BUDAPEST FILM ACADEMY
FACULTY
KRISZTINA GODA – Directing, Screenwriting
Screenwriter and director. She has directed several award winning Hungarian feature films, including Just Sex and Nothing Else, Happy New Year, Children of Glory and Chameleon. She obtained her director’s degree at National Film and Television School (London), and her screenwriting degree at the Univesity of California, Los Angeles.
NIMRÓD ANTAL – Directing
Director, screenwriter, actor. He wrote and directed the Hungarian-language film Control (2003), which won numerous awards, including the Award of the Youth at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Later he moved to Los Angeles and shot several feautre films there, including Vacancy with Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson, and Predators with Adrian Brody. A biopic about infamous Hungarian bank robber Attila Ambrus, called A Viszkis, was released in 2017.
JENŐ HÓDI – Directing, Screenwriting, Creative producing
Screenwriter, director, producer, and the founder-director of the Budapest Film Academy. Winner of several international film prizes, his latest feature film won two “Best Director” awards in Spain and in Italy. He has made over a dozen feature films and sold 20 screenplays. He received his Masters degree in film at Columbia University, New York, under the guidance of Milos Forman, Brian De Palma, John Avildsen. In Los Angeles, he participated in such recognized workshops like actor-director Milton Katselas’ master class, Stella Adler’s actor training and the writer-director workshop of Actor’s Studio.
ISTVÁN SZABÓ – Directing, Screenwriting
Oscar and Kossuth Prize winner Hungarian director. He is the best-known, and one of the most critically acclaimed Hungarian film directors of the past few decades. He achieved his greatest international success with Mephisto (1981), which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and a Cannes Award for the Best Screenplay. Colonel Redl (1985) and Hanussen (1988) were also nominated for Oscar and Golden Globe Awards, and the former was the winner of a Jury Prize at the Cannes Festival. His most known English-language films are Meeting Venus (1991), Sunshine (1999) and Taking Sides (2001). His latest one, Being Julia (2004), brought an Oscar nomination for actress Annette Bening.
RÓBERT KOLTAI – Directing
He is a Jászai Mari-award winner actor, director and screenwriter. He has appeared in over 90 films since 1967. He appeared in the 1976 film Man without a Name, which was entered into the, 26th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for an outstanding achievement. He also starred in films that he directed as well, like Train keeps a rollin’, Colossal sensation, May day mayhem!, Hyppolit, Professor Albeit, Out of order, We never die. In additon to these, he had many other films that defined the Hungarian film world.
ALEXIS LATHAM – Directing
Since his graduation at Welsh College of Music and Drama in 1990, Alexis Latham has worked as an actor, director and trainer all over Europe. With his Scallabouche theatre company founded in 1998, he has directed, performed and created countless theatre performances, in addition, he appeared in several films and on television as well. Currently, he is working as the leading trainer at Impact Works. With his company, they regularly hold improvisational theatre performances in Hungary and abroad.
SZABOLCS HAJDU – Directing
Director, screenwriter, actor. He made several short films and won major awards at international festivals as an actor and director. Hungary nominated his movie White Palm for the Oscars and it also won several important national and international awards, including the 37th Hungarian Film Festival for best director, best cinematographer, Golden scissors (for editing) and the audience award. Later his film Bibliotheque Pascal also won the grand prize at the Hungarian Film Festival. The movie It’s not the time of my life won the main prize at the film festival in Karlovy Vary and also the prize for best male acting.
KRISTÓF DEÁK – Directing
Director, screenwriter, producer and editor who is best known for his work on Sing, which earned him critical appraisal and recognition including the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2017.
PÉTER KOZMA – Directing
Film director and advertising specialist. He has shot dozens of commerticals.
JÁNOS VECSERNYÉS – Directing, Cinematography, Creative producing
Balázs Béla Prize winner cinematographer and director. Winner of several Hungarian and international awards, such as: Venice International Film Festival – Special Jury Prize (The Dinner, 2008), Kamera Hungária – Best Short Film Award (Quartet, 2001). He is not only a talented director, but one of the most wanted feature film (Children of glory, Glass tiger 2., etc.) cinematographers in Hungary. He has also shot more than 250 commercials so far.
