ANDRZEJ WAJDA. MAN OF POLAND: A retrospective at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles
From September 5–7, 2025, Los Angeles will host a retrospective of Andrzej Wajda’s films, presented through the collaboration between the Wajda Film Centre and the American Cinematheque. A day earlier – on September 4 – Emerson College Los Angeles will host a discussion panel devoted to his work. This encounter between the American audience and one of the most important artists in world cinema will be an opportunity to rediscover films that – though deeply rooted in Polish history – carry a universal message and inspire reflection on values fundamental to every free society.
Andrzej Wajda’s work grows from the very core of the Polish experience – from the history, culture, and values that have shaped generations. Wajda came of age in the shadow of World War II, in a world marked by loss, heroism, and the necessity of moral choices. From this burden – and from Poland’s literary, painterly, and theatrical traditions – he built his own unique cinematic language.
His films blended romanticism with pragmatism, rebellion with compromise, memory with a vision of the future. His protagonists – soldiers, workers, artists – had to find their place in the dense web of history, ideology, and personal desires, and faced moral dilemmas that remain strikingly relevant in today’s world of tensions and divisions. Today, in an era of global debates on democracy, human rights, and civic responsibility, his films speak just as powerfully as they did on the day of their premieres.
For American audiences, Wajda’s work offers not only a record of Central and Eastern European history, but above all universal stories of courage, loyalty, and the search for meaning in a world without easy answers. These are values that connect audiences regardless of language or continent – and in the United States, where freedom is the foundation of national identity, they resonate in a particularly profound way.
The project Andrzej Wajda. Man of Poland is more than a film retrospective – it is an invitation to intercultural dialogue. Thanks to the collaboration between the Wajda Film Centre and the American Cinematheque, audiences in Los Angeles will be able to see both his most famous works and participate in meetings and discussions devoted to the director’s legacy. Each screening will be preceded by a short introduction delivered by experts.
PROGRAM
September 4, 2025, Thursday
Emerson College Los Angeles
7:00 PM – Opening Night Presentation and Reception at Emerson College
Discussion panel “The Legacy of Andrzej Wajda – 25 Years After His Honorary Oscar”
Panelists: Katarzyna Ślesicka, Grzegorz Skorupski, Artur Zaborski
To RSVP for the Sep. 4th event at Emerson College, please email james_lane@emerson.edu.
September 5, 2025, Friday
American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre
Opening Night and Reception
7:30 PM – ASHES AND DIAMONDS / EVERYTHING FOR SALE – double feature
Introduction by Artur Zaborski, Vice-Rector of the Warsaw Film School
September 6, 2025, Saturday
American Cinematheque at Los Feliz 3
12:30 PM – MAN OF MARBLE
Introduction by Grzegorz Skorupski, Wajda Film Centre / Film Producer
4:00 PM – MAN OF IRON
Introduction by Grzegorz Skorupski, Wajda Film Centre / Film Producer
September 7, 2025, Sunday
American Cinematheque at Los Feliz 3
1:00 PM – KANAL
Introduction by Grzegorz Skorupski, Wajda Film Centre / Film Producer
Screening as part of the American Cinematheque’s “Sunday Print Edition” series, showcasing films from 35mm prints
4:00 PM – KATYN
Introduction by Artur Zaborski, Vice-Rector of the Warsaw Film School
DISCUSSION PANEL
A key part of Andrzej Wajda. Man of Poland will be the discussion panel at Emerson College Los Angeles, designed as a compass for viewers who are just discovering the figure of the director and the context in which his films were made. The event will take place on September 4 and will begin with a presentation on Andrzej Wajda and the historical and cultural background of his work – from his childhood during World War II and his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, through the years of the Polish Film School, the cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, the political transformation of 1989, to the contemporary period, his Honorary Oscar, and the founding of the Wajda School.
The discussion will also focus on Wajda’s protagonists – from Zadra and Stokrotka in Kanal, through Maciek Chełmicki in Ashes and Diamonds, Mateusz Birkut and Agnieszka in Man of Marble, to Maciek Tomczyk in Man of Iron and Lech Wałęsa in Wałęsa: Man of Hope. Using these characters as examples, panel participants will explore Wajda’s ideals, his ways of circumventing censorship, and his courage in asking difficult questions.
Part of the meeting will be devoted to mutual inspirations – the influence of American cinema on Wajda’s work, and the impact of his films on directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. The panel will conclude with a reflection on what Wajda offers us today: how his characters, entangled in ideological tensions and moral choices, help us understand the modern world, where we still have to find our place amid clashing ideologies.
Organizers:
Partners:
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state special-purpose fund.
The event is co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.
Media Partner:
