Márta Mészáros facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Márta Mészáros
Born	(1931-09-19) 19 September 1931 (age 93) Budapest, Hungary
Occupation	Film director screenwriter
Years active	1954–present
Spouse(s)	Laszlo Karda (1957-1959) (divorced) Miklós Jancsó (1960-1973) (divorced) (3 children) Jan Nowicki (?-2008) (divorced)

Márta Mészáros (born 19 September 1931) is a famous Hungarian film director and screenwriter. She is known for making movies that often mix her own life experiences with real-life documentary footage.

Mészáros was the first woman in Hungary to direct a full-length movie, called Eltavozott nap (The Girl), in 1968. This film won a special award at the Valladolid International Film Festival.

Her movies often show characters who try to forget their past or deal with the results of not being honest. Many of her films feature young women from broken families, like girls looking for their missing parents or women wanting to adopt children.

Mészáros has directed more than fifteen feature films. Her most famous work is probably Diary for My Children (1984), which won a major award at the Cannes Film Festival. This film was the first part of a series of three movies about her own life. The other two films are Diary for My Lovers (1987) and Diary for My Mother and Father (1990).

Throughout her career, Márta Mészáros has won many important awards. These include the Golden Bear and Silver Bear at the Berlinale, the Golden Medal at the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Silver Shell at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. She also won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Early Life and Education

Márta Mészáros was born in Budapest, Hungary. When she was five years old, her parents moved to the Soviet Union because they were communist artists. Sadly, her father was arrested and died in 1938 during a difficult time under the government. Her mother also passed away.

Mészáros became an orphan and was raised by a foster mother in the Soviet Union, where she went to school. In 1946, she returned to Hungary. Later, she went back to Moscow to study filmmaking at a school called VGIK. She finished her studies and returned to Hungary in 1956.

Filmmaking Career

Mészáros started her career in 1954 at the Budapest Newsreel Studio, where she made short films. She also worked at a documentary studio in Romania from 1957 to 1959. In 1958, she came back to Budapest and continued making short science and documentary films until 1968.

In the mid-1960s, Mészáros joined a film group called Mafilm Group 4. In 1968, she directed her first feature film, becoming the first woman in Hungary to do so.

In the 1980s, Mészáros made her well-known "Diary films." These movies were partly about her own life and had a big impact on Hungarian cinema. She bravely showed parts of the government and personal experiences that were not often seen in films. She helped to challenge censorship in Hungary and became a very important voice in the country's film industry.

Since her first feature film in 1968, Mészáros has made over fifty films and won many awards. She has also been a judge on various film panels. She continues to make films even today.

Her Films and Their Meaning

Mészáros' films often show her own life experiences. She lost her parents early and grew up in Hungary during a challenging time after the Stalinist era. Her films often reflect these difficult experiences.

Because she started her career making documentaries, many of her feature films also include real documentary footage. Her movies often have open endings, don't always follow a traditional story, and have little dialogue.

Mészáros' films explore the differences between what people hope for and what really happens. They also look at the relationships between parents and children. Her movies discuss important issues that were often ignored in Eastern European cinema. These include the challenges women face, the differences between city and country life, and how government rules affect people. They also show changes in traditional family structures and the lives of children raised by the state.

Mészáros is one of the few female filmmakers whose movies are both praised by critics and popular with audiences around the world. Her early feature films, made from 1968 to 1979, focused on the social difficulties, money problems, and emotional challenges faced by Hungarian women. She once said, "I tell simple, everyday stories, and in them the main characters are women — I show things from a woman's point of view."

Personal Life

Márta Mészáros was first married to László Karda, who was also a filmmaker, in 1957. They divorced in 1959. In 1960, she married Miklós Jancsó, a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. She met him while working with the Mafilm Group 4. They raised his two sons and her son from previous marriages together.

Even though they divorced in 1973, their two sons, Nyika Jancsó and Miklós Jancsó Jr., have both worked as directors of photography on many of her films. Later, she married the Polish actor Jan Nowicki, but they divorced in 2008. Nowicki acted in many of her films, including the main role in The Unburied Man. His son from an earlier relationship, Łukasz Nowicki, also starred in Mészáros' film, Kisvilma. Mészáros also has a daughter, Kasia Jancsó, from her second marriage.

