Born in Lodz, Poland in 1938. He studied at University of Warsaw majoring in Anthropology, History and Literature, and published his first short story in his early 20’s; Skolimowski himself is a writer, boxer, and painter. He began his film career as he wrote the script for the film The Innocent Sorcerers(1960) directed by Andrzej Wajda with Skolimowski playing a part. He debuted with drama film, Identification Marks: None(1964) when he was at Polish National Film School, and successively produced numbers of films including Walkover(1965), Barrier(1966), Deep End(1970), etc. Hands Up!(1967), the film which adequately conveys his self-critical and anti-Stalinist point of views, was once banned from release in Poland. However, winning at Cannes Film Festival with his successful films The Shout(1978) and Moonlighting(1982) assured his reputation. In 1991, he exiled himself from filmmaking and became a full-time painter; he has just come back to film world with his latest film, Four Nights with Anna(2008), and is still recognized as one of the most influential Eastern European filmmakers.