Joanna Kos-Krauze is a Polish cinematographer. When she graduated with a degree in Polish and Hebrew Studies she was already interested in film. In 1997, she worked as an associate director on Jarosław Żamojda’s Young Wolves ½ and as an assistant on the set of Farrago, a TV drama by Lidia Amejko.

Meeting Krzysztof Krauze, currently one of the most important Polish filmmakers, was a groundbreaking moment in her creative biography. In 1996, she collaborated with him on Street Games, a thriller dealing with the way that socialist Poland’s secret service influenced everyday reality in the 1990s. Two years later, they worked together on The Debt, one of the most significant Polish films of that decade. When Krauze directed his Great Things trilogy, Joanna Kos was responsible for the associate direction and dialogues.

These TV films, created in the mały realizm (or ‘small realism’) style, tell stories full of human drama with three contemporary fetishes at the centre: a television set, a car and a mobile phone. Great Things became one of the most important television screenings of the season. In 2004, Joanna Kos married the director and still remains his closest collaborator. Despite having made only two feature films, she is one of the most important directors in contemporary Polish cinema. She has received over twenty Polish and international awards for films that she co-directed: My Nikifor, Saviour Square and Papusza. Her last movie, Papusza, is a well thought out movie about the rise and fall of Bronisława Wajs, one of the most famous female Romani poets. With her story of losing everything in order to be a poet, the director explores the position of females within Romani society at the time, as well as the conflict of dreams and losses through the life of one Roma woman.

Filmography / Awards

2017 Ptaki spiewaja w Kigali (Birds Are Singing in Kigali), co-directed with Krzysztof Krauze, Crystal Globe Best Film nomination at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; Grand Prix International Competition nomination at the T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival Poland

2013 Papusza, direction, script, awarded Special Prize of the Jury in the International Competition at the 2014 Istanbul International Film Festival; Audience Choice Award nomination at the Chicago International Film Festival; awarded a Special Mention and Crystal Globe nomination at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; awarded Best Director and Best Film (the latter by the Youth Jury) at the Valladolid International Film Festival; won Open Horizons Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival

2006 Plac Zbawiciela (Saviour Square), direction, script, casting, won Prize Trieste at the

2018 Trieste Film Festival; Gold Hugo Best Feature nomination at 2007 Chicago International Film Festival; Crystal Globe nomination at the 2007 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; awarded Eagle Best Film and Best Director plus nominated for Eagle Best Screenplay at 2007 Polish Film Awards; awarded Silver Spike Best Feature at the 2007 Valladolid International Film Festival; awarded Golden Frog in the Polish Films Competition at the 2006 Camerimage; won Golden Lion and Critics Award at the 2006 Polish Film Festival

2004 Mój Nikifor (My Nikifor), associate director, script, casting, Eagle Best Screenplay nomination at the 2005 Polish Film Awards

2000 ‘Sieć’ in ‘Wielkie rzeczy’ (Great Things: The Web), associate director, dialogues

2000 ‘System’ in ‘Wielkie rzeczy’ (Great Things: The System), associate director

2000 ‘Gra’ in ‘Wielkie rzeczy’ (Great Things: The Game), associate director

1997 Młode wilki ½ (Young Wolves ½), associate director, casting