ASC to Honor Polish Cinematographer

Witold Sobocinski, PSC, will receive the 17th annual International Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) in February. Sobocinski, who has collaborated with such directors as Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, and Krzysztof Zanussi, but is little known in the US, is the first DP who has worked primarily in eastern Europe to be so honored.

The 73-year-old cinematographer was among the first generation of students at the National Film, Television, and Theatre School at Lodz, Poland in the late 1940s. Since then, he has shot more than 30 feature films, including The Promised Land, The Catamount Killing, Hands Up!, Pirates, Frantic, and, most recently, The Gateway of Europe. Since 1993, Sobocinski has been involved in Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, held annually in Poland, and touted as the first major festival to focus on cinematography as a global art form. Sobocinski is the father of Piotr Sobocinski, PSC, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Red, who died in 2001.

The ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards will be held February 16, 2003, at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Visit the ASC website for more information.