The school was founded on March 8, 1948, with a mission “to educate young filmmakers, cinematographers, screenwriters and actors,” Polish state news agency PAP reported.
With Warsaw razed to the ground during World War II, and the southern city of Kraków teeming with refugees and lacking proper infrastructure, it was Łódź that was chosen to become the temporary postwar hub of the Polish film industry, according to historians.
Wajda, Polanski, Kieślowski
The Łódź school’s first lecturers included Jerzy Toeplitz, Wanda Jakubowska and Stanisław Wohl.
Meanwhile, among its earliest students were future filmmaking greats such as Janusz Morgenstern, Kazimierz Kutz and the Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda, the PAP news agency noted.
In later years, Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski and Krzysztof Kieślowski also studied in Łódź, before going to become world-renowned directors.
Wajda said the groundwork for the school’s success was laid by its rector Jerzy Toeplitz, who “gave this school wings, the sense that cinema is an international art form and that we should think about Polish movies in the context of what film stands for around the world.”
Over the years, the Łódź school expanded to include new departments. In 1969, it was renamed the Polish National Film, TV and Theatre School.
One of world’s best
Its official website says that “the Łódź Film School is guided by universal ethical principles, such as freedom of teaching, artistic freedom and the freedom of research in the field of art and artistic creation, underpinned by a respect for truth, solidarity, democracy and tolerance, in line with the general traditions of universities and the Polish arts education.”
Over its 75-year history, the Łódź Film School has educated many outstanding filmmakers, cinematographers and actors, who went on to win major international film awards, including Oscars, the PAP news agency reported.
In 2014, Łódź was ranked second in a global league table of film schools compiled by The Hollywood Reporter.
In 2019, US entertainment magazine Variety named the Łódź Film School among the world’s best film schools.
The magazine wrote at the time that the Łódź Film School "has been one of the best-respected institutions in all of Europe" for more than 70 years, with students receiving "a full-bodied education covering film, photography, acting and television."
It noted that the school has four departments: film and television directing; direction of photography and TV production; acting; and film art organization.
"More than 300 film projects are created yearly by students, while the school’s multimedia assistance department provides students with all their technical and production needs,” Variety reported.
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Source: PAP, filmschool.lodz.pl, variety.com