IWONA STRZAŁKADIRECTOR · SCREENWRITER

Director and screenwriter · Warsaw

Iwona Strzałka

I am interested in what people leave unsaid.

I make films about relationships and about what happens when social pressure collides with personal choice.

Iwona Strzałka, portrait
Iwona Strzałka

About

Director, screenwriter, lecturer

I graduated from the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice. The cinema I care about begins where what can be said outright comes to an end.

My short films, “Czekając na…” (Waiting for…), “Szymon Python” and “Być Naj” (To Be the Best), screened at many festivals in Poland and abroad, including Munich, Mannheim-Heidelberg, Sopot, Kraków and Toruń. They came back from Kraków and Toruń with awards: the Bronze Dragon, the Flisak, and a Special Mention in Sopot.

In 2025 I completed “Sandwichman”, a TV play (TEATROTEKA / WFDiF) that premiered at the Koszalin Debut Film Festival “Młodzi i Film” 2025. I am preparing to shoot my feature “Wyspa Pszczół” (Island of Bees), produced by Joanna Jankowska-Flis / Kompania Filmowa.

I teach at AMA Film Academy and the Poznań Film School, and run workshops and script consultations.

Board member of the Directors’ Guild of the Polish Filmmakers Association (SFP) and member of the Polish Screenwriters Guild.

On the set of “Sandwichman”, with Krzysztof Ogłoza · photo: Krzysztof Kaczor
On the set of “Sandwichman”, with Krzysztof Ogłoza · photo: Krzysztof Kaczor
With Paweł Flis PSC · photo: Krzysztof Kaczor
With Paweł Flis PSC · photo: Krzysztof Kaczor
On the set of “Sandwichman” · photo: Krzysztof Kaczor
On the set of “Sandwichman” · photo: Krzysztof Kaczor

Projects

In development

Wyspa Pszczół – J. Jankowska-Flis · E. Łepecka · N. Kaczmarek · I. Strzałka
J. Jankowska-Flis · E. Łepecka · N. Kaczmarek · I. Strzałka
Wyspa Pszczół – HerArts Film Lab · Italy
HerArts Film Lab · Italy

Wyspa Pszczół / Island of Bees

Feature · drama / psychological thriller

A psychological thriller about confronting inherited shame, reclaiming one’s own body, and finding solidarity in the most unexpected places. A young woman returns to an isolated island to see her mother, a beekeeper she has not spoken to in a decade.

Written and directed by
Iwona Strzałka
Producer
Joanna Jankowska-Flis / Kompania Filmowa
Cinematography
Paweł Flis PSC
Music
Szymon Nidzworski
Casting director
Ewa Łepecka
Script consultant
Michał Oleszczyk
Lead
Nel Kaczmarek
Cast
Nel Kaczmarek, Magdalena Czerwińska, Aleksandra Konieczna, Mateusz Więcławek, Hubert Miłkowski, Sebastian Dela, Aneta Szepelska, Maria Pakulnis
  • Finalist · Gdańsk Script 2025
  • HerArts Film Lab, Italy
  • Warsaw Next
  • Film Script Open
Cudowność – With Joanna Didik, the screenwriter · Off Camera 2023
With Joanna Didik, the screenwriter · Off Camera 2023

Cudowność

Short, 15 min · psychological drama

Director
Iwona Strzałka
Screenplay
Joanna Didik
Producer
Fundacja Feeria
  • Supported by the Kraków Film Fund
  • The screenplay won the ZAiKS Authors’ Association Award in the “15-Minute Film” category of the “Script Pro” screenwriting competition at the Off Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema, Kraków 2023
Zbuk – Zbuk · SFPitch’25
Zbuk · SFPitch’25

Zbuk

Feature · folk horror

Rural Poland, the 1930s. A mother fights for the life of her child, branded a strzygoń, a vampire-like creature of folk belief. A folk horror based on real events from 1933.

Screenplay
Monika Zięba, Iwona Strzałka
Director
Iwona Strzałka
  • Official selection · SFPitch’25

Filmography

Completed work

Film and TV theatre

  • 2025

    Sandwichman

    TV play (TEATROTEKA / WFDiF) · director

    A man in a midlife crisis. A tragicomedy based on a play by Artur Pałyga.

    Watch

    Koszalin Debut Film Festival “Młodzi i Film” 2025

  • 2004

    Szymon Python

    Short · hybrid documentary · director

    An inner portrait.

    Watch

    Flisak Award, TOFIFEST Toruń 2003 (City Mayor’s Award) · Special Mention, Sopot Film Festival 2003 · Special Award, Happy End FF, Jelenia Góra 2003 · Festivals: 28th Gdynia Film Festival, Melbourne, Israel

  • 2001

    Być Naj

    Short · documentary · director

    A therapy camp for young people who stutter.

    Watch

    Bronze Dragon, Kraków Film Festival · Flisak Award, TOFIFEST Toruń 2003

  • 1999

    Przytul mnie, mamo

    Short · documentary · director

    A family foster home in the countryside. Eleven children, one mother. Graduation film, supervised by Jerzy Stuhr.

    Watch

    Human World 2001

  • 1998

    Czekając na…

    Short · fiction · director

    A sixty-year-old sex worker is certain she is about to die. A stranger gives her a ride.

    Watch

    Munich ’99 · Mannheim-Heidelberg ’99 · Hannover ’99

Television

  • 2007–2019

    Barwy szczęścia

    TVP2 · long-time staff writer

  • 2008

    Barwy szczęścia

    TVP2 · episode director

  • 2008–2010

    Majka

    TVN · head writer, leading the writers’ room

  • 2010

    Pierwsza miłość

    Polsat, prod. ATM · writer

Full filmography at filmpolski.pl

Consultations

Script consultations

One-to-one creative work on an idea, structure, step outline or character development.

1-hour session3-hour session
Projects up to 20 pagese.g. short films300 PLN750 PLN
Projects over 21 pagese.g. feature scripts, series treatments, show bibles600 PLN1500 PLN
Long-term collaborationRates determined individually.
Prices include VAT.Book a consultation

Contact

Write to me.

I’m happy to talk about projects, collaboration and everything that happens between the words.

Email

iwona.strzalka.z@gmail.com

Elsewhere