Malgorzata Szumowska

Małgorzata Szumowska was born on March 26, 1973 in Cracow. She is a graduate of the Lodz Film School and also studied Art History. Her first short film Silence received many international awards. Ascension, her second short film, was presented in the 1999 Cannes Cinefoundation section. She is also the author and producer of several documentaries. At the age of 25, she made her first feature film A Happy Man. It received a special prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and was nominated for Best Director Prize at Sundance. She was chosen by Variety as one of the 10 best young European directors. Her second feature film, Stranger was also presented at Sundance and at the Panorama Special section of the Berlinale. In 2005 she started to work with Zentropa both as director and producer of a part of the series, "Visions of Europe" entitled Crossroad. In 2008 her third feature, 33 Scenes from Life, received the Silver Leopard Award at the Locarno Festival. It was selected by the Polish Film Academy. Her fourth feature Elles was presented at the 2009 Cannes L'Atelier section. Her film Cialo won the Silver Bear of the Best Film at the 65th Berlinal and the following year his film Twarz wins the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale.