Mateusz Smolka

The filmmaker discovered his great fascination for the craft of artistic image creation as a child. As the son of an established painter, the Pole by birth immersed himself in the milieu of painting and sculpture from an early age, which unfolded his lasting understanding of aesthetics. His numerous trips around the world, which he best gave his impression with the help of visual language, became his photographic trademark. Through his memorable photo reports, he soon felt the desire to give the static image more diversity and to convert it into a moving one. He began his cinematic and cinemato- graphic art at the age of 20 on various film sets in Germany and the USA. This was followed by study- ing cinematography at the renowned University of Television and Film, Munich (HFF). After numerous cinema, television and documentary films as well as award-winning short films, music videos and commercials, he successfully graduated with his internationally awarded film „All I Never Wanted“. His Debut Feature Film “Running Against the Wind“ was submitted for the 92nd Academy Awards 2020 in the category “Best International Feature Film“. This was followed by an Oscar nomination with the short film "Prisoners of the Body" at the 2020 Student Oscars.
Mateusz is now internationally available as a DOP.