At the same time Wajda began his work as a director in theatre, including Michael V. Gazzo's A Hatful of Rain (1959), Hamlet (1960), and Two for the Seesaw (1963) by William Gibson.

In the mid-1960s Wajda made The Ashes (1965) based on the novel by Polish writer Stefan Żeromski and directed several films abroad: Love at Twenty (1962), Siberian Lady Macbeth[16][17] (1962) and Gates To Paradise (1968).

The following year he directed an ironic satire Hunting Flies[19] with the script written by Janusz Głowacki and a short television film called Przekładaniec based on a screenplay by Stanisław Lem.

Without Anesthesia) (1978), The Orchestra Conductor (1980), starring John Gielgud; and two psychological and existential films based upon novels by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz – The Birch Wood (1970) and The Maids of Wilko[21] (1979).

In 1983, he directed Danton, starring Gérard Depardieu in the title role, a film set in 1794 (Year Two of the French Republican calendar) dealing with the Post-Revolutionary Terror.

Made against the backdrop of the martial law in Poland, Wajda showed how easily revolution can change into terror and start to "eat its own children.

In theatre he prepared an interpretation of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (1984) and other unique spectacles such as Antygone, his sequential Hamlet versions and the early 20th-century Jewish play The Dybbuk.

In 1996, the director went in a different direction with Miss Nobody,[29] a coming-of-age drama that explored the darker and more spiritual aspects of a relationship between three high-school girls.

[32] In 2002, Wajda directed The Revenge, a film version of his 1980s comedy theatre production, with Roman Polanski in one of the main roles.

In February 2006, Wajda received an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The film is dedicated to Edward Kłosiński, Janda's husband, a cinematographer and a long-time Wajda friend and co-worker who died of cancer the same year.

Człowiek z nadziei), Wajda's biography of Lech Wałęsa, based on a script by Janusz Głowacki and starring Robert Więckiewicz in the title role, had its world premiere at the 2013 Venice International Film Festival.