Janusz Kamiński, photo by Adam Słowikowski / Reporter / East News

Janusz Kamiński, a Polish cinematographer working in the United States, has been awarded the Broadcast Film Critics Association for the film "War Horse", directed by Steven Spielberg

At the awards ceremony held on the 12th of January, 2012 in Los Angeles Janusz Kamiński shared the Critics' Choice Movie Award along with Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki for the latter's work on "The Tree of Life", directed by Terrence Malick.

Janusz Kamiński, is a Polish-born cinematographer and director. He was born in 1959 in Ziębice near Wrocław, and left Poland as a young man. He was vacationing in Greece in the summer of 1980 when he learnt about the strikes in Poland. On this news, he decided to stay abroad permanently. After obtaining political asylum, and living for several months in Vienna, at the beginning of 1981 he moved to the United States. In Chicago, he found a job and started studying at the Columbia College at the Department of Film and Fine Arts. In 1987 he moved to Los Angeles, where he completed a year-long cinematography course at the American Film Institute (AFI), where he graduated with an M.F.A. degree .

At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, he began working for producer Roger Corman specializing in Class B horror films. Janusz Kamiński initially began his film career as an assistant cameraman, and later as a cinematographer. None of these films is etched in the history of cinema in a meaningful way, however. A turning point in his career was a television film directed by Diane Keaton, "Wildflower" in 1991. The cinematography of this film drew the attention of Steven Spielberg. It was perhaps serendipitous that Spielberg was at the time planning "Schindler's List", which was set in Poland. Therefore a Polish cinematographer would bring a new level to the production. Kamiński has lensed every film Spielberg has directed since then, including "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), "Minority Report" (2002), "War of the worlds" (2005) and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008).

Janusz Kamiński's cinematography has won him several important awards. He won two Oscars for his cinematography for Steven Spielberg films, for "Schindler's List" in 1994 and for "Saving Private Ryan" in 1999. In addition, he was twice nominated for an Oscar. For Spielberg's "Amistad", in 1998 and ten years later for the film "The diving bell and the butterfly" directed by Julian Schnabel. In 2002, Kamiński received the award for outstanding achievement in cinematography at the Hollywood Film Festival.

"War Horse" trailer:

At this year's Critics' Choice Movie Awards, "The Artist" by Michel Hazanavicius received the most awards at the festival, taking home the statuette for Best Film, as well as directing, costumes, and soundtrack. The Best Actor award was won by George Clooney for playing the main role in the film "The Descendants", and the Best Actress award was won by Viola Davis from "The Help". Martin Scorsese's 2011 animated film "Hugo" received the most nominations (11). The director received a special award for 'the role of music in his films'. Actor Sean Penn received an honourary award for charity work.

The best foreign film award was won by Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation", beating "In darkness", the latest film by Agnieszka Holland, Poland's nomination for this year's Academy Awards. The Broadcast Film Critics Association often foreshadows the winners of the forthcoming Oscars.

For more information about this year's Critics' Choice Movie Awards, see: www.criticschoice.com.

Sources: PAP, kultura.gazeta.pl