’s collective fate and its existential consequences for the individual. In this way, he inscribed the Polish experience onto that of humanity while remaining a Polish artist.” In a career that spanned six decades, Wajda remained true to his deep love for his country, even when he faced government resistance and had to circumvent censors. While his films are rooted in history, they are vitally relevant today. As Wajda himself said, “The appetite for political cinema always grows wherever there is a great desire for truth and a need to voice one’s protest or discontent.”
"Andrzej Wajda was one of the greatest filmmakers we’ve ever had,” Martin Scorsese said in a statement to Film Forum. “His craftsmanship, his fearless commitment to the truth, his deep love for his homeland, his obsessive passion for cinema—you can feel it all in every frame and every cut of every picture he ever made. Wajda left behind one of the most formidable bodies of work in the history of the art form. He was a true master.”
“2026 has been officially designated the Year of Andrzej Wajda by the Senate of the Republic of Poland, with retrospectives of his films taking place around the world to mark the centenary of his birth and the 10th anniversary of his death. The Polish Cultural Institute New York is proud to join Film Forum and Di Factory in bringing the remarkable range of Wajda’s cinema to New York audiences,” said Frederik Heringa, Film and Performing Arts Curator at the Polish Cultural Institute New York.
“Wajda’s films are an essential part of Poland’s cultural memory, tracing how individual lives are shaped by war, repression, resistance and political transformation, while returning again and again to questions of responsibility, freedom and moral choice. At the same time, his work could be deeply poetic, intimate and introspective, and we are especially excited that this retrospective gives New York filmgoers a rare opportunity to discover those less internationally known dimensions of his filmmaking.”
Public Screening Schedule (subject to change; check web for latest)
세대 A GENERATION
Poland, 1955
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Tadeusz Łomnicki, Urszula Modrzyńska, Roman Polanski
Based on the novel Pokolenie by Bohdan Czeszko Approx. 83 min.
Friday, October 2 at 12:30
Saturday, October 3 at 4:30
Sunday, October 4 at 12:40
Monday, October 12 at 12:15
카날 KANAL
Poland, 1957
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Teresa Iżewska, Tadeusz Janczar, Wieńczysław Gliński
Based on the story They Loved Life by Jerzy Stefan Stawinski
WINNER Cannes Film Festival, Special Jury Prize, 1957 Approx. 97 min.
Friday, October 2 at 2:30
Saturday, October 3 at 6:40
Sunday, October 4 at 2:40
Tuesday, October 6 at 12:20
Monday, October 12 at 2:30
재와 다이아몬드 ASHES AND DIAMONDS
Poland, 1958
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Zbigniew Cybulski, Ewa Krzyżewska, Wacław Zastrzeżyński
Based on the novel by Jerzy Andrzejewski
Winner of the 1959 Venice Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize Approx. 103 min. New 4K restoration/35mm
Saturday, October 3 at 8:50
Sunday, October 4 at 4:50 (35mm)
Monday, October 5 at 12:30
Wednesday, October 7 at 9:00 (35mm)
INNOCENT SORCERERS
Poland, 1960
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Tadeusz Łomnicki, Krystyna Stypułkowska, Zbigniew Cybulski Approx. 87 min. 4K restoration.
Saturday, October 3 at 2:30 Tuesday, October 6 at 4:25
LOTNA
Poland, 1959
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Jerzy Pichelski, Adam Pawlikowski, Jerzy Moes, Mieczysław Loza, Roman Polanski
Based on the short story by Wojciech Zukrowski Approx. 85 min.
Saturday, October 3 at 12:15
Monday, October 5 at 2:40
Thursday, October 8 at 6:00
Monday, October 12 at 8:50
THE WEDDING
Poland, 1972
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Marek Walczewski, Iza Olszewska, Ewa Ziętek, Daniel Olbrychski
Based on the play by Stanislaw Wyspianski Approx. 107 min.
Monday, October 5 at 6:00
Thursday, October 8 at 3:30
ROUGH TREATMENT
Poland, 1978
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Ewa Dałkowska, Andrzej Seweryn, Krystyna Janda Approx. 131 min.
Monday, October 5 at 8:10
Wednesday, October 7 at 1:00
EVERYTHING FOR SALE
Poland, 1969
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Andrzej Łapicki, Beata Tyszkiewicz, Elżbieta Czyżewska, Daniel Olbrychski Approx. 105 min.
Tuesday, October 6 at 2:20
Sunday, October 11 at 7:20
KATYN
Poland, 2007
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Andrzej Chyra, Maja Ostaszewska, Artur Żmijewski, Danuta Stenka, Jan Englert
NOMINEE Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film, 2008 Approx. 122 min. 4K restoration.
Tuesday, October 6 at 8:35
Wednesday, October 14 at 12:15 Sunday, October 18 at 12:30
코르차크 KORCZAK
Poland, 1990
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Written by Agnieszka Holland
Starring Wojciech Pszoniak, Ewa Dałkowska, Teresa Budzisz-Krzyżanowska, Marzena Trybała Approx. 118 min.
