Pawlikowski’s ‘Cold War’ fails to win any Oscars in surprise blow

Krakow, Poland – Hopes were high for Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War for this year’s Oscars. But the acclaimed black-and-white drama of the Polish-born director sadly failed to win any Oscars at the 2019 Academy Awards ceremony, that took place in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Cold War had been nominated for three Oscars, an unprecedented achievement for a Polish movie, and was hoping to snatch the coveted golden statuette in the Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography categories. But all three awards were scooped by Roma, directed by Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron.

Green Book by Peter Farrelly won the Oscars for Best Picture as well as Best Original Screenplay. The Academy Award for Best Actress went to Olivia Colman for her performance in The Favourite while Remi Malek won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Queen front-man Freddy Mercury in the musical biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Although Cold War‘s failure to win any Oscar disappointed many fans and cinephiles, Pawlikowski’s beautiful drama has been showered with prizes throughout the whole year and won the hearts of moviegoers and critics all around the world. Last year, Paweł Pawlikowski became the first Polish filmmaker to win the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, in France.

A gripping drama set against the backdrop of communist Poland and love story spanning several decades, Cold War notably stood out as the biggest winner of the European Film Award, winning five of the most prestigious prizes (Best Movie, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Editor).

But as Kafkadesk reported last month, “the movie was not nominated for a Golden Globe, which is generally considered to be a measure of a movie’s chances at the Academy Awards”.

Pawel Pawlikowski has already won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with Ida in 2015.