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Paul Kowalski

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Polish-British film director and screenwriter (born 1981)
Paul Kowalski
BornPaul John Kowalski
(1981-05-13) 13 May 1981 (age 43)
Epsom, Surrey, England
Education
Occupations
  • Film Director
  • Screenwriter
Spouse Sorel Carradine ​(m. 2018)​

Paul Kowalski (born 13 May 1981) is a Polish-British film director and screenwriter based in Los Angeles.

Early life

Kowalski was born in Epsom, England to Polish immigrants and raised in North Africa, England, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Poland and across the USA. While living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s, he worked as an actor for a children's program on English-language channel Saudi TV-2.

Kowalski studied literature and writing at Brown University, where he also made his earliest films. He later received his MFA in film directing at the AFI Conservatory.

Career

Kowalski's films center around identity, exile and obsession, often featuring dark psychologies and the supernatural. As a film director and screenwriter, he has won recognition from the American Society of Cinematographers, Austin Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Indy Shorts International Film Festival, Beijing Film Academy, CINE, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, deadCENTER Film Festival, Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival and Beverly Hills Film Festival, among others.

His debut feature, Paper Tiger, premiered at Austin Film Festival in 2020, winning the Audience Award and a Jury mention. The film was sold by The Gersh Agency and distributed by Gravitas Ventures.

In 2021, Kowalski was named one of “25 Screenwriters To Watch” by Austin Film Festival.

In 2024, he won Grand Prize Best Director at the Rhode Island International Film Festival for his short film Sardinia, about a serious man trying to avoid catching a deadly laughing plague in a growingly polarized and dystopian society. The film stars Philip Ettinger, Emmy-winner Martha Plimpton, Olek Krupa and Breeda Wool. In November 2024 Patton Oswalt boarded the film as Executive Producer, calling the film "an effortlessly original piece of work" and "beyond timely”, with Deadline naming the film an Oscar contender for 2025 Best Live Action Short.

Personal

Kowalski is married to actress Sorel Carradine.

His uncle, Lech Kowalski, directed punk rock documentary, D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage, and East of Paradise which won at the Venice Film Festival. The film is about Paul Kowalski's grandmother's escape from a Soviet workcamp during World War II.

External links

References

  1. "Lawrence & Arabia and I". Talkhouse.
  2. Bax, Steve (May 5, 2016). "Epsom-born Filmmaker, Paul Kowalski". Epsom Guardian.
  3. "Biography". Polish Film Festival LA.
  4. "Interview with Paul Kowalski". Cineuropa.
  5. "25 Screenwriters To Watch". Austin Film Festival.
  6. "Beverly Hills Film Festival Unveils Winners". Hollywood Reporter. April 11, 2016.
  7. "Press". Official Site.
  8. Vlessing, Etan (October 1, 2020). "Austin Film Festival Unveils Lineup". Hollywood Reporter.
  9. Ramos, Dino-Day (October 1, 2020). "Austin Film Festival Unveils Full Slate Of Programming". Deadline.
  10. "AFF 2020 Winners". 3 November 2020.
  11. Shanfield, Ethan (August 9, 2021). "Gravitas Ventures Nabs North American Rights to 'Paper Tiger'". Variety.
  12. "25 Screenwriters To Watch". Austin Film Festival.
  13. "Meet Austin Film Festival's Screenwriters to Watch 2021!". No Film School. April 29, 2021.
  14. "42nd Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival Winners" (PDF). Flickers Rhode Island.
  15. "Sardinia IMDb Entry". IMDb.
  16. "Patton Oswalt Instagram Post". Instagram.
  17. "EP Patton Oswalt Boards Oscar Contender Short 'Sardinia', Starring Martha Plimpton, Philip Ettinger". Deadline.
  18. Stachowicz, Anna (2020-04-02). "Historia miłosna Paula i Sorel". Magazyn Wesele (Wedding Magazine) (in Polish). No. 4/56/2019/2020. Kraków, Poland. pp. 92–97.
  19. "The Films of Lech Kowalski". Official Site.
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