Friday, February 27, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Roxy Cinema
2 Avenue of the Americas, Cellar Level, New York, NY 10013
Free event, please RSVP
A post-film discussion and Q&A with Oscar-nominated costume designer Małgosia Turżańska,, following a free screening of Hamnet
The Polish Cultural Institute will host a special post-film discussion and Q&A with Oscar-nominated costume designer Małgosia Turżańska at the Roxy Cinema, following a screening of ‘Hamnet’.
Małgosia Turżańska has worked on such productions as Stranger Things’, ‘To Hell’, ‘The Green Knight’, and ‘Hamnet’. This year, she received an Oscar nomination for her work on ‘Hamnet’.
In preparation for her work on ‘Hamnet’, Turżańska studied classical Elizabethan painting, as well as canvases by artists such as the Flemish Baroque master Sebastian Vrancx. She combined historical authenticity with her own imagination to create costumes that express the truth of the film’s characters. This event offers audiences an opportunity to hear directly from Małgosia Turżańska about her creative process and the craft of bringing historical worlds to life on screen.
About the film:
1580 England. Impoverished Latin tutor William Shakespeare meets free-spirited Agnes, and the pair, captivated by one another, strike up a torrid affair that leads to marriage and three children. Yet as Will pursues a budding theater career in far-away London, Agnes anchors the domestic sphere alone. When tragedy strikes, the couple’s once-unshakable bond is tested, but their shared experience sets the stage for the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. From Focus Features and Academy Award® winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, The Rider) comes a sensitively observed, magnificently crafted tale about the complexities of love and the healing power of art and creativity.
Director: Chloé Zhao
Year: 2025
Running Time: 125 minutes
Format: DCP
Distributor: Focus Features
About the artist:
Małgosia Turżańska was born in 1980 in Kraków and later raised there. As a teenager, she moved to the United Arab Emirates, and then, in 2005, she settled in the United States. She returned to Europe for a time to study at the DAMU Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czechia, where her film career began.
In 2009, her colleague Václav Jiráček was cast in the Polish-Czech film ‘Janosik: A True Story’, directed by Agnieszka Holland and Kasia Adamik. As Turżańska spoke both Polish and Czech, he recommended her to the directors. The future costume designer became Holland’s assistant, and thanks to her presence on set, she had the opportunity to participate in the work of the set design and costume departments, quickly discovering that costume design was what she wanted to pursue. Working with Agnieszka Holland proved to be a turning point in the career of the aspiring costume designer.
Overseas, she made one film after another. Starting with short films, she quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a costume designer for increasingly larger productions. In 2011, she designed the costumes for ‘The Broken Tower’, directed by James Franco, and a year later for Rama Mosley’s fantasy comedy ‘The Brass Teapot’. 2013’s ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ turned out to be an important film in her career. The crime melodrama with an all-star cast, directed by David Lowery (known for ‘Ghost Story’, among others), led the Polish designer to later help create the acclaimed ‘The Green Knight’ with the director.
The following years brought the artist a number of successful projects. In 2015, Turżańska created costumes for Rebecca Miller’s comedy ‘Maggie’s Plan’, starring Greta Gerwig, Julianne Moore and Ethan Hawke, whom she met again a few months later when designing costumes for Ti West’s western The Valley of Violence. 2016 proved to be particularly fruitful for Turżańska’s career: she co-created the film ‘Hell or High Water’, nominated for four Academy Awards – one of the most interesting Hollywood films of that season. David Mackenzie’s film, starring Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine, became a great example of how a costume designer can realize her own artistic ambitions while respecting the entertaining nature of the tenth muse. It is no coincidence that in the following years, the Polish artist worked for A24 several times. It’s a studio that sets new standards in American cinema and skillfully combines artistic independence with commercial appeal in its films.
Her search for further challenges also led her to the world of television series. In 2017, Turżańska designed the costumes for ‘Stranger Things’, one of the most talked-about and important series of the past decade. For her work, the Polish designer received a nomination for the Costume Designers Guild Award, a distinction that is proof of industry recognition. It was not the last, as the following years brought her many other impressive and award-winning projects.
One of the most important was David Lowery’s 2022 ‘The Green Knight’, a big-budget fantasy tale based on the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The story of King Arthur’s rebellious nephew, played by Dev Patel, who sets off to meet the Green Knight, combined art-house with entertaining adventure cinema, and the film delighted viewers with its visual beauty.
Turżańska received another nomination from the Costume Designers Guild for her costumes for ‘The Green Knight’, as well as awards from critics in Chicago and Seattle.
Three years later, Turżańska she was showered with more nominations and awards. All thanks to Chloé Zhao’s ‘Hamnet’, a fictional costume drama about William Shakespeare’s wife mourning the loss of her son. In 2026, Turżańska was nominated this year for an Oscar for Best Costume Design for her work on the film.
Learn more at Culture.pl
The event is hosted by the Polish Cultural Institute.
