Mariusz Wilczyński is a graduate of the Faculty of Painting and Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, where he studied in the painting class of Prof. Stanisław Fijałkowski and the woodcut class of Prof. Andrzej Marian Bartczak. He is completely self-taught in the field of animation: his adventure with film began with small utility forms for television, and he won his first awards for animated music videos at the Yach Film Festival. From 1996-2000 he drew short forms of „Księgoklipy” ("Book videos") for the "Goniec Kulturalny" programme. This original form of literary reviews, invented by Wilczyński, was a combination of animation and performance. He was the author of the animated art work for the TVP Kultura channel based on thought-provoking animations lasting several dozen seconds. He is the creator of twelve animated films for the show "Kombinat" - the farewell concert of the Republika band as part of the 23rd Actor Song Competition in Wrocław (2000); music videos for, among others: Kayah, Tomasz Stańko, Stanisław Sojka, Republika, Kinior, and the band Breakout. Director of animated films, including: „Wśród nocnej ciszy”, „Mojej mamie i sobie”, „Śmierć na pięć”, „Niestety”, „Kizi Mizi”.

He taught classic animation at the Kunstuniversität in Linz (2003–2005) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź (2003–2007), and since October 2007 he has been teaching animation at the Lodz Film School.

In the field of animation, he has been successful in Poland as well as internationally for many years. In 2007, the well-known American critic Dave Kehr called him in the pages of the New York Times magazine "one of the most important contemporary creators of artistic animation". In the opinion of Witold Giersz, co-founder of the Polish school of animation and doyen of world animation: “Wilczyński dared to break with the applicable canons in animation and developed his own style of film storytelling. In addition, he is constantly looking for new means of expression, and that is very important in itself. "

The originality of Wilczyński's achievements is confirmed by shows at recognized festivals and at prestigious institutions around the world: MoMA in New York (2007), The National Gallery in London (2007), Art Museum in Pretoria (South Africa, 2007), National Museum in Brasilia (Brazil, 2009) Anthology Film Archives in New York (2007 and 2020), Pretoria Art Museum (2007), National Museum of Brazil (2009), Lincoln Center (2010), Tokyo International Forum (2014), Pera Museum in Istanbul (2014), National Museum in Warsaw (2018). Wilczyński produces expressive, auteur cinema, and owes his unusual style to a combination of meaningful, pulsating drawing animation with a dreamlike narrative based on numerous repetitions and transformations.

His first full-length animated film "Kill It and Leave This Town", which he worked on for fourteen years, is one of the most famous Polish films of recent years. The film debuted at the Berlinale and has won over 40 awards in Poland and around the world. It has been awarded at the most important international animation festivals (including in Annecy, Ottawa, Zagreb, Sapporo, Lima and Vienna), in Poland it won four Eagles statuettes - the Polish Film Awards, including the most important one - for the Best Film. "Kill it and leave this town" as the only animated film in history received the Golden Lions at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.

The film has received over 70 reviews in the world press, incl. in "The Guardian", "The New York Times", "Los Angeles Times", "The Hollywood Reporter", "Deadline Hollywood Daily", "Variety", "Screen Daily", "Tagesspiegel", "Le Monde" and many others.

In March 2022, an exhibition entitled "Mariusz Wilczyński Kill it ..." devoted to the above-mentioned animated film was opened at the Zachęta gallery in Warsaw. Mariusz Wilczyński is not only a talented director, but also a performer who willingly undertakes activities that go beyond just filmmaking.

For years he has been creating improvised shows together with musicians (including Leszek Możdżer, Wojciech Waglewski or orchestras (Membres de l'Orchester de Chambre de Paris, L'Orchester de Chambre de Geneve, Membres de l'Ensemble de Tokyo, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, The Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra), during which he draws and animates to music played live.

Mariusz Wilczyński's star will be the 90th star at Piotrkowska Street in Łódź.

After the ceremony, we invite you to a meeting with Mariusz Wilczyński at Klub 77 at 1.30 p.m.