Pawel Pawlikowski Biography

Pawel Pawlikowski

Date of Birth: September 15, 1957

Pawel Pawlikowski was born in Warsaw, Poland, to a mother who was a ballerina and a father who was a doctor. However, they kept splitting up and getting back together. Finally, when Pawel was 14, his mother told him they were going on holiday to Britain. However, once they arrived in London, they sought political asylum and she went on to become an English literature lecturer at a university and married a British man.

At 19, Pawel was accepted to Oxford University, where he studied literature and philosophy. However, he found his calling as a director when he took a filmmaking workshop.

He began making documentaries in the late 1980s, which won awards around the world. His first non-documentary feature was The Stringer (1998). His third narrative film, My Summer of Love (2004) starring Emily Blunt and Paddy Considine, won several awards, including a 2005 BAFTA Award for Best British Film.

In 2006, Pawel's wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness and died several months later, leaving behind their son and daughter. It's something he doesn't like to discuss.

Once his children left for university, Pawel moved to Paris, where he shot his next film, The Woman in the Fifth (2011) starring Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas. Unfortunately, it was panned by both critics and the moviegoing public. After the film was completed, he returned to London.

His fifth fictional film, Ida (2013), about a novitiate nun who discovers a dark family secret, won an Oscar and a BAFTA award for Best Foreign Language Film. While accepting the Oscar, he dedicated the award to his late wife and his late parents.

In 2019, Pawel received two more Oscar nominations, this time for his sixth narrative film, Cold War, in the Foreign Language Film and Director categories. The film also received a nomination in the Cinematography category.

Pawel currently lives in Warsaw, where he teaches film direction and screenwriting at the Wajda Film School. He married Polish model and actress Malgorzata Bela in 2017.