Agnieszka Holland

Agnieszka Holland – Screenwriter and film and television director, Holland was born in 1948 in Warsaw. She studied in Prague, where she was arrested during the Prague Spring in 1968 for her political activism against the communist regime. In 1971 she returned to Poland; however, she kept coming into conflict with the Communist authorities due to her political views. Despite this and thanks to assistance from esteemed Polish colleagues, such as Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi, and Krzysztof Kieślowski, Holland succeeded in creating, in Poland, films which were recognized at Cannes and Berlin. Shortly before the imposition of martial law, she left Poland again, this time for Paris. In 1985 she completed the film “Angry Harvest”, which was nominated for an academy award. In 1991 she finished the film “Europa Europa” which was named best foreign film by the National Board of Review, several Film Critics circles and won the Golden Globe. Moreover, it was nominated for an academy award, Holland’s second nomination. Her third Oscar nomination was for “In darkness” in 2012. She is very active in advocating LGBTQ+ rights in Poland and beyond, and several of her films had LGBTQ+ subjects; one of them, Girl like me, Gwen Araujo story won in 2007 the GLAAD Media Award. In 2020 Holland was elected the President of the European Film Academy.

Olga Tokarczuk

Olga Tokarczuk – 2018 literature Nobel Prize laureate. Tokarczuk wrote her first novel, “The Journey of the Book People” in 1993. It won the Polish Publisher’s Prize for best debut. She received Poland’s Nike Prize in 2008 and 2013 for “Flights” - an innovative novel telling the stories of people in transit, and “The Books of Jacob” - a historical novel. In 2018, she received the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Man Booker International Award for the English translation of “Flights.” Olga Tokarczuk has for years been active in defence of persecuted minorities, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, women’s rights, and animal rights. Furthermore, she is actively deconstructing nationalistic stereotypes concerning Polish history, resulting in severe attacks from right-wing nationalist political groups against her.

Kasia Adamik

Kasia Adamik – film director. Adamik left Poland, joining her mother shortly after the imposition of martial law when she was still a child. Raised in Paris, Adamik graduated from the Institute of St-Luc in Brussels. She worked on several Hollywood productions, she was a storyboard artist, and in 2001 she shot there her directorial debut “Bark!”, premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Some of her notable films include: “Offsiders”, “Janosik: A True Story”, “Amok”, and “Spoor”. Furthermore, she has been involved in several TV series for HBO, Amazon, and Netflix. She is active on the Polish LGBTQ+ scene; her public coming out was widely publicized and talked about, it helped a lot of young people in Poland make this difficult and often dangerous decision themselves.

Anja Rubik

Anja Rubik – Polish model, activist, philanthropist and entrepreneur. Rubik is one of the most prominent models of the 20th and 21st century, continuously featuring on magazine covers, runways, and ad campaigns for the most notable fashion houses. By 2009, Rubik was dubbed a “top model” by French Vogue. Rubik is the founder of SEXEDpl, a foundation that builds and promotes comprehensive sex education in Poland. SEXEDpl provides young people, parents and adults with comprehensive, age-appropriate education on human rights, gender equality, relationships, reproduction, it inform about risks connected to sexual behaviors, but also present sexuality with a positive approach, emphasizing values such as respect, inclusion, non-discrimination, equality, empathy, and responsibility. Rubik also plays a substantial role in supporting the women’s rights movement and the LGBTQAIP+ community in Poland as an activist and public speaker.

Mary Komasa

Mary Komasa – singer. She debuted in 2015 with an album bearing her name. Komasa grew up in an artistic family in Warsaw. She began her musical education at the age of six learning the piano, organs, and harpsichord. In her teenage years, she moved briefly to Paris to develop her artistic freedom. In 2020 she released her second album “Disarm.” Both her albums were nominated for awards in 2016 and 2020 respectively.

Antoni Porowski

Antoni Porowski - New York Times Bestselling Author and Emmy Award-winning Queer Eye star. As Queer Eye’s food and wine expert, the self-taught cook brings with him a lifelong passion for food. Antoni’s first cookbook, Antoni in the Kitchen, was released in Fall 2019, debuting at #2 on the New York Times’ Best Seller List. His next cookbook, Antoni: Let’s Do Dinner, is set for release on September 14th, 2021.

Antoni can currently be seen in Netflix’s Emmy Award-winning series Queer Eye, which has won “Outstanding Structured Reality Program” for three consecutive years. In 2020, Antoni and his fellow Fab Five received their first Emmy nominations for “Outstanding Hosts For A Reality Or Competition Program.” Coming up, Antoni is developing a feature film for Netflix with Black-ish creator Kenya Barris loosely based on Antoni’s real-life dating experiences as a sexually fluid man entitled Girls and Boys.

Born in Canada to Polish emigrants, Antoni is an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights everywhere, especially in his family’s native Poland.