The film will also be screened at the Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles on October 27.Continue reading
Semmelweis won three prizes at the 21st Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles: Best Film, Miklós H. Vecsei for Best Actor, and Katica Nagy for Best Actress for her performance in the film about the savior of mothers.
The five-day event, running until Tuesday evening, will screen 19 Hungarian films at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in Los Angeles, with the winners announced over the weekend.
The film about the life of Ignaz Semmelweis, a world-famous Hungarian doctor known as the savior of mothers, was screened as the opening movie of the Los Angeles festival.
The gala was attended by the film’s creators, Csaba Káel, Government Commissioner and President of the National Film Institute, and Colleen Bell, head of the California Film Commission and former US ambassador to Hungary.
“It is a great pleasure to experience the success that has greeted Hungarian filmmakers in Los Angeles, and it is a special pleasure to be able to present a film about a world-renowned Hungarian scientist in the year of two Hungarian Nobel Prize winners. After the world premiere in New York, Lajos Koltai’s new film was also received in Los Angeles with a full house, and once again there is a great curiosity for Hungarian films,” emphasized Csaba Káel.
Variety, the American film news site, published a detailed article about the film in connection with the premiere. Lajos Koltai told the online magazine that the 1952 film about Semmelweis had been a defining experience for him since his youth, and that it was a great challenge to make a biopic about the world’s best-known Hungarian doctor, and he also said it was wonderful to return to directing.
At the Film Festival, Katica Nagy shared the Best Actress award with Katalin Román, the lead actress in Six Weeks, a film about open adoption. Moreover, Veronika Noémi Szakonyi received the Best Director award for Six Weeks. Best Screenplay went to Norbert Köbli for Blockade (Blokád), while Best Cinematography went to Márk Győri for Hadik. The Best Documentary Award went to Tamás Széles for his documentary on the life of Ágoston Haraszthy, the world-famous creator of California wine culture. In addition, Koltai was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for his work at the festival’s opening event.
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The closing film of the 21st Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles will be Tamás S. Zákonyi’s documentary about the legendary Hungarian water polo team, Golden Legends, on October 31.
Via MTI, Featured image via Facebook/Semmelweis