Photo: Jeff Vespa / WireImage.com

Born in Warsaw, Poland; educated at FAMU, Prague. Sometime screenwriter for Andrzej Wajda whose own films as a director have focused on the lives of the marginal and the doomed. Holland studied filmmaking in Czechoslovakia under Milos Forman and Ivan Passer, returning to Poland in 1972 after police harassment had culminated in a jail sentence. She made her co-directing debut in 1977 with SCREEN TESTS and wrote her first screenplay for Wajda, WITHOUT ANAESTHESIA, in 1978. Two years later her solo feature directing debut, PROVINCIAL ACTORS, won the FIPRESCI (International Critics) prize at Cannes. After the imposition of martial law in 1981 Holland emigrated to Paris, where she still lives. Holland's last Polish feature, A WOMAN ALONE (1981), chronicles the grim plight of an unmarried mother employed as a letter-carrier. The 1985 West German film ANGRY HARVEST reverted to a wartime theme, detailing the relations between a mildly prosperous farmer and the Jewish refugee woman he discovers and shelters. Holland received her highest international acclaim to date for her screenplay adaptation and direction of EUROPA, EUROPA (1991), a riveting, fact-based film about a boy who conceals his Jewish identity while serving in Hitler's army. (The film received an Oscar® nomination for Holland's screenplay, but due to an inflexible technicality in Oscar-voting policy, a nomination in the Best Foreign Film category was denied.) She followed up this success with the equally fascinating drama OLIVIER OLIVIER (1992), based on the factual account of a boy who mysteriously disappears and, six years later, apparently reappears to reunite with his family. Taken together as companion works, both films confirmed Holland's reputation as one of the most skilled and intriguing filmmakers on the international scene. Holland then directed THE SECRET GARDEN (1993), a lush and critically acclaimed adaptation of the classic children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was Holland's first English-language film and her first to be produced with the backing of a major American studio (Warner Bros.). Other notable directng credits include BITTERE ERNTE / ANGRY HARVEST (1985, also writer),TO KILL A PRIEST (1988, also writer), TOTAL ECLIPSE (1995), WASHINGTON SQUARE (1997), THE THIRD MIRACLE (1999), JULIE WALKING HOME (also writer) and GOLDEN DREAMS (both 2001), and COPYING BEETHOVEN (2006). Recent work in television includes directing episodes of the series "Cold Case" (2004-07), "The Wire" (2004-08) and "Ekipa" (2007). Holland was married to Czech director Laco Adamik, by whom she has one daughter, storyboard artist Kasia Adamik.  Nominated for Achievement in Writing - Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published 1991: EUROPA, EUROPA 1 nomination