Maja Ostaszewska

Maja Ostaszewska is a Polish actress born in Krakow in 1972 who has earned herself a firm place in European arthouse and mainstream cinema with her intense character roles in film and television. After training at the PWST in Krakow, she began acting early on in both international productions and on renowned Polish stages, and regularly works with the country's most influential directors. A central work in her film career is BODY (2015) by Małgorzata Szumowska, in which she plays the sensitive, spiritualist therapist Anna. The drama was screened in competition at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, won Szumowska the Silver Bear for Best Director, and received awards at the Gdynia Film Festival and the European Film Awards. Ostaszewska received the Polish Film Award Orły for Best Actress for her performance. She had previously given an impressive performance in the political thriller Jack Strong (2014), directed by Władysław Pasikowski, for which she also won the Orły for Best Actress. Her other notable film credits include collaborations with Małgorzata Szumowska in In the Name Of (2013) and Never Gonna Snow Again (2020), Agnieszka Holland's border drama Green Border (2023), the mountaineering drama Broad Peak (2022), and the Netflix crime thriller Colors of Evil: Red (2024). She made her film debut in a small role in Schindler's List (1993). She has also made her mark on television, for example in the medical drama series Diagnosis and the crime series Klangor. For her film roles, she has been awarded the Paszport Polityki cultural prize and has received numerous honors at national award ceremonies.