Filmography

Feature Films Directed

Short Films Directed

• ...és újtra mosolyognak/...And Smile Again (1954)
• Albertfalvai történetek (1955)
• Mindennapi történet (1955)
• Túl a Cálvin téren (1955)
• Országutak vándora (1956)
• Sa zîmbeasca toti copii (1957 documentary)
• Popas în tabara de vara (1958 documentary)
• Az élet megy tovább/Life Goes On (1959)
• Tomorrow's Shift (1959 documentary)
• Az eladás müvészete (1960)
• Szerkezettervezés/Structural Design (1960)
• Az öszibarack termesztése (1960)
• Egy TSZ elnökröl (1960)
• Rajtunk is múlik (1960)
• A szár és gyökér fejlödése/The Stem and Root Development (1961)
• Danulongyártás (1961)
• Szívdobogás/Heartbeat (1961)
• Vásárhelyi színek (1961)
• A labda varázsa (1962)
• Gyerekek - könyvek (1962)
• Kamaszváros (1962)
• Nagyüzemi tojástermelés (1962)
• Tornyai János (1962)
• 1963. július 27, szombat (1963)
• Munka vagy hiratás (1963)
• Szeretet/Love (1963)
• Bóbita (1964)
• Festök városa - Szentendre (1964)
• Kiáltó/Crying (1964)
• 15 perc - 15 évröl (1965)
• Borsos Miklós (1966 documentary)
• Harangok városa - Veszprém/City of Bells (1966)
• Mészáros László emlékére (1968)
• A lörinci fonóban (1971)
• Ave Maria (1986 documentary)
• The Miraculous Manderin (2001)
• Magyarország 2011 (segment, 2012)

Television Shows Directed

• Teatr telewizji (TV Series) (2 Episodes)
• Vieras (1984) (5 part TV series for Finnish television channel Mainostelevisio)
• Edith i Marlene (1998)
• Urodziny mistrza (2000)

Awards and Recognition

Márta Mészáros has received many important awards for her films:

Berlin International Film Festival

• 2007 - Won - Berlinale Camera (a special award for film artists)
• 1994 - Nominated - Golden Berlin Bear for A magzat
• 1987 - Won - OCIC Award for Diary for my Lovers
• 1987 - Won - Silver Berlin Bear for Diary for my Lovers
• 1987 - Nominated - Golden Berlin Bear for Diary for my Lovers
• 1977 - Won - OCIC Award Recommendation for Kilenc hónap
• 1975 - Won - C.I.D.A.L.C. Award Recommendation for Adoption
• 1975 - Won - Golden Berlin Bear for Adoption
• 1975 - Won - Interfilm Award/Otto Dibelius Film Award for Adoption
• 1975 - Won - OCIC Award Recommendation for Adoption

Cannes Film Festival

• 1984 - Won - Grand Prize of the Jury for Diary for my Children
• 1984 - Nominated - Palme d'Or for Diary for my Children
• 1980 - Nominated - Palme d'Or for Örökség
• 1977 - Won - FIPRESCI Prize for Kilenc hónap

Chicago International Film Festival

• 2010 - Won - Gold Plaque - The Last Report on Anna
• 2017 - Won - Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Foreign-Language Feature Aurora Borealis

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

• 2005 - Nominated - Crystal Globe for A temetetlen halott

Moscow International Film Festival

• 2010 - Nominated - Golden St. George for The Last Report on Anna

Polish Film Awards

• 2001 - Nominated - Best Director for Aurora Borealis

San Sebastian International Film Festival

• 1978 - Won - Silver Seashell for Olyan mint otthon

Stony Brook Film Festival

• 2018 - Won - Special Recognition for Aurora Borealis

Venice Film Festival

• 1995 - Won - Elvira Notari Prize/Special Mention for The Seventh Room
• 1995 - Won - OCIC Award for The Seventh Room

See also

In Spanish: Márta Mészáros para niños