ANDRÁS BÁLINT KOVÁCS – Directing, Screenwriting
Film historian, film aesthetician, head of the Department of Film Studies at Eötvös Lorand University, and also the director of the Institute of Art Theory and Media Resarch. His field of research modern European art film. Between 1984 and 1986 he was the art consultant of the Béla Balázs Studio, and between 1990 and 1994 he was the head of the Motion Picture Theory department of the University of Theatre and Film Arts. Between 1995 and 1998 he was the director of the Hungarian Institute in Paris. He has been a doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 2007.
ATTILA VARRÓ – Directing, Screenwriting
Attila Varró has been working for the film magazine Film World since 1998 as an editor and columnist. Since 2002, he has held courses at the Department of Film Studies of Eötvös Loránd University in genre studies and film history, and also practical courses in film analysis. He regularly writes articles for Hungarian film journals, his book entitled Cult-comics was published in 2007.
TIBOR SZERVÉT – Directing
Jászai Mari-award winning film and theater actor, theatre director. He received several art and acting awards, and has been an actor at the Thalia Theater since 2014. In 2010 he also received the Meritorious Artist Award of The Hungary. He is currently directing in various theatres. He has performed in more than 80 plays on stage, and has starred in several films and television series. His most famous role was in A kind of America 1,2, 3. He also starred in the Apaches, The Hungarian Strayer, The Toth family, Mansfeld, and in the television series Theater and nothing else.
IVÁN KAMARÁS – Directing
Jászai Mari Award winning actor. He has performed in more than 40 plays on stage, and has starred in several films. In theatre, the audience could see him in the leading part of pieces of Shakespeare, Schiller, Chekhov, Tennessee Williams. He also starred in such standouts as GlassTiger 3 (2010), Europe Express (1998) and Out of Order (1997). He had also landed roles in international productions for film and television, such as Hellboy II, Silent Witness or The Mark.
SÁNDOR CSÁNYI – Directing
Jászai Mari Award winning actor. He had small roles in a number of films until 2003 when he starred in Nimród Antal’s critically acclaimed Kontroll. In 2004, he won the Hungarian Film Critics’ Award as best actor and the British Fringe Report Awards for best acting in 2005 for Kontroll. He has since become the leading man in Hungarian cinema, starring in such films as Eternal winter, Coming out, Kameleon, Just Sex and Nothing Else, Rokonok, S.O.S. Love!, Stop Mom Theresa and Children of Glory.
KARL BARDOSH – Directing
Professor at the film department of New York University (NYU). Award-winning director, producer, writer, editor of features, shorts, television series and documentaries. He has been a trendsetting pioneer in many areas of film and television: he is the founder of ’cell phone cinema’.
JUDIT TÓTH – Line producing
Assistant director. She has worked on many films (Lily Lane, The Lord’s lantern in Budapest, Easy blood, etc.) and succesful television (Therapy, The Teacher, etc.) series.
ANDRÁS MUHI – Creative producing
One of the most famous Hungarian producers, founder of Inforg Studio. He has been the producer of the Silver Bear Award winning film, Just the wind, at the Berlin International Film Festival 2012, and also of On Body and Soul, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2018. He also received the “Best Film Producer” award at the Hungarian Film Week five times. In 2005, he was also awarded Béla Balázs Prize, the most dignified prize of Hungarian film artists. In 2012, he was awarded György Fehér Prize. He is a member of the European Film Academy.
GÁBOR FERENCZY – Creative producing
Producer, CEO and Co-Owner of Focusfox Studios. Focusfox is Hungary’s leading, full service post-production studio. They offer VFX, visual and audio work for post-production as well as camera and lighting rental packages for Hungarian and foreign productions alike. They have become a prominent company in Hungary with their original content feature, television and documentary films. Gabor Ferenczy produced numerous Hungarian and foreign award winning films (Liza, the fox fairy, It’s not the time of my life, Strangled, X – The Exploited, etc.).
