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Poland has picked the historic biopic Walesa: Man of Hope from four-time Academy Award nominee Andrzej Wajda as its candidate for the best foreign-language Oscar.
The film stars stars Robert Wieckiewicz as legendary organizer Lech Walesa, who rose from humble beginnings as an electrician in the shipyards of Gdansk to become the leader of the Solidarity movement and, following the collapse of communism, president of Poland and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Wajda is certainly no stranger to the Academy. Four of his films have been nominated for the best foreign-language prize: The Promised Land in 1975, The Maids of Wilko in 1979, Man of Iron in 1986 and, in 2007, the historic war drama Katyn. But the tireless 87-year-old has only won one Oscar, an honorary statuette for his life’s work in 2000.
Walesa: Man of Hope premiered in Venice and Toronto and will open Sept. 21 in Poland.
Poland has been nominated nine times in the foreign-language category, most recently for Agnieszka Holland‘s In Darkness, but has never won.
The nominees for best-foreign language film will be announced Jan. 16 and the winner at the Oscar ceremony March 2.
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