Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Cold War' Wins Big at Polish Film Awards

The post-war tale of a tortured love affair took the best film, director, script and cinematography honors, with Joanna Kulig being named best actress.

Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War dominated the Polish Eagles, Poland's biggest film honors, in Warsaw late Monday, picking up seven awards.

The black-and-white drama of a tortured romance played out across Europe's Cold War era's political fault lines, scooped up the awards for best film, best director (Pawlikowski), best script (Pawlikowski and Janusz Glowacki) and best cinematography (Lukasz Zal). The film also picked up the honors for best actress for Joanna Kulig, best editing (Jaroslaw Kaminski) and best sound (Maciej Pawlowski, Miroslaw Makowski).

For a film that was also shortlisted for an Oscar last month in the best foreign-language film category, there were few surprises, with it winning in seven of the 12 categories in which it was nominated at the Eagles.

Though nominated for best actor, Tomasz Kot, who also starred in Cold War, lost in that category to Jacek Braciak for his role in controversial religious drama Clergy, which also won the best supporting actor (Janusz Gajos) and best music (Mikolaj Trzaska) awards.

The best TV series honor went to HBO Europe's Blinded by the Lights, directed by Krzysztof Skonieczny, while the best documentary award went to Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski's Poland-Germany co-production The Prince and the Dybbuk, about the mysterious hidden story of the life of a leading 1930s Polish filmmaker, Michal Waszynski.

The Eagles also honored the European Film of the Year, namely Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which was co-produced by the U.K.'s Film4.

Acclaimed Polish director and screenwriter Krzysztof Zanussi picked up a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony aired live in Poland by Canal+.