October 29, 2007

Contact:
Ewa Domeredzka
Director
Polish Film Festival in America
773-486-9611/12

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALLAN STARSKI RECEIVES THE WINGS AWARD
FROM THE POLISH FILM FESTIVAL IN AMERICA

Polish Film Festival in America (PFFA), to be held in Chicago from November 3rd to 18th this year, will honor Allan Starski, eminent Polish design producer, with its prestigious Wings Award. The award is presented to the artists of Polish descent for their outstanding contribution to the art of film beyond Poland. The award recipients are selected by the international PFFA Board of Governors headed by Christopher Kamyszew, the festival’s founder and honorary chairman. Polish Film Festival in America is the world’s largest annual panorama of Polish film outside of Poland; in its nineteen years the festival has shown over 800 films made by Polish filmmakers.

Allan Starski, born in 1943 in Warsaw, a son of popular screenwriter and lyricist Ludwik Starski, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1969. He started his own work in film as art director in Boys (Chlopcy), a film by Ryszard Baer in 1973. From the beginning of his artistic career, he has been working closely with Andrzej Wajda, making decoration to his numerous important films (i.e. Man of Marble, The Conductor, The Maids of Wilko, Man of Iron, Danton, Korczak, Pan Tadeusz). He was design producer to films by Roman Polanski (The Pianist, Oliver Twist) and Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa, Washington Square). In 1993, together with Ewa Braun, Allan Starski received the Academy Award (Oscar) for his art decoration to Schindler’s List, a film by Steven Spielberg. Also, he received Cesar, the award of the French Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts, for The Pianist in 2002. The work for that film as well as Pan Tadeusz by Andrzej Wajda brought him Eagle, a Polish Film Award. His most recent films include Hannibal Rising by Peter Webber, where his set decoration is highly regarded by film critics, and Snow Princess by Mark Roemmich. He has been working on the decoration for Pompeii, a film by Roman Polanski, from which the director recently has withdrawn his name. Starski has made decoration to nearly 60 feature films.

Through my decoration I always try to give a viewer some information about characters. I consider it my objective, Allan Starski remarks. The artist considered as one of the world’s leading art directors is a paragon of professionalism and modesty, what is emphasized unanimously by all filmmakers who worked with him.

The Wings Award recipients in the past are Andres Bukowinski, Pawel Edelman, Agnieszka Holland, Slawomir Idziak, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, Janusz Kaminski, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Wojciech Kilar, Jan Lenica, Roman Polanski, Andrzej Seweryn.

For more information and reservation, please call the PFFA office at 773-486-9612, or visit its official website at www.pffamerica.com