Branko Lustig
Branko Lustig (10 June 1932 – 14 November 2019) was a Croatian film producer best known for winning Academy Awards for Best Picture for Schindler's List and Gladiator. He is the only person born in the territory of present-day Croatia to have won two Academy Awards.
Branko Lustig

Jörg Reitmaier · Public domain
- Name
- Branko Lustig
- Born
- 10 June 1932
- Birthplace
- Osijek, Sava Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
- Died
- 14 November 2019
- Place of death
- Zagreb, Croatia
- Occupation
- Film producer
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Independent State of Croatia and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
- Known for
- Schindler's List.
- Honours
- Academy Award for Best Picture, Honorary doctor of the University of Zagreb and honorary citizen of Osijek.
- Languages
- Croatian and English.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Branko Lustig (10 June 1932 – 14 November 2019) was a Croatian film producer best known for winning Academy Awards for Best Picture for Schindler's List and Gladiator. He is the only person born in the territory of present-day Croatia to have won two Academy Awards.
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Note VALÉORINE
Branko Lustig (1932–2019) was an actor, assistant director and film actor, among other activities and a national of Croatia and the Independent State of Croatia. Born in Osijek, the actor died in Zagreb.
Works include Schindler's List. Languages used include Croatian and English. Works by Branko Lustig are held at Harvard Film Archive. The actor received Academy Award for Best Picture, honorary citizen of Osijek and Honorary doctor of the University of Zagreb.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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Authority files
wikidata · Q703611 · wikipedia · Branko Lustig
In this article
Biography
Biography
The recorded working language is Croatian and English. Works named in the authority record are Schindler's List. Work by Branko Lustig is recorded in the collections of Harvard Film Archive. Distinctions recorded are Academy Award for Best Picture, Honorary doctor of the University of Zagreb and honorary citizen of Osijek.

Branko Lustig (* 10. Juni 1932 in Osijek, Kroatien) beim 2nd Annual Dinner des Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust am 8. November 2009.
Andreas_Maislinger_and_Branko_Lustig_at_the_LAMOTH_2nd_Annual_Dinner_(2).jpg: Jörg Reitmaier. Original uploader was Joerg reitmaier at de.wikipedia derivative work: Regi51 (talk) · Andreas_Maislinger_and_Branko_Lustig_at_the_LAMOTH_2nd_Annual_Dinner_(2).jpg
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Branko Lustig • Born — 10 June 1932 • Birthplace — Osijek, Sava Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia • Died — 14 November 2019 • Place of death — Zagreb, Croatia • Occupation — Film producer • Years Active — 1955 –2019 • Parents — * Mirko Lustig • Vilma Gütter • Children — 1
Early life
Early life
Lustig was born in Osijek, Kingdom of Yugoslavia to a Croatian Jewish family. His father, Mirko, was head-waiter at an Osijek Café Central, and his mother, Vilma (Gütter), was a housewife. Lustig's grandparents, unlike his parents, were religious and he regularly attended the local synagogue with them. During World War II, as a child he was imprisoned for two years in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Most members of his family perished in the death camps throughout Europe, including his grandmother who was killed in the gas chamber, while his father was killed in Čakovec on 15 March 1945. Lustig's mother survived the Holocaust and was reunited with him after the war. On the day of the liberation, he weighed only 66 pounds (29.94 kg). Lustig credited his survival in Auschwitz to a German officer who happened to be from the same suburb of Osijek as Lustig. He overheard Lustig crying and asked him who his father was. It turned out the officer had known Lustig's father.
