Film in Kujawy and Pomorze: An Evening with Grażyna Szapołowska at the Copernicus Library

The star of Polish cinema and recipient of the Marshal’s Film Award will visit Toruń on Tuesday, 20 October.

The open meeting with the actress will take place at the Copernicus Library on Słowackiego Street, starting at 6 p.m. The event is organised by our Kujawy Pomorze Film Fund in cooperation with the Tumult Foundation and the Copernicus Library. Admission is free.

Grażyna Szapołowska is the 22nd recipient of the Marshal’s Film Award. She received the Pola Negri statuette from Marshal Piotr Całbecki at the opening ceremony of last year’s Camerimage International Film Festival in Toruń.

Other recipients of the Marshal’s Film Award

The renowned actress has roots in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region. She was born in Bydgoszcz, and her family moved to Toruń when she was seven years old. In 1977, she graduated from the Acting Department of the State Higher School of Theatre in Warsaw.

She is best known for her work on the big screen. In the early 1980s, she starred alongside Jan Nowicki as the title character’s wife in Sylwester Chęciński’s Wielki Szu (The Big Shar) and later played the singer Liza in Janusz Rzeszewski’s musical comedy Lata dwudzieste… lata trzydzieste… (The Twenties… The Thirties…). Both performances established her as a star.

She subsequently collaborated with Krzysztof Kieślowski, who cast her in two of his acclaimed films: Bez końca (No End, 1984) and Krótki film o miłości (A Short Film About Love, 1988). Her performance in the latter earned her the Best Actress Award at the 13th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. For her portrayal of Telimena in Andrzej Wajda’s Pan Tadeusz (1999), she received the prestigious Eagle, the Polish Film Award for Best Actress.

She has also been honoured with the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

In 2003, together with Professor Aleksander Wolszczan, she unveiled the first brass plaques, known as katarzynki, on Toruń’s Gingerbread Walk of Fame. In numerous interviews, she has recalled that when she thinks of Poland while travelling abroad, the places that come to mind are cosy Toruń, Warsaw and Jurata.

She is also the author of several books, including the autobiographical works Pocałunki, Poza mną, Ścigając pamięć and Zapomniałam o tobie.

The actress will visit the Copernicus Library as part of the Film Autumn in Kujawsko-Pomorskie programme.

Dariusz Czołgowski
Promotion Department

20 October 2026