Szymon Lenkowski

Szymon Lenkowski (born 28 February 1981) is a Polish cinematographer and director based in Hollywood.

Life and career
Lenkowski was born on 28 February 1981 in Rzeszow, Poland. In 2005, Lenkowski graduated from the National Film School in Łódź with a degree in cinematography. He was taught by Polish cinematographer Witold Sobocinski, authoring a thesis titled "Digital Future of Cinema".

Lenkowski has directed photography for 2 feature films, 15 short films, 10 documentary films, 5 music videos, 10 HD multi-camera live concerts, and over 50 television advertisements. Whilst winning awards for his short films, Szymon was noticed by Warsaw production companies and started shooting commercials. In his mid-twenties, Lenkowski had already worked for numerous global advertising agencies including Publicis, BBDO, Euro RSCG, Grey, and McCann Erickson.

In 2009, he shot his first feature film and received a nomination for Camerimage Festival's Golden Frog award. Later in the same year, together with Piotr Bujnowicz he directed Trailer and More, and began creating movie trailers. In 2010 he was nominated for a Golden Trailer Award for the film General Nil. In 2011 he won the Golden Trailer Award for the Little Rose trailer. His second feature film, Shameless, was expected to be released in the summer of 2012

Awards

 * 2011 – Golden Trailer Awards – Best Foreign Romantic trailer for Little Rose (aka. Różyczka) trailer Szymon Lenkowski, Piotr Bujnowicz - Winner
 * 2010 – Golden Trailer Awards – Best Foreign trailer for General Nil Szymon Lenkowski, Piotr Bujnowicz – Nomination
 * 2009 - Polish Film Festival, Gdynia - I am yours (Jestem Twój), Main competition
 * 2009 - Busan International Film Festival - I am yours (aka. Jestem Twój), World Cinema section
 * 2009 - Montreal World Film Festival - I am yours (aka. Jestem Twój), World Competition section
 * 2009 - The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE – Szymon Lenkowski, The best Cinematography in Polish feature film - Nomination
 * 2008 – Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – Like in heaven (aka. Jak w niebie), Main Competition for Documentary Films
 * 2008 - 48th Cracow Film Festival – Like in heaven (aka. Jak w niebie), Main Competition
 * 2007 - DOCSDF, International Documentary Film Festival of México City (Oct-Nov 2007) - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona) Special Mention of the Jury in the Best International Short Documentary competition
 * 2007 - Parnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival (July 2007), - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), Grand Prix
 * 2007 - II International Film Festival Competition CINEMAGIC in Plock (June 2007) - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), Main Prize
 * 2007 - 28. Big Muddy Film Festival (Carbondale, USA) - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), The First Prize for the Short Documentary Film
 * 2007 - The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (Montana, USA) - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), The Jury's Special Prize
 * 2007 - The CMU International Film Festival 2006 „Faces of Democracy” (Pittsburgh, USA) - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), The Main Prize in the student's film competition
 * 2006 - 3rd Festival Kinoteatr.doc (Moskva 2006)
 * 2006 - XVI Media Festival „Man in Danger” (Lodz, Poland) - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), The Jury's Special Prize (given for the first time in the history of the festival)
 * 2006 - International Documentary Film Festival "Flahertiana" (Perm, Russia) - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), The Great Silver Nanook Prize
 * 2006 - 46th Cracow Film Festival (May 2006), Grand Prix Złoty Lajkonik, KODAK's Prize for Wojciech Kasperski (dir.) - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), The Students’ of Cracow Jury Prize
 * 2006 - 13 L'Alternativa Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), Special Mention
 * 2006 - “Artdokfest”, National Prize of LAVR (Moscow) - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), Main Prize for the Art-film (the best writer and director; the best photography; the best producer)
 * 2006 - Prix Europa, Berlin; - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), Special Mention for the best television documentary film
 * 2006 - SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival (USA)- The Seeds (aka. Nasiona); Main prize for the best short documentary film
 * 2006 - International Film Festival “Kratkofil” Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina - The Seeds (aka. Nasiona); Grand Prix
 * 2005 - Berlinale Berlin Today Award - If I Were a Fish, Nomination
 * 2005 - Kielce (Nurt 2005) - The Dwarfs Are Going To Ukraine (aka. Krasnoludki jadą na Ukrainę), Audience Awards
 * 2005 – Golden Duck Award of FILM magazine – Cyrano, The Best Independent Film, Nomination
 * 2005 – OFFSKARY 2005 – Cyrano,
 * 2004 - CINEMA magazine awards - Cyrano- Best independent film, Best script (Marczewski, Bartosz Kurowski) – awarded, best actor (Maciej Marczewski) – nomination
 * 2004 – Szymon Lenkowski – Cyrano - KAMERA magazine award for cinematography
 * 2004 – Warsaw (films tomorrow) - Cyrano, Grand Prix – best student film
 * 2004 – Kazimierz Dolny (Summer of Films) - Cyrano, Grand Prix – best short film
 * 2004 – Cracow (Krakffa) - Cyrano, Grand Prix
 * 2006 - Szymon Lenkowski Cieszyn (School Film) – Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia) Award for best cinematography
 * 2005 - Szymon Lenkowski Offskary – Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia), nomination for best cinematography
 * 2005 - Szymon Lenkowski Cieszyn - (Węgiel Student Film Festival) - Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia) best cinematography special mention
 * 2005 - Tampere Film Festival Finland – Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia), international competition
 * 2005 – Israel, Docaviv for - Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia)
 * 2005 – Grimstad IFF Nowary - Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia), international competition
 * 2005 – Sopot Film Festiwal – Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia), special mention
 * 2004 – Cracow Film Festiwal – Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia), Polish competition
 * 2004 – IDFA Amsterdam for Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia)
 * 2004 – Offensiva – Dirty World bronze OFF award in the video art category
 * 2005 – Prowincjonalia 2005 – Winners and Loosers (aka. Zwyciezcy i przegrani), Award for the Best Documentary Film
 * 2005 – Breslau Optimistic Film Festival “Happy End” – Winners and Loosers (aka. Zwyciezcy i przegrani), Grand Prix
 * 2004 – Milano (MFFS) Italy - Winners and Loosers (aka. Zwyciezcy i przegrani), “Mention d’Honneur” „Sport and society. Sport and solidarity”
 * 2003 - Szymon Lenkowski Cannes – Polish representation as part of New Talent Showcase
 * 2002 - Szymon Lenkowski International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography– Silver Tadpole

