Paul Kowalski

Biography

Paul Kowalski is an award-winning writer-director whose films center around identity, exile and obsession, often featuring dark psychologies and the supernatural. His film SARDINIA won Best Director Grand Prize at the 2024 Flickers Rhode Island film festival, and is long-listed for the 2025 Academy Awards. Executive producer Patton Oswalt called it “an effortlessly original piece of work…beyond timely”; the film stars FIRST REFORMED’s Philip Ettinger, and Emmy-winner Martha Plimpton. Paul’s 2021 debut feature PAPER TIGER won the Audience Award and a Jury Prize at the Austin Film Festival, and was subsequently sold by Gersh and distributed onto Amazon. Born in the UK to Polish immigrants, Paul grew up in England, the Middle East, Poland, Africa, Southeast Asia and across America – sparking a natural impulse to reconcile contrasting views of the world. Studying literature and writing at Brown University, he published a collection of short stories and made his earliest films, then later received his MFA from the AFI Conservatory. Kowalski’s films have won international recognition from the ASC, Beijing Film Academy and CINE, as well as the Canadian Cinematheque, Aesthetica, Raindance, deadCENTER, Cinequest and Indy Shorts film festivals, among others. Paul is also a two-time BAFTA Newcomer, frequent lecturer at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts – and in 2021 was selected by Austin Film Festival and Writer’s Conference to their “25 Screenwriters To Watch” list. He is a Polish, British and US citizen, and lives in LA with his wife, actress Sorel Carradine.