Mikołaj Trzaska Honoured with the Marshal’s Film Award

The musician and film score composer received the Pola Negri statuette on the final day of the 15th Fonomo Music & Film Festival in Bydgoszcz.

This year’s recipients of the Pola Negri Film Award of the Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region have already included Zbigniew Suszyński, Magdalena Czerwińska, Łukasz Simlat and Marian Opania. On Sunday, 18 October, Mikołaj Trzaska joined the growing list of laureates. He received the Pola Negri statuette from Deputy Marshal Zbigniew Ostrowski.

Other recipients of the Marshal’s Film Award

“I am honoured to receive this award at the Fonomo Festival. It means a lot to me. I believe it is my work that is being recognised,” said Trzaska. “I hope this award also recognises my love of cinema and the kind of dialogue that film creates with its audience. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realise that work has always been the most important thing in my life, casting either a shadow or a glow over everything else.”

Following the ceremony at the Municipal Cultural Centre in Bydgoszcz, the laureate met with the audience for a discussion moderated by Marcin Szymczak. The evening concluded with a screening of the documentary Koniec świata (The End of the World), directed by Monika Pawluczuk, featuring music composed by Trzaska.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mikołaj Trzaska studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, although he did not complete his studies. During the same period, he taught himself to play the saxophone and decided to pursue a career in music. Together with Tymon Tymański, he spent more than a decade performing with the legendary band Miłość, regarded as one of the most important groups on the Polish yass scene. In 1993, he founded his own band, Łoskot, and a year later began performing with Tymański as the duo Masło, presenting their own avant-garde interpretations of musical standards. In 1996, he recorded his first solo album, Cześć, cześć, cześć.

Trzaska has been composing film scores for many years and has maintained a long-standing collaboration with director Wojciech Smarzowski, himself a recipient of the Marshal’s Film Award in 2025. He has composed soundtracks for Smarzowski’s acclaimed films, including Dom zły, Róża, Drogówka, Pod Mocnym Aniołem, Wołyń, Kler, Wesele II and Dom dobry. He has won the prestigious Polish Film Award, known as the Eagle, three times in the Best Music category: in 2017 for Wołyń, in 2019 for Kler and in 2026 for Dom dobry.

He has also collaborated with Borys Lankosz (Obcy VI) and with Szymon Uliasz and Magdalena Gubała (Ścinki), who jointly directed the 2016 biographical documentary about Trzaska, Ucho wewnętrzne (The Inner Ear). He also composed the music for Paweł Maślona’s award-winning film Kos (2024), which was partly filmed in our region, near Włocławek.

The presentation of the Marshal’s Film Award was one of the highlights of the 15th Fonomo Music & Film Festival in Bydgoszcz, supported by the Kujawsko-Pomorskie regional government as its patron. The festival brings together the worlds of music and cinema under the motto “See the Music, Hear the Film.” This year’s edition took place from 15 to 18 October.

Dariusz Czołgowski
Promotion Department

19 October 2026