Visual History with Agnieszka Holland

Holland has also worked extensively in Hollywood, directing such films as To Kill a Priest (1988); Olivier, Olivier (1992); Europa Europa (1990); The Secret Garden (1993); Total Eclipse (1995); Julie Walking Home (2001); and Copying Beethoven (2006). For television, she has directed the movie for television Shot in the Heart (2001) and episodes of popular dramatic series including The Wire and Treme.

Holland graduated from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague where she studied with Milos Forman and Ivan Passer. Returning to Poland, she went on to serve as Krzysztof Zanussi's assistant director on his 1973 film Illuminacja (Illumination) and directed stage plays and television productions. She drew on her theatrical experience to create her first feature film, Provincial Actors (1978), which won the FIPRESCI prize at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1981, when martial law was declared during the rise of the Solidarity Movement in Poland, Holland emigrated to France. There, she collaborated on the screenplay adaptation of Andrzej Wajda's celebrated film Danton (1983), then went on to direct Angry Harvest (1985), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1992, she earned even greater international acclaim, including a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Europa Europa, based on the true story of a young boy who joins the Hitler Youth to hide his Jewish identity.

In 2010 Holland was Nominated for an Emmy in Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for her work on HBO's Treme (2010). Her latest feature film, In Darkness (2011), was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Agnieszka Holland joined the DGA in 1992.