Agnieszka Holland
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
Frequent screenwriter for Andrzej Wajda whose own films as a director have focused on the lives of the marginal and the doomed. Holland studied filmmaking in Czechoslovakia under Milos Forman and Ivan Passer, returning to Poland in 1972 after police harassment had culminated in a jail sentence. She made her co-directing debut in 1977 with "Screen Tests" and wrote her first screenplay for Wajda, "Without Anaesthesia," in 1978. Two years later her solo feature directing debut, "Provincial Actors," won the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes. After the imposition of martial law in 1981 Holland emigrated to Paris, where she still lives.
Holland's last Polish feature, "A Woman Alone" (1981), chronicles the grim plight of an unmarried mother employed as a letter-carrier. The 1985 West German film "Bitter Harvest," Holland's real breakthrough on the international film scene, reverted to a wartime theme, detailing the relations between a mildly prosperous farmer and the Jewish refugee woman he discovers and shelters. Although her English-language debut film, "To Kill a Priest" (1988) was considered a career setback, Holland rebounded magnificently with the powerful, acclaimed study of a Jew who masquerades as a Nazi at the height of the Holocaust, "Europa, Europa" (1991). She followed up with another well-received art house item, "Olivier Olivier" (1992), an intriguing story of a child who claims to be a boy who disappeared six years earlier. Holland again explored the world of youth with her first mainstream Hollywood film, an adaptation of the children's classic "The Secret Garden" (1993). Holland followed with another period drama, "Washington Square" (1997) based on the Henry James novel. Formerly married to Czech director Laco Adamik, with whom she has a daughter.
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Life Events
1971
Returned to Poland
1977
Feature co-directing debut, "Screen Tests"
1980
Solo feature directing debut, "Provincial Actors"
1981
Immigrated to France
1988
Directed first English-language film, "To Kill a Priest"
1991
Received critical plaudits for helming "Europa, Europa"; received Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay
1993
Directed first Hollywood film, "The Secret Garden"
1997
Directed "Washington Square," an exploration of the struggle between familial and romantic love with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Albert Finney
1999
Directed "The Third Miracle" with Ed Harris
2001
Directed the HBO movie, "Shot in the Heart," based on Mikal Gilmore's novel of the same name, which chronicles the last weeks of Gary Gilmore's life on death row in Utah
2004
Directed episodes of the CBS drama, "Cold Case"
2006
Directed "Copying Beethoven," with Ed Harris as Ludwig van Beethoven
2010
Earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series (for the pilot episode of HBO's "Treme" titled "Do You Know What It Means")
Family
Companions
