Ewa Braun with the 50th Polish Film Festival Platinum Lions Award
The award of the 50th anniversary Polish Film Festival in Gdynia for lifetime achievements will go to Ewa Braun, outstanding production designer and interior decorator. She will be presented with the award during the Closing Gala of the 50th Polish Film Festival.
This is extremely joyful news for me! I am honoured by the decision to award me the Platinum Lions for lifetime achievements. Traditionally, this award has been given primarily to directors, and I am really proud that by the decision of the Festival Organising Committee, on the recommendation of the Polish Filmmakers Association and the Festival Programme Council, I will receive this extremely prestigious award. Especially since the presentation will take place at the 50th anniversary Polish Film Festival Awards Ceremony. I am well satisfied that for the second time, after Agnieszka Holland, a female director will be awarded – comments the award recipient, Ewa Braun.
This year, the Platinum Lions will be awarded to an artist who is gifted with exceptional cinematic sensitivity and, at the same time, extremely precise in her actions. In the intricate worlds she creates on set, every detail, texture, colour and shape comes into play. Working in film is like taking an extraordinary journey in time“, says Ewa Braun, and I am already looking forward to the joint journey with the laureate in Gdynia – says the Artistic Director, Joanna Łapińska.
Director Jan P. Matuszyński, Chairman of the PFF Programme Council, comments on the choice of the winner: This year’s Platinum Lions will go to a person who combines the history of cinema with the present. As the Chairman of the PFF Programme Council, which proposed this candidacy, I am happy that we can distinguish Ewa Braun, who, thanks to her work, can make us feel as if time is standing still. May cinema always have such timeless power.
Ewa Braun is a production and costume designer, interior decorator, art professor, and lecturer at the Faculty of Stage Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. From 1999 to 2023, she taught at the Łódź Film School, where she supervised 120 short films directed by students..
In 1993, she won an Oscar for set decoration on Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, shared with Allan Starski (art direction). Earlier, at the 1987 PFF in Gdynia, she received the award for art direction for Waldemar Dziki’s The Young Magician, together with the team of production designers and interior decorators. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with renowned Polish and foreign directors on over sixty films and television series.
She designed costumes for such films as Pedestrian Subway (dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1973), Jealousy and Medicine (dir. Janusz Majewski, 1973), Hotel Pacific (dir. Janusz Majewski, 1975), and Hospital of the Transfiguration (dir. Edward Żebrowski, 1978).
As an interior decorator, she worked with Steven Spielberg on Schindler’s List(1994); Volker Schlöndorff on The Ogre (1996); Janusz Majewski on The Gorgon Case (1977), the TV series Królowa Bona (1980), An Epitaph for Barbara Radziwill (1982), H.M. Deserters(1985),and Deserter’s Gold (1998); Jan Rybkowski and Marek Nowicki on the TV series The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma (1980); Wojciech Jerzy Has on An Uneventful Story (1982); Agnieszka Holland on Europa Europa (1990); Tadeusz Konwicki on Lava (1989); Andrzej Wajda on Holy Week (1995); and Krzysztof Zanussi on The Illumination (1972), Camouflage (1976), and Wherever You Are (1988).
As a production designer, she worked with Krzysztof Zanussi on Life for Life: Maximilian Kolbe (1990), The Touch(1992), and Our God’s Brother(1997); Costa-Gavras on The Little Apocalypse (1992); and Peter Kassovitz on Jakob the Liar (1999).
Ewa Braun was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a founder and member of the Polish Film Academy. From 1990 to 1996, she was a member of the Main Board of the Polish Filmmakers Association.
During the Festival there will be events with the participation of Ewa Braun. The festival audience will have an opportunity to watch An Uneventful Story by Wojciech Jerzy Has with set decoration by Ewa Braun, additionally the winner will take part in the The Big Five section and host a masterclass.
The 50th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia will take place on 22nd–27th September 2025. The Producer of the Festival is the Pomeranian Film Foundation in Gdynia.
photo Anita Walczewska/East News/SFP
