Jerzy Kucia (b. 1942) is an animated film script writer and director, producer, university teacher, graphic artist as well as a painter. He studied painting, graphic arts and animation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and since 1981 he has been heading the Academy’s Animated Film Studio. For a few years now, he has been running the International Animated Film Workshops in Krakow for young artists and students from Poland and abroad organized in Krakow on his initiative.
Jerzy Kucia made his debut in 1972 with a film entitled The Return. He has completed several animations since then, all of which were presented at competitions of major international festivals on numerous occasions and received important awards. Such pictures as Krąg (1978), Refleksy (1979), Odpryski (1984), Parada (1986), Przez Pole (1992) or Tuning the Instruments (2000) have won wide acclaim of critics and festival jury members.
Professor Kucia is one of the most recognized founders of the Polish animation in the world and the retrospectives of his work have been presented at prestigious festivals, museums and art centres. His films have been shown in Clermont-Ferrand, London, Cannes, Zagreb, Utrecht, Mumbai, Edinburgh, Taipei and elsewhere as well as at such major art institutions as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, London’s Tate Modern and aired by the BBC. In 1981 the Media Library in Quebec and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts invited Jerzy Kucia as the only representative of the Polish cinematography to participate in an international exhibition entitled ‘The Art of Animated Film’.
The Dragon of Dragons is the crowning of numerous awards received by Jerzy Kucia at national and international festivals and thematic screenings which include the Main Prize of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival for Parada, the Golden Dragon of the Krakow Film Festival for Przez Pole, the Platinum Line of the Polish National Animated Film Festival in Krakow for the best film of the decade, the British Animation Awards and the Awards for the Best Animated Film of the Year (the two most recent for Tuning the Instruments). Jerzy Kucia was honoured with the Gloria Artis Golden Medal for his dedication to culture in 2008, the Golden Dinosaur of the Decade of the Etiuda International Film Festival for outstanding artistic and pedagogical achievements (2003) and the Golden Laurels awarded by the Krakow Branch of the Polish Cultural Foundation (2002).
The Dragon of Dragons will be presented to Jerzy Kucia at an official ceremony during the 49th Krakow Film Festival by Professor Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Krakow.
It is a special honour for us because Professor Kucia has been a friend of our Festival looking after its development as a member of the Programme Council. A full retrospective of his work will be presented at this year’s 49th edition of the Krakow Film Festival. Additional attractions will include screenings of films made by Professor Kucia’s students as well as meetings with Professor and composers he collaborated with whilst making his films.