The Variety500 list for 2021 includes Polish producer Ewa Puszczyńska and cinema industry professional Radosław Śmigulski, director of the Polish Film Institute.
Puszczyńska’s credits include BAFTA and Oscar winner Ida and triple Oscar nominee Cold War, both directed by Paweł Pawlikowski.
Śmigulski, a lawyer by training, has served as director of the Polish Film Institute since 2017. Under his leadership, the institution has supported several acclaimed international co-productions, including Pawlikowski’s Cold War, Agnieszka Holland’s Mr. Jones and Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated Corpus Christi.
The 2021 Variety list includes such household names in the media industry as actors Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep, alongside cinema moguls Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix) and Robert Chapek (CEO of the Walt Disney Company).
It was the fifth annual Variety500 index and both Puszczyńska and Śmigulski appeared on the list for a second consecutive year.
(mk/gs)