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Warsaw becomes part of the Nazi-controlled General Government. The fighting lasts for just over a month, with both the German and Soviet armies invading Poland at the same time on different fronts. Hoping for a quick victory, Szpilman rejoices with his family at home when he learns that Britain and France have declared war on Germany, but the promised aid does not come. In September 1939, Władysław Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish pianist, is playing live on the radio in Warsaw when the station is bombed during the Nazi German invasion of Poland.
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It was included in BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century in 2016. It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film and BAFTA Award for Best Direction in 2003, and seven French Césars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Brody. At the 75th Academy Awards, the film won for Best Director (Polanski), Best Adapted Screenplay (Harwood), and Best Actor (Brody), and was nominated for four others, including Best Picture (it would lose out to Chicago). The Pianist premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival on, where it won the Palme d'Or, and went into wide release that September the film received widespread critical acclaim, with critics lauding Polanski's direction, Brody's performance and Harwood's screenplay. The film was a co-production by France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland. It is based on the autobiographical book The Pianist (1946), a Holocaust memoir by the Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman, a Holocaust survivor. The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war drama film produced and directed by Roman Polanski, with a script by Ronald Harwood, and starring Adrien Brody.
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