PÁL SÁNDOR – Creative producing
Kossuth- and Balázs Béla Prize winner director, scriptwriter and producer will be our guest lecturer. He also won the Silver Bear Award at the 1977 Berlinale for Strange Masquerade. He worked as a producer on several Hungarian films, like The notebook, De kik azok a Lumnitzer nővérek?, Hasutasok, Utolsó jelentés Annáról, The last report.
GÁBOR KOVÁCS – Creative producing
Producer of the Glass Tiger sequel, White god, Bibliothèque Pascal, White Palm and Black Brush among others. The White god won in two categories at the Cannes Film Festival, while The White palm won in Karlovy Vary. Apart from producing several Hungarian feature films, he is the co-proprietor and producer of a prominent commercial manufacturing company in Hungary.
PÉTER MISKOLCZI – Creative producing – Line producing
Miklós Bánffy- and Béla Balázs-award winner producer and the member of the European Film Academy (EFA). He won the grand prize (Long Twilight, The other day, Taxidermy) and also the best producer category (Simon, the magician) at Hungarian Film Festival, also he’s produced many official and in competition selections of “A” category European film festivals such as Cannes, Locarno or Karlovy Vary.
JENŐ HÁBERMANN – Creative producing
Leading producer of several feature films and international co-productions (The door, Mansfeld, The perfect killer, Metamorphosis, etc.). One of his most succesful film, The door is an adaptation of Magda Szabó’s award-winning novel, directed by Academy Award winner István Szabó, and starring Academy Award winner Helen Mirren and Martina Gedeck – also a winner of numerous awards.
JONATHAN HALPERYN – Creative producing
Producer. He was the managing director of Focus Features. Throughout 11 years with Focus Features, and 16 years in media and entertainment, he has worked on films such as Lost In Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Brokeback Mountain. His new company, Hero Squared, offers production servicing solutions, and also develops and produces own original films and TV content.
ZSUZSA GURBÁN – Line producing
She has been working as an assistant director since 1982. She contributed to movies like Munich (Steven Spielberg), Evita, Underworld, Spy Game and I Spy. She also worked on several dozen commercials.
JAMES CHANKIN – Creative producing
Director, producer and actor. He has been the producer of more than a dozen of American movies and television films, and the director and actor of many films. He worked in many producing areas of the film industry. Besides his work as a director, he is actively participating in international productions and film financing.
SANDEEP MARWAH – Creative producing
Indian film producer, director, educator, journalist and businessman. He is the founder & president of Asian Academy of Film & Television. He is also the owner & founder of Marwah Studios. He produced approximately 2300 short films and given opportunity to 10,000+ film makers around the World. He got a Life Time Achievement Award at Cannes in 2019.
TAMÁS BABOS – Cinematography
Cinematographer. He was graduated from University of Theatre and Film Arts. He is notable for his work in commercials (Pedigree, FHB Bank, Unicredit, E-ON etc.), television shows (Just theatre and nothing else, Hacktion, Zanzibar), and movies (Chameleon, Where were you, my Son?) for which he was recognised by several international and Hungarian awards. With Where were you, my son? (2008), he won in Best Cinematographer category at the Lecce Festival of European Cinema.
BUDA GULYÁS – Cinematography
Balázs Béla Prize winner cinematographer. He has shot several Hungarian and foreign productions. Besides many American films and television series, he was the cinematographer of Just Sex and Nothing Else. He also worked as one of the main cinematographers of the films Children of Glory and Chameleon. In 2008, he won the “Best Cinematographer” award at the Madrid International Film Festival, and he was chosen as “Cinematographer of the Year” at the Aranyszem Budapest HSC in 2009.
ELEMÉR RAGÁLYI – Cinematography
Emmy Award winning cinematographer, also received a Jury Prize at the Montreal World Film Festival. Ragályi is an internationally renowned D.o.P., who has worked in dozens of Hungarian and international productions since the ‘70s. Many films that he shot went on to win multiple awards, including an Oscar, an Emmy and an ACE Award. His honors in Hungary: Balázs Béla Prize, Artist of Merit, Outstanding Artist, and Kossuth Prize. At the Hungarian Film Festival, he has been awarded the “Best Cinematographer” award six times.
