September 5, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Leslie Unger - (310) 247-3000

                         lunger@oscars.org

Beverly Hills, CA - The late Polish film writer-director Krzysztof Kieslowski will be honored with a tribute by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday, September 21 at 7:30 p.m. The program, to be held in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, will include the screening of two Kieslowski films - the short "Tram" and feature "Camera Buff" - and a panel discussion, and will kick off a two-week retrospective of the director's early works at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Attendees will also be the first to see a new exhibition of cinema posters from Poland, which will remain on display at the Academy through December 17.

The tribute and the retrospective are presented in association with the Camerimage International Film Festival.

A graduate of the National Film, Television and Theater School in Lodz, Poland, along with such other film world luminaries as Andrzej Wajda and Roman Polanski, Kieslowski began his career in 1966 with the six-minute short film "Tram." He honed his craft over the following decades through experimentation with short films, documentaries, television work and feature films. During the 90s, he burst onto the international film scene with such French/Polish/Swiss co-productions as "The Double Life of Veronique" (1992) and the "Three Colors" trilogy: "Blue" (1993), "Red," which received three Academy Award nominations in 1994, and "White"(1994). His "Decalogue," based upon the Ten Commandments and originally shot as a 10-part series for Polish Television in 1988-89, also was more recently discovered by European and American audiences, transforming Kieslowski's already formidable reputation into the realm of legend.

Kieslowski died in 1996 at the age of 54. At the time, he was collaborating on another trilogy of screenplays despite the fact that he had announced his retirement from directing following the completion of "Red."

The panel discussion will be moderated by Annette Insdorf, professor and Director of Undergraduate Film Studies at Columbia University and the author of, among other works, "Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski." Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Kieslowki's long-time collaborator and screenwriting partner, will participate, as will a number of international directors influenced by Kieslowski's work.

The companion exhibition, "International Cinema Posters from Poland," will feature 60 posters from the 1940s to the present. While including the poster art for some Polish films, the exhibition concentrates on the surprising and creative posters created in Poland for international film releases. Titles represented include "Shoeshine," "A Hard Day's Night," "Cabaret," "Midnight Cowboy," "The Conformist," "All That Jazz" and "Danton." The works, on loan from the Museum of Posters in Vilanov, Poland, demonstrate why Polish poster artists enjoy such an exceptional reputation among graphic arts and cinema poster aficionados worldwide.

Tickets for "An Academy Tribute to Krzysztof Kieslowski" are $5 for general public, $3 for Academy members. They may be purchased in advance at the Academy during regular business hours, by mail or on the Academy's website at www.oscars.org, or on the night of the event, if still available, when the doors open at 6:30 p.m. The Academy is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

"International Cinema Posters from Poland" opens to the public on September 22. Viewing hours are Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends, noon to 6 p.m. Admission is free. For more information about the tribute or the exhibition, call 310-247-3600.

The tribute, film series and poster exhibition have all been organized with the collaboration of and support of the Polish State Film Committee; the Museum of Posters in Vilanov, Poland; LOT Polish Airlines and the patronage of the Polish Prime Minister and the Polish Consulate of Los Angeles.

(For more information about the retrospective series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, call 323-857-6010.)