László Nemes Jeles’ latest film, Orphan, will represent Hungary in next year’s competition for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, the National Film Institute (NFI) reported on Friday.
Due to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, each country can submit one film for the 98th Academy Awards, to be presented next March, in the international film category. A committee selected László Nemes’s film from among 24 feature-length films. Later, members of the American Film Academy will select only five films from among the countries’ official Oscar nominations. The list of nominees will be announced on January 22, 2025, and the Oscars will be presented on March 15 in Los Angeles.
The new film by László Nemes, winner of Oscars, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs for Son of Saul and Sunset, was made with the support of the NFI as a European co-production and was inspired by the director’s family history.
The main character is played by Barabás Bojtorján, his mother is played by Andrea Waskovics, and Grégory Gadebois appears as a supporting character. The screenplay was co-written by director László Nemes Jeles and Clara Royer.
Fact
Orphan is set in Budapest in the spring of 1957. After the failed revolution, most of Hungarian society succumbed to the reprisals, the disappearance of revolutionaries and resistance fighters, and hopelessness, and the Kádár era began, lasting more than three decades. Twelve-year-old Andor is raised by his mother alone, and the boy still believes that his father, who disappeared during the war, will return. One day, a man appears at their doorstep claiming to be Andor’s father. The boy refuses to see the stranger as his father. However, the man moves in with them, and the boy is forced to give up his illusions. As the rift between mother and son deepens, Andor decides to save his family from the man at any cost.
Orphan was shot on 35mm film, mostly on location in Budapest, as well as at the NFI Studio in Fót (central Hungary) and on a newly built outdoor set at the film production base. All post-production work was carried out at the NFI Film Laboratory, where the experts at the National Film Institute used special digital lighting and special development techniques to create the unique visual world of the film.
The movie was made as a Hungarian-British-French-German co-production with the support of the National Film Institute, the British BFI, the French CNC, and the German FFA. Additional funding was provided by AR Content, Mid March Media, ARTE Grand Accord, and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. The Hungarian Pioneer Pictures’ partners were the British Good Chaos, the French Lumen, and the German Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion.
Orphan, which was featured in the competition at the Venice International Film Festival and in the program of the Toronto International Film Festival, will be shown in Hungarian cinemas from October 23, distributed by Mozinet.
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Via MTI; Featured photo: Facebook/Nemes Jeles László
The post László Nemes Jeles’ “Orphan” to Represent Hungary at the 2026 Oscars appeared first on Hungary Today.
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