ZOLTÁN DÉVÉNYI – Cinematography
Cinematographer. He was graduated from University of Theatre and Film Arts in 2014. Since then, he has won several awards. In 2019 he received the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Cinematography. For the movie Curtiz he won the Best Cinematography Award at the Boston International Film Festival. He also got the II. Kovács László és Zsigmond Vilmos Cinematography Award in the Best Cinematography category.
FRIGYES B. MARTON – Cinematography
Balázs Béla-award winner cinematographer. He was graduated from University of Theatre and Film Arts in 1979. He won the Hungarian television’s “Cinematographer of the Year” award multiple times. His film, Sarajevo Cafe won the Jury Prize at the Monaco International Film Festival in 1998. Among others, h was the cinematographer of Hungarian series called Good boys and Our little village.
LÁSZLÓ BILLE – Cinematography
He has worked on several Hungarian and foreign productions. In the beginning he worked as a focus puller, then after the movie Bánk Bán as a camera operator (where he worked with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond). Since then, he has been working as a cameraman only, mostly in foreign productions. One of his professional highlight was The Martian directed by Ridley Scott. He worked on other famous movies and TV series as Vikings, The Witcher, Hercules, Underworld, Robin Hood, Hellboy 2., Eragon, The Raven.
MIKLÓS HAJDU – Cinematography
He has been a gaffer in about a hundred feature films and television series. Hajdu has worked with the best directors, including István Szabó, Béla Tarr, György Pálfi, János Szász, Éva Gárdos, Pál Sándor, Peter Kassovitz and Uli Edel. He has also worked with several renowned D.o.P.s. His latest credits are Bad poems, 1945, Budapest noir, White god, Land of storms, The door.
ZSUZSA RADNÓTI – Screenwriting
Dramaturg, Jászai Mari Award winner artist. For many years, she was the leading dramaturg of Vígszínház, a prominent Hungarian theater. Now she is a freelancer, and she is in the board of directors of the Dramaturge Chamber and Chapter of Association of Hungarian Theatre Arts. She received the Artist of Merit of the Hungarian Republic. She is the widow of the Kossuth Award winner writer, István Örkény (1912–1979). At the Budapest Film Academy, she helps the students with looking through their scripts and analyzing them from a dramaturgical point of view.
TIBOR FONYÓDI – Screenwriting
Novelist and screenwriter, the head of the script development department at the Hungarian National Film Institute. He was the head writer of the Hungarian television series In the Line of Fire and Hacktion, and also one of the screenwriters of Metamorphosis. He is the co-founder and member of the Hungarian Scriptwriter’s Association (MFE-HAS) and also a member of the Hungarian Writer’s Association. Under the pseudonym “Harrison Fawcett” he wrote more than a dozen succesful science-fiction novels that have been published in many countries.
KAROL HOEFFNER – Screenwriting
She is the Chair of Screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She has many film credits including several Danielle Steel adaptations, a television mini-series Harem, movies-of-the-week based on true stories– The Making of a Hollywood Madam and Miss America: Behind the Crown. Among her other credits are the original movies, Voices from Within and Burning Rage. She has penned two young adult novels, All You’ve Got, Surf Ed, and Knee Deep.
BETH SERLIN – Screenwriting
She is an international screenwriter and professor at Loyola Marymount University. She won Best Screenplay at the Tokyo Film Festival for Beyond Silence (Jenseits der Stille), which was then nominated for Best Foreign Language film in the 1998 Academy Awards. She’s since written for the major German broadcasters Pro-7, ZDF, Sat1 and ARD. Beth has also worked as a story analyst for New Line Cinema, CAA, Spring Creek Productions and the Sundance Institute. As an educator, she has led script development seminars in Mexico and throughout Europe.
PAUL CHITLIK – Screenwriting
He is an author, television and film writer, producer, and director. He is also a professor at Loyola Marymount University. He has written for all the major networks and studios. Most recently, he wrote, produced, and directed The Wedding Dress. He has taught writing workshops all around the world.
