Malgoska Szumowska was born in Cracow/Poland in 1973 and graduated from the Film Academy in Lodz. Her shorts "Silence" and "Ascension" received much attention, the first being awarded 18 different awards and the second being invited to the Young European Cinema section at Cannes in 1999.

Her first feature film, "Happy Man" (2000), was invited to many international festivals including Warsaw, Rotterdam, Goteborg, San Francisco, Toronto, Karlovy Vary and others. The film was awarded the Artistic Achievement Award at Thessaloniki and selected by the Variety Critics Choice as one of the 10 Best Films made by European directors in 2001. Szumowska directed "Seven Lessons of Love" for ARTE and was nominated for the European Film Award – Discovery 2000. Her script to "stranger" was chosen as one of the three best European scripts at Sundance.

Source: German Films Service & Marketing GmbH