Will the success of Son of Saul be repeated?
Almost unbelievable, but true: there’s a Hungarian film on the Oscar nominations list again this year. And it’s not even in the “habitual’ Foreign Language Film category, but we’re on the Short Film (Live Action) list now. Let us introduce this year’s Hungarian nominee: Kristóf Deák’s film entitled „Mindenki” (Everybody).
The film is about a young girl, Zsofi, who is having a hard time fitting in at her new school, and her distress grows when the choir director treats her cruelly despite her love of singing. Along with her friend Liza, Zsofi investigates the revered teacher in an attempt to reveal her true nature.
The director admitted in connection with the nomination: when he saw on the first screening, how strong emotional impact the film has, he stated to work consciously on the nomination. It means that Deák entered film festivals, where if he wins, his film will be automatically nominated for Academy Award. Mindenki won in two of these festivals, so we shouldn’t be surprised about the Oscar nomination.
By the way, Mindenki is not the first move of Kristóf Deák. He started his career in Steven Spielberg’s Munich as an assistant, and since then he worked for (among others) the Hungarian public television. Mindenki is his first film on international stage.
