Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is one of the world's most distinguished and creative film directors. Born in 1933, Polanski was nine years old when the Nazi invasion of Poland forced Polanski and his family into the Krakow ghetto. His father helped Roman escape to the countryside where he was hidden by Catholic families. Polanski's mother died in Auschwitz; his father survived at a different concentration camp. In 1954, Polanski was admitted to the prestigious Polish Film School in Lodz for directing, although he also acted, including appearing in an early film of Andrzej Wajda. One of his short films at the school, Two Men and a Wardrobe, won international awards. After graduation, Polanski's first feature length film, Knife in the Water (1962), was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. Polanski's film have covered all genres, from comedy to darkest regions of human behavior. All share an immensely accomplished approach to storytelling to reveal characters' inner lives. In addition to surviving the Holocaust, Polanski's own life has also been marked by the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, and a charge of sexual relations with a minor, which led to Polanski leaving the United States. Polanski's films include: Repulsion (1965) and Cul-de-sac (1966), both of which won awards at the Berlin Film Festival, Dance of the Vampires (1967), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Tragedy of Macbeth (1971), What? (1972), Chinatown (1974), The Tenant (1976), Tess (1980), Pirates (1986), Frantic (1988), Bitter Moon (1992), Death and the Maiden (1994), The Ninth Gate (2000), Oliver Twist (2005), and The Pianist (2003) which won three Academy Awards including Best Director Academy Award as well as the Cannes Film Festival's Golden Palm. Polanski has also continued his acting, both in small roles in his own films (for example, the classic scene as the thug slicing Jack Nicholson's nose in Chinatown), and on stage in the international productions of Amadeus and Kafka's Metamorphosis. Polanski, who lives in Paris, has won awards at all the major film festivals, and received the Career Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival.
