Retrospective of Andrzej Wajda’s Films at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.
Together with our partners in Washington, D.C. – AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, National Gallery of Art, and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland – we invite you to a special retrospective of films by Andrzej Wajda, taking place from April 24 to June 29, 2026. The program has been organized to mark the centennial of the director’s birth and the celebrations of the Year of Andrzej Wajda.
The retrospective presents nine films spanning more than six decades of work by one of Poland’s most important filmmakers. Andrzej Wajda’s cinema is both a reflection on the Polish experience and a universal exploration of power, resistance, and the responsibility of the artist. His work has had a lasting impact on world cinema, influencing directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and earning major international recognition, including the Palme d’Or and honorary awards from the Academy Awards, Venice Film Festival, and Berlin International Film Festival.
The program opens with the landmark War Trilogy: A Generation (1955), Kanal (1957), and Ashes and Diamonds (1958). It also includes powerful critiques of the political realities of communist Poland – Man of Marble (1977) and Man of Iron (1981) – as well as less frequently screened works such as Innocent Sorcerers (1960), and later films including Korczak (1990) and Afterimage (2016), the director’s final work.
An integral part of the event will be the presentation of the exhibition “Wajda. Universe”, devoted to the protagonists of Andrzej Wajda’s films, who guide viewers through the stories that form his cinematic universe.
Additional screenings of selected films will take place at the National Gallery of Art in the second half of the year.
AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center is one of the leading film institutions in the United States, operated by the American Film Institute. Located in a historic cinema in Silver Spring, just outside Washington, D.C., it presents a program that includes world cinema classics, filmmaker retrospectives, and national film series.
National Gallery of Art is one of the most important art museums in the United States, with extensive collections ranging from the Middle Ages to contemporary art. The institution also runs a significant film program, presenting screenings and curated series of international art-house cinema.
