Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Hanna Polak studied acting and theatre at the Acting School in Wroclaw and Warsaw, Poland, and worked as a stage performer in the Theatre of Entertainment, Chorzow. She graduated with a Master Degree from the Cinematography division of the Cinematography Institute of the Russian Federation (VGIK), in Moscow, where she studied under Vadim Yusov, DOP of Andrei Tarkovsky. In 2003, Hanna was awarded Best Producer of Documentary Movies at the International Film Festival in Krakow for Railway Station Ballad. In 2004 Hanna completed her documentary film, The Children of Leningradsky, which was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Short Documentary subject. It also received the Best Documentary Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association and was nominated for an Emmy Award in two categories: Best Documentary and Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Editing. This film was also nominated as a Notable Video by the Adult American Library Association, and it received the Gracie Allen Award, given by American Women in Radio & Television, amongst many other
awards.

Her emotional bond with her protagonists allows her to deliver visceral, poetic films that celebrate the power of human spirit and that portray the beauty of humanity in the most adverse circumstances.
As a producer, director, and/or cinematographer, Hanna has worked on various films, including Al – Tribute to Albert Maysles; Battle of Warsaw 1920 in 3D, Stone Silence, shot in Afghanistan; Officer’s Wife; Orange Sun; Faces of Homelessness, and others. Stone Silence won her “Artistic Mastery of Photographing” award at the Kiev Film Festival, for her cinematography.

Hanna’s works have been screened in festivals around the world, including Sundance, IDFA, True/False, FIPA, and they have appeared on major television networks, including HBO America, HBO Europe, Canal+, NHK, SVT, Yle, DR, and many others.
Hanna has lectured on film producing and documentary filmmaking at universities and workshops worldwide. She was an expert for the Mazovia Warsaw Film Commission and the Polish Ministry of Culture, evaluating documentary projects. Hanna is a member of the Producers Guild of America

In 2012 she produced and directed Love and Rubbish, for Why Poverty? series, which won A Corto di Donne Women’s Short Film Festival.
In 2015 Hanna completed her feature documentary film Something Better to Come, which received the Producers Guild of America nomination and
IDFA Special Jury Award. Something Better to Come received 40 awards and nominations worldwide, including main prizes at Munich Film Festival, Documentary Edge Festival, Docs Against Gravity, ArtDoc Fest, Trieste and EuroDok, as well as the Best Director award at Imagineindia and Best Cinematography award from Gdańsk DocFilm Festival.

For her charitable efforts, Polak was awarded the Crystal Mirror award by Mirror magazine in Poland, an award that recognizes “people of dialogue, those who unite, not divide.”
Hanna has been advocating for the case of homeless children all over the world and she has been collaborating with different aid agencies, to help unprivileged children.