Polish film and theatre director, producer, and screenwriter Krzysztof Zanussi has been selected for the lifetime achievement award of the 28th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) beginning here on December 8.
The award comprises a cash prize of ₹10 lakh, a statuette, and citation. As many as six films of Mr. Zanussi including Perfect Number, The Illumination, The Contract, Spiral, Foreign Body, and A Year of the Quiet Sun, will be exhibited at the festival. A press note quoting Minister for Culture Saji Cherian said the award would be presented at the concluding ceremony of IFFK on December 15.
Born 1939 in Warsaw, Mr. Zanussi is a graduate of the National Film School in Lords. His first feature film Structure of Crystals is considered one of the most defining works of the third wave of Polish cinema. His most noteworthy films including The Illumination, Camouflage, Family Life, and Spiral were produced in the seventies. His later works like Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease, Foreign Body, The Perfect Number, and Eter also won acclaim.
He received the Golden Lion award at the Venice festival 1984 for A Year of the Quiet Sun while The Constant Factor won the jury prize at the Cannes festival, 1980. Mr. Zanussi appeared as himself in Camera Buff (1979), a film about an amateur filmmaker, directed by his friend Krzysztof Kieślowski.
In the late 1980s, he co-founded the European Film Academy with Ingmar Bergman. He now teaches cinema at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Poland.
In 2012, Mr. Zanussi was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award at the 43rd International Film Festival of India held in Goa. He has also participated in IFFK in 1998.
