List of Polish Academy Award winners and nominees

This is a list of Academy Award winners and nominees whose career and identification are associated predominantly with Poland. The list is current as of the 94th Academy Awards nominations. There were fifteen Academy Awards given to Polish filmmakers for their work, including one Honorary Academy Award, one Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, and one Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The cinematographer Janusz Kamiński is the most awarded Polish filmmaker. The director Roman Polański won an Oscar and was nominated four more times (additionally, Knife in the Water, a film directed and written by him, was also nominated). There were thirteen Polish pictures nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

Best Actress – Leading Role

Academy Award for Best Actress
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1967 Ida Kamińska The Shop on Main Street Nominated

Best Art Direction

Art Direction
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1994 Ewa Braun
Allan Starski
Schindler's List Won

Best Costume Design

Academy Award for Best Costume Design
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1994 Anna B. Sheppard Schindler's List Nominated
2003 The Pianist Nominated
2014 Maleficent Nominated

Best Cinematography

Cinematography
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1993 Janusz Kamiński Schindler's List Won
1994 Piotr Sobociński Three Colours: Red Nominated (French title: Trois couleurs: Rouge; Polish title: Trzy kolory: Czerwony)
1997 Janusz Kamiński Amistad Nominated
1998 Saving Private Ryan Won
2001 Sławomir Idziak Black Hawk Down Nominated
2002 Paweł Edelman The Pianist Nominated
2007 Janusz Kamiński The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Nominated
2011 War Horse Nominated
2012 Lincoln Nominated
2014 Łukasz Żal
Ryszard Lenczewski
Ida Nominated
2018 Łukasz Żal Cold War Nominated
2020 Dariusz Wolski News of the World Nominated
2021 Janusz Kamiński West Side Story Nominated

Best Director

Director
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1974 Roman Polański Chinatown Nominated Polanski is a Polish–French director.
1980 Tess Nominated
1994 Krzysztof Kieślowski Three Colours: Red Nominated
2002 Roman Polański The Pianist Won First Polish director to win the award.
2018 Paweł Pawlikowski Cold War Nominated First Polish director nominated for a Polish language film.

Best Picture

Academy Award for Best Picture
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
2002 Roman Polański The Pianist Nominated The film was a French-British-Polish co-production.

Best International Feature Film

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1963 Roman Polanski Knife in the Water Nominated
1966 Jerzy Kawalerowicz Pharaoh Nominated
1974 Jerzy Hoffman The Deluge Nominated
1975 Andrzej Wajda Land of Promise Nominated
1976 Jerzy Antczak Nights and Days Nominated
1979 Andrzej Wajda The Maids of Wilko Nominated
1981 Man of Iron Nominated
2007 Katyń Nominated
2011 Agnieszka Holland In Darkness Nominated
2014 Paweł Pawlikowski Ida Won
2018 Cold War Nominated
2019 Jan Komasa Corpus Christi Nominated
2022 Jerzy Skolimowski EO Nominated

Best Original Music Score

Original Score
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1941 Bronisław Kaper The Chocolate Soldier Nominated Shared with Herbert Stothart;
Best Achievement in Scoring of a Musical Picture
1953 Bronisław Kaper Lili Won Best Achievement in Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
1962 Bronisław Kaper Mutiny on the Bounty Nominated Best Achievement in Music Score — Substantially Original
2004 Jan A. P. Kaczmarek Finding Neverland Won Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Best Original Song

Original Song
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1962 Bronisław Kaper Mutiny on the Bounty Nominated For the song ″Follow Me″;
shared with Paul Francis Webster.

Best Live Action Short Film

Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
2001 Sławomir Fabicki
Bogumił Godfrejow
A Man Thing Nominated
2021 Tadeusz Łysiak
Maciej Ślesicki
The Dress Nominated

Best Documentary (Short Subject)

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject)
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1995 Marcel Łoziński 89mm from Europe Nominated
2005 Hanna Polak
Andrzej Celiński
The Children of Leningradsky Nominated
2010 Bartosz Konopka Rabbit à la Berlin Nominated
2014 Aneta Kopacz Joanna Nominated
2014 Tomasz Śliwiński
Maciej Ślesicki
Our Curse Nominated

Best Animated Short Film

Academy Award for Animated Short Film
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1982 Zbigniew Rybczyński Tango Won
2002 Tomasz Bagiński The Cathedral Nominated

Best Animated Feature

This list focuses on Polish-born filmmakers.

Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
2017 Dorota Kobiela Loving Vincent Nominated A Polish–British film co-directed with Hugh Welchman.

Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay

Academy Award for Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1968 Roman Polański Rosemary's Baby Nominated Polanski is a French-born Polish writer.
1991 Agnieszka Holland Europa Europa Nominated

Best Writing – Original Screenplay

Academy Award for Writing (Original Screenplay)
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1994 Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Three Colours: Red Nominated

Academy Honorary Award

Academy Honorary Award
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1999 Andrzej Wajda ... Won "In recognition of five decades of extraordinary film direction."

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award

Academy Honorary Award
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1946 Samuel Goldwyn ... Won Samuel Goldwyn was a Polish-born American film producer.

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

Academy Honorary Award
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1957 Samuel Goldwyn ... Won Samuel Goldwyn was a Polish-born American film producer.

Technical & Scientific Awards

Technical/Scientific Awards
Year Name Film Status Milestone / Notes
1940 Anton Grot ... Won

For the design and perfection of the Warner Bros. water ripple and wave illusion machine.

1965 Stefan Kudelski ... Won

For the design and development of the Nagra portable 1/4" tape recording system for motion picture sound recording.

1977 Stefan Kudelski ... Won

For the engineering of the improvements incorporated in the Nagra 4.2L sound recorder for motion picture production.

1978 Stefan Kudelski ... Won

For the continuing research, design and development of the Nagra Production Sound Recorder for Motion Pictures.

1987 Tadeusz Krzanowski ... Won

For the development of a Wire Rig Model Support Mechanism used to control the movements of miniatures in special effects.

Nominations and Winners

No. of wins No. of nominations
16 64

See also