Andrzej Jakimowski

Andrzej Jakimowski was born in Warsaw in 1963. He is a director, screenwriter and producer.

Jakimowski made his first short films already as a secondary school student, using a 16 mm spring-driven Krasnogorsk camera. After graduating high school he unsuccessfully attempted entry to film school and instead became a student of philosophy at Warsaw University. Later he became a student of directing at Krzysztof Kieslowski Katowice Film School, from which he graduated in 1990.

Jakimowski's debut was the thirty-minute long film Pogłos (Aftersound, 1991); it received a prize at the International Jazz Film Festival in Warsaw. In 1994 he started the Jakimowski Film Studio to make commercials as well as documentaries. He then managed the advertising agency for some time. In order to produce his full-length feature debut Zmruż oczy (Squint Your Eyes, 2003) while maintaining artistic independence, Jakimowski and his friends established Zjednoczenie Artystów Rzemieślników (ZAiR, Union of Artisans LLC), which in 2007 produced Sztuczki (Tricks), and in 2012 Imagine. His films rank high among Polish-made award-winning features in Poland and internationally, boasting, among other distinctions, the FIPRESCI mention at the 2002 Mannheim Festival (Zmruż oczy), the Special Jury Award at the same Festival in 2007, the Europa Cinema Award at the Venice Festival in 2008 (Sztuczki), Audience Award at the 24th Emden International Film Festival (Imagine). In 2009 Sztuczki was the Polish Oscar entry.