25 Movie Talents We Lost In 2016

Co-founder of the Polish Film School movement and director Andrzej Wajda is best known for his ‘War trilogy’ – a trio of films that includes his 1955 directorial debut A Generation, Kanal and the critically adored Ashes and Diamonds, a film hailed as one of the great masterpieces of Polish realist cinema.

His 1981 film Man of Iron not only won the Palme d’Or but was also one of four of his films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film alongside The Promised Land, The Maid of Wilko and Katyn.

Though he failed to scoop those awards, Wajda was recognised with an Academy Honorary Award for his contributions to filmmaking in 1999. His latest and last film Afterimage, a biopic about Polish avant-garde painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year to critical acclaim.