Polish chargé d’affaires Bogdan Klich presented the medal, Poland’s highest cultural decoration, praising Scorsese as a prominent champion of Polish cinema and especially of Wajda, whose lifetime-achievement Oscar 25 years ago forms the festival’s central theme.
Scorsese has often cited the drama’s moral ambiguity as a key influence on his own work, noting that its tone helped shape his 2006 crime epic The Departed.
“Among the three [films of Wajda’s wartime trilogy], it was Ashes and Diamonds that had the greatest impact on me. It announced the arrival of a master film-maker,” the director has written of first seeing the picture in 1961.
This year’s festival program marks the 25th anniversary of Wajda’s honorary Academy Award and pairs a retrospective of his films with new Polish features.
Scorsese, whose career haul includes an Oscar for Best Director, a BAFTA Fellowship and France’s Légion d’honneur, said receiving Poland’s top cultural decoration was a “great honor” given his lifelong admiration for Polish filmmaking.
The New York Polish Film Festival, which runs until Saturday, features retrospective screenings of Wajda’s work alongside contemporary Polish films.
New work on the bill ranges from Damian Kocur’s “Under the Volcano” and Lidia Duda’s documentary “Forest” to Xawery Żuławski’s biopic “Kulej. Two Sides of the Medal.”
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Source: IAR, PAP, Radio Zet