Jerzy Toeplitz

Barbara Drapińska and Jerzy Toeplitz during opening night for "The Last Stage" in Paris, 1948.
Conference of "World Union of documentary films" in 1948 Warsaw: Basil Wright (on the left), Elmar Klos, Joris Ivens and Jerzy Toeplitz, 1948.

Jerzy Toeplitz AO (24 November 1909 – 24 July 1995)[1] was a Polish film educator and theorist. He was the co-founder of the Polish Film School, and later took up an appointment in Australia for the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

Between 1948 and 1972 he was Vice-President of the International Film and Television Council (USA). In 1959, he was a member of the jury at the 1st Moscow International Film Festival.[2] Two years later, he was a member of the jury at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival.[3]

He was an author and published a number of books which have been translated into many languages. Toeplitz also, for almost 30 years (1948–1971), was the president of the International Federation of Films Archives (FIAF), where he accomplished a very important role, overall in the Cold War conjuncture, especially into a very big crisis of the FIAF's history (perhaps the worst), when Henri Langlois (one of the Cinemathèquè Française's founders) left the FIAF. Toeplitz's job was a very important differential (typical of his generation) because he was a cinema's teacher and a leader of an educational project in the Polish city of Łódź (a reference into the period). This school had a decisive impact on the modern cinema in Poland.

In 1985 he was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to Australian film.[4] In 1986, he was a member of the jury at the 36th Berlin International Film Festival. The AFTRS library is named in his honour.[5][6]

  1. ^ Adrian Dannatt (1 August 1995). Obituary: Jerzy Toeplitz. Archived from the original on 2022-06-08. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. ^ "1st Moscow International Film Festival (1959)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  3. ^ "2nd Moscow International Film Festival (1961)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-11-04.
  4. ^ It's an Honour: AO Archived 2017-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Ahern, Steve (2021). "Jerzy Bonawentura Toeplitz (1909–1995)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 19. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  6. ^ "Berlinale: 1986 Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2011-01-14.