Selected filmography

 * 2012 – Shameless, (aka. Bez wstydu) feature film, dir. Filip Marczewski. - director of photography
 * 2011 - In Treatment (aka. Bez tajemnic) HBO Poland TV Series, dir. Anna Kazejak-Dawid, Jacek Borcuch – director of promotional materials, author of trailers, TV spots, promotional films, and next-ons
 * 2010 - Little Rose (aka. Rosebud, aka. Różyczka) feature film, dir. Jan Kidawa Błoński - director of promotional materials
 * 2010 - General Nil feature film, dir. Ryszard Bugajski - director of promotional materials
 * 2009 – I am yours (aka. Jestem Twój) – feature film, dir. Mariusz Grzegorzek - director of photography
 * 2008 – Like in heaven (aka. Jak w niebie) - documentary film 28’, dir. Filip Marczewski - director of photography
 * 2007 – Aria Diva – medium length feature film, dir. Agnieszka Smoczyńska - director of photography
 * 2006 – The Seeds (aka. Nasiona), documentary film 28’, dir. Wojciech Kasperski - director of photography
 * 2005 – If I Were a Fish - documentary film 18’, dir. Tomasz Wolski - director of photography
 * 2005 – The Dwarfs Are Going To Ukraine (aka. Krasnoludki jadą na Ukrainę) - documentary film 58’, dir. Miroslaw Dembinski - director of photography
 * 2004 – Cyrano - feature film DV 17’, dir. Filip Marczewski - director of photography
 * 2004 – Poor-land (aka. Bieda ziemia) - documentary film 35mm 5’, dir. Filip Marczewski - director of photography
 * 2004 – Dirty World, music video 3’, music. artist: TheCalog, - director/ director of photography
 * 2004 – Winners and Loosers (aka. Zwyciezcy i przegrani) – documentary film 52’, dir. Mirosław Dembinski - director of photography
 * 2002 – Siena - feature film 4’ - director, director of photography