László Nemes (born Nemes Jeles László; ; 18 February 1977) is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. His 2015 debut feature film, ''

Son of Saul ''Son of Saul'' ( hu, Saul fia) is a 2015 Hungarian historical drama film directed by László Nemes, in his feature directorial debut, and co-written by Nemes and Clara Royer. It is set in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, a ...

,'' was screened in the main competition at the

2015 Cannes Film Festival The 68th Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 May 2015. Joel and Ethan Coen were the Presidents of the Jury for the main competition. It was the first time that two people chaired the jury. Since the Coen brothers each received a separate ...

, where it won the

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

. He is the first Hungarian director whose film has won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. ''Son of Saul'' is the second Hungarian film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2016, Nemes was a member of the main competition jury of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Early life

Nemes was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

as the son of a Jewish mother and the Hungarian film and theatre director András Jeles. He moved to Paris at the age of 12. Nemes became interested in filmmaking at an early age and began filming amateur horror films in the basement of his Paris home. After studying History, International Relations and Screenwriting, he started working as an assistant director in France and Hungary on short and feature films. For two years, he worked as

Béla Tarr Béla Tarr (born 21 July 1955) is a Hungarian filmmaker. Debuting with the film ''Family Nest'' (1977), Tarr began his directorial career with a brief period of what he refers to as "social cinema", aimed at telling everyday stories about ordin ...

's assistant during the filming of ''

The Man from London ''The Man from London'' ( hu, A londoni férfi) is a 2007 Hungarian film directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky. It is an adaptation by Tarr and his collaborator-friend László Krasznahorkai of the 1934 novel ''L'Homme de Londres'' by proli ...

''.

Career

After directing his first 35-mm short film, '' With a Little Patience'', in September 2006, he moved to New York to study film directing at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

. Beginning in September 2011, he spent five months in Sciences Po Paris as part of a scholarship program arranged by the

Cinéfondation La ''Cinéfondation'' is a foundation under the aegis of the Cannes Film Festival, created to inspire and support the next generation of international filmmakers. It was created in 1998 by Gilles Jacob. Since then it has developed complementary ...

, where he and Clara Royer developed the script for ''Son of Saul''. In 2012, they continued intensive work on the screenplay for seven months at the Jerusalem International Film Lab rubbing shoulders with emerging directors such as Boo Junfeng and :fr:Morgan Simon. He developed his project '' Sunset'' through the

TorinoFilmLab TorinoFilmLab (TFL) is a Turin-based laboratory that primarily supports persons working on their first and second fiction feature films. Its four main fields of involvement are training, development, funding and distribution. TorinoFilmLab runs se ...

Script&Pitch programme in 2012 and the Framework programme in 2015.

''Son of Saul''

His debut feature film, ''Son of Saul,'' premiered at the

68th Cannes Film Festival The 68th Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 May 2015. Joel and Ethan Coen were the Presidents of the Jury for the main competition. It was the first time that two people chaired the jury. Since the Coen brothers each received a separat ...

as part of the main competition. It won the

, the second-most prestigious prize of the festival. Nemes accepted the 2015 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film for ''Son of Saul'' at the telecast on 10 January 2016. It is the third Hungarian film nominated for a Golden Globe and the first Hungarian film to win.

Influences and artistry

Nemes has named Michelangelo Antonioni, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman,

Terrence Malick Terrence Frederick Malick (born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. His films include '' Days of Heaven'' (1978), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenp ...

and Stanley Kubrick as some of his favorite directors.

Filmography

Feature films

* ''

'' (2015) * '' Sunset'' (2018)

Short films

* '' With a Little Patience'' (2007) (14 minutes, 35mm) * ''The Counterpart'' (2008) (14 minutes, 35mm) * ''The Gentleman Takes His Leave'' (2010) (29 minutes, 35mm)

Awards

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize ( hu, Kossuth-díj) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1948 (on occasion of the centenary of the March 15th revolution, the ...

(2016)

Feature films

* 2015 -

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

* 2015 -

- FIPRESCI Competition Award * 2015 -

François Chalais Prize The François Chalais Prize (French: ''Prix François Chalais'') is awarded at two main events, the Cannes Film Festival (since 1997) and the Young Reporters' Awards (since 1999). It was created to pay tribute to French journalist and film histori ...

* 2015 - Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film * 2016 - Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film * 2016 - Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film * 2017 -

BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language The BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language is given annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and presented at the British Academy Film Awards. The award was first given at the 36th British Academy Film Awards, rec ...

* 2018 - 75th Venice International Film Festival - FIPRESCI Award * 2018 - 15th Seville Film Festival - Eurimages Award To The Best European Coproduction * 2019 - 9th Beijing International Film Festival - The Best Director

Short films

* 2007 - Hungarian Society of Cinematographers - Best Short Film * 2007 - Hungarian Film Week - Best Short Film * 2007 - Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films - Silver Mikeldi * 2008 - Angers Premiers Plans - Best European Short Film * 2008 - Angers Premiers Plans - ARTE Prize * 2008 - Angers Premiers Plans - Best Actress: Virág Marjai * 2008 - Athens International Film & Video Festival - Black Bear Award * 2008 - Mediawave International Film Festival - Best Cinematography * 2008 - Indie Lisboa International Film Festival - Onda Curta Award * 2010 - NexT International Film Festival Bucharest - "Cristian Nemescu" Best Directing Award

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nemes, Laszlo Living people 1977 births Writers from Budapest Writers from Paris Hungarian film directors Hungarian screenwriters Hungarian people of Jewish descent Tisch School of the Arts alumni Directors of Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners Filmmakers who won the Best Foreign Language Film BAFTA Award