Biography
Radek Wegrzyn, born on 8 September 1977 in Gdansk, Poland, first studied media and political science in Bonn (1997-2002). At the same time he attended a film & television workshop at Maine Media College in Rockport, USA in 2000, where he also made his first short film "Requiem". Back in Germany, Wegrzyn began studying film/television at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences. During this time he shot several election commercials (for the main political parties in Germany, CDU and SPD), the 15-minute documentary "Macht & Medien" (2001) and the 15-minute short film "Ein Sommernachtstraum" (2002), which was shown at the Potsdam student film festival Sehsüchte in spring 2003.
At that time Wegrzyn had already transferred from the University of Applied Sciences Dortmund to the Academy for Film and Television 'Konrad Wolf' in Potsdam-Babelsberg (today: Filmuniversität Babelsberg). There he studied directing until 2008. He completed his studies with a screenplay for the feature film "Sommer auf dem Land" ("Father, Son & Holy Cow"), which he shot in 2009. The tragicomedy about a celebrated pianist who, after the death of his wife, finds new courage to live through a musically inclined dairy cow celebrated its premiere at the 2011 Biberach Film Festival, where it won the prize for Best First Feature and the Audience Award. The film was released in German cinemas in early 2012.
A little later, in April 2012, Wegrzyn's next feature film was released: The documentary "Violinissimo", in which he accompanies three participants of the renowned Joseph Joachim Violin Competition. He also shot music videos and image films (for Microsoft, among others). In August 2014 Wegrzyn began shooting the documentary "Die Schule auf dem Zauberberg" about the everyday life at the Swiss Leysin American School, one of the most exclusive private schools in the world. The premiere took place at the Hamburg Film Festival in October 2018; in February 2019 "Die Schule auf dem Zauberberg" was released in cinemas.
In 2017 Radek Wegrzyn founded the production company Magical Realist together with four other filmmakers. From 2019 to 2023 he produced his documentary film "Miss Holocaust", about the controversial beauty contest "Miss Holocaust Survivor" in Israel, in which only Holocaust survivors take part.