Andrzej Wajda - Honorary Oscar Polish Director Andrzej Wajda has been voted an Honorary Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Wajda was cited by the board as "one of the most respected filmmakers of our time, a man whose films have given audiences around the world an artist's view of history, democracy and freedom, and who in so doing has himself become a symbol of courage and hope for millions of people in postwar Europe." Wajda's life story touches on many events of the 20th Century. He was a resistance fighter at 16 following the death of his father, a cavalry officer, in the Katyn forest massacre of 1940. After the war, he studied at the National Film School in Lodz, graduating in 1954. He established himself as a key figure in the new Polish cinema with his first feature film, "A Generation" (1955), a penetrating study of the effects of war on a nation's disillusioned youth. This film and the subsequent "Kanal" (1957) and "Ashes and Diamonds" (1958) form a powerful trilogy of films about the aftermath of World War II. Although Wajda has proven himself over the last four decades a versatile and prolific director, turning out romantic films, comedies, epics and dramas, he periodically returns to themes of war that echo his obsession with the futility of heroism and the bitter aftermath of combat. Some of these films include "Lotna" (1959), "Ashes" (1965), and "Landscape after Battle"(1970). A battle of a different sort was waged in 1982, after Wajda's controversial "Man of Iron" (1981) was submitted to the Academy for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film. "Man of Iron," a sequel to "Man of Marble" (1977), chronicled the development of the Solidarity Movement in Poland and featured footage of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa. The Polish Government belatedly tried to withdraw the film from contention, but the Academy, arguing that the voting process had already begun, refused to drop it and the film was eventually nominated. Emblematic of Wajda's later career is "Korczak" (1990), one of the most important European pictures about the Holocaust. It is a moving drama of the legendary pediatrician and educator who wrote under the pen name Jansz Korczak, and who fought a valiant but ultimately tragic battle to protect the 200 children in his care from the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto and deportation to the Treblinka death camp. The film was hailed as "not only one of the great Holocaust films, but a great film, period." Wajda's filmography lists 44 films he directed, including three that have been nominated by the Academy for Best Foreign Language Film: "Land of Promise" in 1975, "The Maids of Wilko" in 1979 and "Man of Iron." Wajda has never received an Oscar. Honorary Awards in the form of Oscar statuettes, according to Academy rules, may be awarded for "exceptional distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy."Previous honorees include Michelangelo Antonioni, Fred Astaire, Greta Garbo, Kirk Douglas, Buster Keaton, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray and Orson Welles.