Born in Warsaw in 1982, Ania Szczepanska made her first short films in France, in the art section of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, before moving to Berlin to study philosophy and cinema. On her return to Paris, she completed a thesis in film history on the relationship between Polish filmmakers and Communist rule in working-class Poland.

Based on the archives she discovered and interviews with leading Polish filmmakers and men of power from the Communist era, she directed We film the people!her first feature-length documentary. Broadcast on French and Polish television, it was awarded the SCAM Star (2015) and the CNRS Grand Prix (2014).

A lecturer in film history at the University of Paris 1, she conducts research on cinema and audiovisual archives in the former Eastern bloc, mainly in Poland. She is the author of the book Do granic negocjacji (Aux frontières de la négociation, Universitas, Krakow, 2017) and co-author with Sylvie Lindeperg ofÀ qui appartiennent les images? (FMSH, 2017) on the status and images of archive images.

In 2019, Ania Szczepanska will direct Solidarnosc, the fall of the wall begins in Polandbroadcast on Arte.