DAVID CLAWSON – Screenwriting
He is an author, screenwriter and professor at Loyola Marymount University. He also taught at USC for eight years before joining LMU full-time. As a screenwriter, he’s written for studios and independent production companies, in Hollywood and internationally. In 2017 his first novel, My Fairy Godmother Is A Drag Queen, was published. In 2018 he was named one of Variety’s 10 Top Teachers in Entertainment Education.
MICHELLE GILLIE – Screenwriting
She is a screenwriter and professor at Loyola Marymount University. She is a co-chair of the WGAW (Writers Guild of America West) Committee of Black Writers, whose mission is to create career and networking opportunities for Black writers in Hollywood. Her film Of Boys & Men won Best of the Fest at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival. In 2019 she sold her one-hour drama The Honorable to CBS, a project inspired by her childhood in Chicago.
GYULA MÓZES – Editing
He was the editor of such succesful, award-winning Hungarian films as X – The Exploited or Kincsem. He also worked on the series Underworld running on RTL.
LÁSZLÓ RUMBOLD – Editing
Editor. He has worked on several movies (e.g. Montecarlo) and TV series (e.g. 200 first dates, Underworld, Just theatre and nothing else).
TOM ERNST – Editing
Award-winning editor and post-production supervisor. He was the editor of several Hungarian and foreign films including Bánk Bán, The Bridgeman (the English version), and An Old-fashioned Story, based on Magda Szabó’s novel. He also worked on the Hungarian television series In the Line of Fire, the Mr. Bean cartoon series and many documentaries, short films and several commercials.
TAMÁS KOLLÁNYI – Editing
Editor. From 2004 he has been also lecturer at the University of Theatre and Film Arts. He was the editor of several films including Pal Adrienne (which won the FIPRESCI Prize in Cannes), A kind of America 2., or Lora. He also worked on the HBO TV series Therapy.
KÁROLY SZALAI - Editing
Béla Balázs Award-winning editor. Since 2010 he has been the president of the Association of Hungarian Editors. His most succesful film was the On Body and Soul, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2018. It also received the Golden Bear Award for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival. He also worked on the following films: Valan – Valley of Angels, Afterlife, Final Cut, Paper Dogs.
MARI MIKLÓS – Editing
Béla Balázs Award-winning editor, university professor. She was the editor of many Hungarian movies: We never die, Hippolyt, Professor Albeit, Samba, Mayday Mayhem!, Colossal sensation, Noe’s ark But who are those Lumnitzer sisters?
LÁSZLÓ HARGITTAI – Editing
Editor of more than 50 Hungarian films. The most succesful ones, which have won many international and Hungarian awards: The Ambassador to Bern, Eternal winter, Halfworld, Little tales. As technical manager he worked on American productions that were shot in Hungary, such as Blade Runner 2049 or Dune.
RÉKA LEMHÉNYI – Editing
Béla Balázs Award-winning editor, university professor. In 2001 she received the Golden Scissor Award as best editor at the Hungarian Film Week, and in 2010 she got the Best Editor award from the Hungarian Film Critics. She has worked on many films (Taxidermy, Tamara, Final Cut, Troupers, etc.) and TV series (Therapy, When shall we kiss, etc.)
MAC RUTH – Sound-Engineering
He is an American sound mixer. He has worked on numerous succesful films, including Underworld, Witch Hunters. Hercules, The Martian, Spy, among others. He was nominated at the 88th Academy Awards in the category of Best Sound Mixing for The Martian.
FERENC LUKÁCS – Sound-Engineering
Sound mixer, sound engineer. He completed his studies in California at The Los Angeles Recording School (LARS), at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), then at Paramount’s, Todd-AO’s and many other studios’ classes. For nearly 20 years, he has been the sound editor and mixer of several American television and radio programs, commercials and movies. Currently, he is working at Hungary’s leading post facilities doing VO/ADR and Foley recording, sound design, editing and mixing for short and long format film, TV and online media.
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