During the Oscar Night at the Film School, we all kept our fingers crossed not just for Polish film-makers. but most of all for the Lodz Film School professors amongst them. Despite the distance to the Academy Awards, everybody at the film school watched the broadcast from the Dolby Theater with great excitement with millions of other viewers around the world recgonizing with pride and pleasure Polish names, known so well here as they were being mentioned. Many students kept saying that the ceremony was merely a formality. For them, the makers of the film Ida had already won the Oscar long ago…

Professor Ryszard Lenczewski, a great cinematographer, Lodz Film School lecturer, an American Film Academy Award nominee in the Best Cinematography category for Paweł Pawlikowski’s Oscar winning film Ida, specially for Lodz Film School students:

‘It’s weird, but in my case everything started here in Targowa Street. In one of the Film School campus buildings there was a high school which I attended. Initially, I was into music. These were my first artistic interests. At the same time, I was hopeless at physics. Because I didn’t get a satisfactory mark in this subject I was asked to take an extra exam, which, being stubborn, I didn’t come to. I remember my teacher saying that it was like getting an Oscar nomination and not turning up at the Oscar Gala. I replied that I made the right decision not to come to the exam and added that if I were ever a nominee I would not go the Oscar Gala. And that’s what happened now.

I maintain a big distance to all awards. For me, the most important moment of work on a film project is when I set out to document the visual side of it. I’m the first one to be there - I take photos instantly, I don’t wait. I document the first impression, first emotion, the novelty of what I see. It’ll be gone in no time! Get excited on the set and immerse yourselves entirely into what you’re doing. Don’t waste your energy thinking about awards and competitions.

To many, Oscars are not the most important thing. Katherine Hepburn and Marlon Brando never went to the Oscars. Woody Allen, once chose a competitive event across the street, a concert! I value the Oscar nomination much more than the Oscar itself. Academy members chose five options out of hundreds films. It is already a great success to go through such a selection and get noticed. Choosing one out of five is not so spectacular. I am happy with what I have and the honour I experienced and I know what’s most important. The key word is the originality, which you have and should cherish. This is the most interesting thing you can give to the world!”