CineFest Lifetime Awards

Sisyphus was nominated for the Academy Award in 1976, while The Struggle was awarded with the Palme d’Or in 1977 in Cannes. He directed the first Hungarian featurelength animation, Johnny Corncob. His Hungarian folktales were watched and are continued to be watched by hundreds of thousands growing up. His books and animated folktales, like Son of the White Mare or Song of the Miraculous Hind, follow the noblest traditions of disseminating knowledge and storytelling. Whether

Freedom, love of justice, and unbridled spiritedness coupled with passion and deep meaning – these are the words that best describe the films of Tony Gatlif. Born in Algiers as Michel Dahmani, Gatlif has worked with artists such as Fanny Ardant, Gérard Darmon, François Cluzet, Vincent Lindon, Asia Argento, Bea Palya, Birol Ünel and Sergi López. Taking the road, finding your roots and the beauty of a well-lived life appear as topics in several Gatlif

Bille August was born on November 9, 1948 in Brede, Denmark. He studied cinematography in Stockholm and at the Danish Film Institute. He graduated in 1973. August made his breakthrough as director and writer with his 1978 film ‘Honeymoon’. The movie can be regarded as a forerunner of the Danish Dogme 95 movement with its deep presentation of depression; touching upon the humanity of films of similar topics twenty years later. It was followed by

István Hildebrand, one of the most outstanding Hungarian cinematographers was born in 1928. He was the director of photography of the visually stunning productions of the 1970s and 1980s. Together with Márton Keleti and Zoltán Várkonyi he worked on films such as Men and Banners, Egy magyar nábob, Zoltán Kárpáthy or Sparrows are Birds Too, the newly re-mastered copy of which is screened at CineFest in Miskolc. He also worked on popular European TV shows

Jiri Menzel is one of the most influential figures of the Central European cinema. His first movie ‘Closely Watched Trains’ won the Oscar in 1968. The film ‘Larks on Strings’ shot one year after the Oscar was withheld by censors and released only in 1989 in which year’s Berlinale it won the Golden Bear – something that has been unprecedented before. ‘I Served the King of England’ attracted more than one million viewer in the

One of the most prominent figures of Hungarian cinema. His long career can only be described in superlatives: he made – as his first film – one of the best Hungarian comedies, Liliomfi (1954) and, simply, some of the best Hungarian films ever. He worked with the bests: György Illés, János Tóth, Ferenc Széchenyi, Tibor Déry, István Örkény, Péter Bacsó – to name only a few of his colleagues, the best cinematographers and writers of

She was Claudia, Marcello Mastroianni’s – that is Guido, the director – love in the 8½; Angelica, Alain Delon’s – that is Tancredi Falconeri – love in The Leopard. Venus, Jean-Paul Belmondo’s love in the Cartouche. Jill, the dream of all men, in the Once Upon a Time in the West. Ginetta, in the Rocco and His Brothers. Gabriella, in The Immortal Bachelor. Molly, Klaus Klinski’s partner in Fitzcarraldo. Doroteia in Manoel de Oliveira’s last

Vilmos Zsigmond is a European cinematographer – maybe this was his key to success in America. His European sensitivity got appreciated when, at the beginning of the 1970s when a new generation of directors created New Hollywood. The 1956 Hungarian emigré, who had the European cinema culture at his fingertips, was the right man on the right place – and became the cinematographer of the greatest directors: Robert Altman, Michael Cimino, John Boorman, Brian De

The Academy Award winner director started his career with movies like the Age of Illusions (Álmodozások kora), Father (Apa) or Love Film (Szerelmesfilm), after which he became master of spectacular historical tableaux: Mephisto , Colonel Redl and Hanussen made him one of the best directors of the world. All these three films picture a typical Central European characters and all of them were represented by Klaus Maria Brandauer. István Szabó said something fundamental about the

Born in Warsaw, Agnieszka Holland has been a border-crosser” since the beginning of her career: she studied directing in Prague, and, following the success of her first film, Provincial Actors, and the state of emergency, she immigrated to Paris. She received her first Academy Award nomination for Angry Harvest, and the second one for Europe, Europe (1990) – which has won the award for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes. She made her first

He made his debut in Cannes with the film The Round-Up (Szegénylegények) in 1966 after which he directed masterpieces of modern cinema like The Red and the White (Csillagosok, katonák), Red Psalm (Még kér a nép) for which he won the Best Director Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972. His unique and original film language is in complete harmony with the message of the movies. In his works the art seeks to find

One of the best European cinematographers was the congenial partner of the legendary director Krzysztof Kieslowski. He photographed films like the Three Colors: Blue, The Double Life of Véronique (La double vie de Véronique), A Short Film About Killing (Krótki fi lm o zabijaniu), Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down or the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He was part of Kieslowski’s greatest successes, photographed fourteen films by Krzysztof Zanussi and worked with

Lívia Gyarmathy is one of the greatest figures of Hungarian cinema. Even her first film, Do You Know Sunday-Monday? (Ismeri szandi-mandit?), was well-perceived both by the audience and the critics. The film, starring local legends Ila Schütz, Margit Dajka and Manyi Kiss is still a classic and repeatedly screened. The effects of the political changes of 1989 are pictured in Rapture of Deceit, starring Rita Tushingham. Besides her fine feature films she is also well-known

Piroska Molnár, born not far from Miskolc, in Ózd, is the recipient of awards and recognitions, starting from being a member of the Company of Immortals to the Actress of the Nation. One of Hungary’s greatest actresses, her talent is boundless, her secret unfathomable. Her theatrical, television, dubbing and film roles are so numerous that it is almost impossible to list them all: she is the actress with the most premieres in the Hungarian Theatre