Biography
Zbigniew Preisner is Poland's leading film music composer, whose extensive credits include Hector Babenco’s At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, Luis Mandoki’s When A Man Loves A Woman, Charles Sturridge’s Fairytale: A True Story and Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen’s Valley Of Shadows. This is in addition to his long-standing collaboration with director Krzysztof Kieslowski and his scriptwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz, which includes scoring the iconic film series Three Colours Blue, Three Colours White and Three Colours Red.
Among many awards and citations Preisner received the Silver Bear from the Berlin Film Festival in 1997, two Césars from the French Film Academy – one in 1996 for Jean Becker’s Elisa, and one in 1995 for Three Colours Red – and three consecutive citations as the year’s most outstanding composer of film music in The Los Angeles Critics Association Awards of 1991,1992 and 1993. In October 2008 he was honoured by the International Eurasia Film Festival with an award for his contribution to Cinema and the Arts. In 2016 his music for film The History of Eternity was awarded the Cinema Brazil Grand Prize. In February 2017 he received the Special Award from the Polish Society of Cinematographers for his gift for composing film music that creates deeper understanding and additional dimensions for each story. In September 2018 during 34th Haifa International Film Festival he received Lifetime achievement award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to Music for Films. Preisner also received the Award of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for outstanding achievements in the presentation of Polish Culture abroad, the Officer’s Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland from the President of Poland, and the Gold Medal Gloria Artis from the Polish Minister of Culture.