„The Dress”, an award-winning production by our students, has been nominated for an Academy Award® in Live Action Short Film category. It is the only Polish film that will compete this year for the most prestigious award in the history of cinema.

The nomination for „The Dress” is the culmination of last year’s string of successes of the Warsaw Film School. Last year alone, our students won six out of seven awards in the Short Film Competition at the Gdynia Film Festival and a Golden Tadpole at the Camerimage Festival. The School’s first full-length production, „The Land”, was released in Polish cinemas and then for global distribution via Netflix. The huge success of „The Dress” is the second Oscar® nomination for a movie by the Warsaw Film School, following Tomasz Sliwinski’s „Our Curse” in 2015.

Stills from the movie „The Dress”. Cinematographer: Konrad Bloch

„The Dress” was created by a team of our extremely talented students and alumni. The movie was directed and written by Tadeusz Łysiak. Konrad Bloch is responsible for the cinematography and Mariusz Gos for the editing. The film was produced by the Chancellor of the Warsaw Film School, PhD Maciej Ślesicki. The project was supervised by Wojciech Saramonowicz, a lecturer at our School.

The success of „The Dress” is also due to the fantastic cast, headed by Anna Dzieduszycka. She has enchanted audiences and juries at festivals around the world with her performance. On screen, Anna is partnered by the excellent Dorota Pomykała and Szymon Piotr Warszawski.

During its festival tour „The Dress” visited Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Odensee, and Bengaluru, among others. Although the Creators, due to the pandemic, could not always accompany their work, their movie perfectly defended itself in front of the audience and the jury. Our film returned from these travels with a whole bunch of awards – including a Bronze Tadpole at the Camerimage Festival and Best Narrative Short at the Atlanta Film Festival. It was the win at this prestigious festival that enabled „The Dress” to compete for an Oscar® nomination.

The journey of „The Dress” is still ongoing. Soon our filmmakers will walk the red carpet with some of the biggest stars in world cinema. The results of the Oscar® race will be announced on March 27 at the 94th Academy Awards® ceremony.

Thank you to everyone who supported „The Dress” on its way to nomination: film festivals, friends in the film industry, and The Academy® members who voted for our students’ film.

If you want to know more about this unique production, please visit the official website dedicated to the film „The Dress”: CLICK HERE

Poster of „The Dress” by Plakiat

THE DRESS

Julia lives in the Polish countryside. Her music is death metal. Her favorite pastime: playing on slot machines. She works at a wayside motel for drivers. She’s lonely, she never had a man, never experienced physicality. Julia is short stature and her entire life is dictated by her height – the local community can’t seem to accept her different appearance. Everything changes, when she crosses paths with a handsome truck driver. Their eyes meet. Julia’s heart beats faster. The man soon becomes the object of her loving, almost erotic obsession…

CAST: Anna Dzieduszycka, Dorota Pomykała, Szymon Piotr Warszawski, Andrzej Glazer, Lea Oleksiak

SCRIPT & DIRECTING: Tadeusz Łysiak DOP: Konrad Bloch EDITING: Mariusz Gos MUSIC: Jan Królikowski SOUND: Błażej Kafarski PRODUCTION MANAGER: Monika Ossowska ARTISTIC SUPERVISION: Wojciech Saramonowicz PRODUCER: Maciej Ślesicki PRODUCTION: Warsaw Film School, Dobro, MIŁO, GŁOŚNO CO-FINANCING: Polish Film Institute SALES & DISTRIBUTION: Salaud Morisset POSTER: Plakiat

Learn more about the students of the Warsaw Film School that created THE DRESS:

TADEUSZ ŁYSIAK (script & directing) – born in 1993, graduate of Cultural Studies at the University of Warsaw, student of Directing at the Warsaw Film School. Creator of two award-winning short films in Poland and abroad: „Techno” (starring Leszek Abrahamowicz, Danuta Stenka, Michalina Olszańska) and „The Dress” (Anna Dzieduszycka, Dorota Pomykała, Szymon Piotr Warszawski). Participant of the prestigious program FUTURE FRAMES – Generation NEXT of European Cinema within Eastern Promises at the Karlovy Vary Festival. Winner of the „Discovering Eye” award for young talented filmmaker at the Polish Film Festival in Chicago.

KONRAD BLOCH (cinematography) – born in 1995, graduate of the Cinematography Department at the Warsaw Film School. Author of cinematography for several short films, music videos and social campaign Anja Rubik – #sexED. Nominated in 2018 for Golden Tadpole for the short movie „Techno“. In 2020 another short movies – ” The Dress” – got him the Bronze Tadpole at Camerimage 2020 and the Heliograf company award at the 45th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia for the author of the best cinematography in the Short Film Competition and awarded for best cinematography at the 38th Sulmona Film Festival. Konrad is now preparing for his feature debut.

MARIUSZ GOS (editing) – born in 1992. Graduate of Film and Television Editing at the Warsaw Film School. As he says, „creating the world and the story, and connecting the threads is his passion”. This has resulted in a number of award-winning short films, both abroad and in Poland, such as „The Dress”, „Techno”, „The Howling” and „Good Morning”. That last one did not escape the attention of critics and was awarded in the „best editing” category at the G Biennale21 festival in Australia. Apart from short feature forms, he realizes himself in original music videos of the domestic scene made for such artists as Mela Koteluk & Kwadrofonik, Mata or Kukon. He is also familiar with the forms of social campaigns (including the famous „sexEd” with Anja Rubik), as well as TV programs and commercial projects.

>FULL CAST&CREW<

Films by students of the Warsaw Film School are co-financed by the Polish Film Institute