Wednesday, October 7 at 3:40
Thursday, October 8 at 8:00
Friday, October 9 at 1:00
Tuesday, October 13 at 4:30
Saturday, October 17 at 7:50
Thursday, October 22 at 12:20
당통 DANTON
France, 1983
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Gérard Depardieu, Wojciech Pszoniak, Anne Alvaro
Based on Stanislawa Przybyszewska’s play, The Danton Affair Approx. 136 min.
Wednesday, October 7 at 6:10
Thursday, October 8 at 12:40
Friday, October 9 at 3:30
대리석 인간 MAN OF MARBLE
Poland, 1977
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, Tadeusz Łomnicki
WINNER Cannes Film Festival, International Critics' Prize (FIPRESCI), 1978 Approx. 160 min.
Friday, October 9 at 6:30
Saturday, October 10 at 1:00
Sunday, October 11 at 1:00
Friday, October 16 at 12:30
Wednesday, October 21 at 12:15
철의 인간 MAN OF IRON
Poland, 1981
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, Marian Opania
WINNER Cannes Film Festival, Palme d'Or, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, 1981 Approx. 153 min. 4K restoration.
Saturday, October 10 at 4:15 Friday, October 16 at 4:00 Thursday, October 22 at 2:50
약속의 땅 THE PROMISED LAND
Poland, 1975
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Daniel Olbrychski, Wojciech Pszoniak, Andrzej Seweryn
Based on Nobel Prize laureate Władysław Reymont’s novel
NOMINEE Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film, 1976 Approx. 180 min. 4K restoration.
Sunday, October 11 at 4:00
Tuesday, October 13 at 1:00
Friday, October 16 at 7:10
THE BIRCH WOOD
Poland, 1970
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Daniel Olbrychski, Emilia Krakowska, Olgierd Łukaszewicz
Based on the short story by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz Approx. 99 min.
Wednesday, October 14 at 2:45
Thursday, October 15 at 5:30
THE MAIDS OF WILKO
Poland, 1979
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Daniel Olbrychski, Anna Seniuk, Christine Pascal, Maja Komorowska, Stanisława Celińska, Krystyna Zachwatowicz
Based on the novella by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz
NOMINEE Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film, 1980 Approx. 118 min. 4K restoration.
Wednesday, October 14 at 5:20
Thursday, October 15 at 7:40
WALESA: MAN OF HOPE
Poland, 2013
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Robert Więckiewicz, Agnieszka Grochowska, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Cezary Kosiński Approx. 127 min. 4K restoration.
Saturday, October 10 at 7:20
Wednesday, October 14 at 7:50
Thursday, October 22 at 8:00
LANDSCAPE AFTER BATTLE
Poland, 1970
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Daniel Olbrychski, Stanisława Celińska, Aleksander Bardini, Tadeusz Janczar
Based on the writings of Holocaust survivor Tadeusz Borowski Approx. 101 min.
Thursday, October 15 at 3:00
Saturday, October 17 at 3:10
THE CONDUCTOR
Poland, 1980
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring John Gielgud, Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Seweryn Approx. 101 min.
Thursday, October 15 at 1:00
Saturday, October 17 at 5:30
SIBERIAN LADY MACBETH
Yugoslavia/Poland, 1962
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Olivera Marković, Ljuba Tadić, Bojan Stupica Approx. 93 min. 35mm print courtesy UCLA FIlm and Television Archive
Saturday, October 17 at 12:50
Monday, October 19 at 3:30
SAMSON
Poland, 1961
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Serge Merlin, Alina Janowska, Elżbieta Kępińska Approx. 115 min. 4K restoration.
Sunday, October 18 at 2:50
Tuesday, October 20 at 5:20
Wednesday, October 21 at 8:10
THE ASHES
Poland, 1965
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Daniel Olbrychski, Bogusław Kierc, Piotr Wysocki Approx. 234 min.
Sunday, October 18 at 5:30
AFTERIMAGE
Poland, 2016
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Bogusław Linda, Bronisława Zamachowska, Zofia Wichłacz Approx. 98 min. 4K Restoration.
Monday, October 12 at 6:40
Monday, October 19 at 1:00
Wednesday, October 21 at 6:00
SWEET RUSH
Poland, 2009
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Krystyna Janda, Paweł Szajda, Jan Englert Approx. 85 min.
Monday, October 19 at 8:00
Tuesday, October 20 at 3:00
Wednesday, October 21 at 4:00
A CHRONICLE OF AMOROUS INCIDENTS
Poland, 1986
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Piotr Wawrzyńczak, Paulina Młynarska, Joanna Szczepkowska Approx. 114 min.
Monday, October 19 at 8:00
Tuesday, October 20 at 1:00
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