Movie career
Movie career
Lustig began his film career in 1955 as an assistant director at Jadran Film, a state-owned Zagreb-based film production company. In 1956 he worked as a unit production manager on Branko Bauer's World War II drama Ne okreći se sine, winner of three Golden Arena awards at the 1956 Pula Film Festival. Lustig was the location manager for Fiddler on the Roof (1971). In the 1980s Lustig worked on the miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and its sequel War and Remembrance (1988). He moved to the United States in 1988. Lustig received his first Oscar in 1993 for the production of Schindler's List, a film based on the novel of Thomas Keneally (which is, in turn, based on the true-life story of a German manufacturer who saved hundreds of Jews during World War II). Lustig himself had a cameo early in the film as a nightclub maitre d’. In July 2015, Lustig presented the Oscar to Yad Vashem for eternal safekeeping. He received his second Oscar for the epic movie Gladiator about a struggle for power in Imperial Rome, in 2001. Other major Hollywood films that Lustig worked on as a producer or executive producer include The Peacemaker (1997), Hannibal (2001), and Black Hawk Down (2001). In 2008, Lustig helped establish an independent production company Six Point Films to produce "meaningful, thought-provoking independent films".
Personal life and death
Personal life and death
In 1994 Lustig received the Order of Duke Trpimir by President Franjo Tuđman for his work in film. In 2008 he became the first filmmaker ever, and second in the field of the arts (preceded by Vladimir Nazor), to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Zagreb. The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust honored Branko Lustig together with Andreas Maislinger at his 2nd Annual Dinner on 8 November 2009 at the Beverly Hills Hotel for his long-time commitment to Holocaust education and commemoration. Lustig was the honorary president and one of the founding members of the Jewish Movie Festival in Zagreb. On 16 September 2010, he was awarded honorary citizenship of Osijek. Lustig celebrated his bar mitzvah on 2 May 2011 at Auschwitz, in front of barrack No. 24a. He missed his rite of passage as a 13-year-old because at the time he was a prisoner in the very same barrack, having been deported from Osijek when he was ten years old. The bar mitzvah ceremony was held during a March of the Living educational tour of Poland and Israel for high school students. Lustig resided between Los Angeles and Zagreb, and called both of the cities his home, although in the Jutarnji list interview from September, 2012 he stated: "But more and more, slowly, I am returning to Zagreb. I'm coming back." In the 2017 local elections Lustig was elected member of the Zagreb City Assembly as a candidate of Milan Bandić's party list but eventually did not take his seat. Lustig died in Zagreb on 14 November 2019, aged 87. Lustig's life was remembered in BBC Radio 4's obituary programme Last Word in December 2019.
Filmography
Filmography
• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1962 — Kozara — A German wounded in the eyes • 1975 — Anno Domini 1573 — Bringer of the execution crown • 1984 — Memed, My Hawk — Prison Guard • 1993 — Schindler's List — Nightclub Maitre d' • 1997 — The Peacemaker — Man with Poodle — (final film role)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2019
Branko Lustig died in 2019 at Zagreb.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Osijek.
Birth place
Zagreb.
Death place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Moj put od logora do Hollywooda. Gloria.
- 2.S Oscarovcem Lustigom na bar micvi u Auschwitzu: Mazel tov, Branko!. Jutarnji list.
- 3.Sandomir, Richard. Branko Lustig, 87, Dies; Holocaust Survivor Turned Film Producer. The New York Times. 21 November 2019.
- 4.Flax, Peter. Hollywood's Last Survivors of the Holocaust share their stories. The Hollywood Reporter. 16 December 2015.
- 5.U Hollywoodu održana večer posvećena Branku Lustigu. Jutarnji list.
- 6., Nova TV Interview, October 2010.
- 7.Branko Lustig: 'Logorovao sam s Annom Frank'. Dnevnik.hr. 22 May 2009.
- 8.Branko Lustig. www.cinema.com.
- 9.Branko Lustig, 'Schindler's List' Producer, Donates Oscar to Yad Vashem. NBC News. 22 July 2015.
- 10.Hollywoodska večer za Branka Lustiga. Vjesnik.
- 11.Odluka o dodjeli Ordena kneza Trpimira. narodne-novine.nn.hr.
- 12.Penić, Goran. Oskarovac predavač na Akademiji. Jutarnji list.
- 13.Festival Židovskog filma Zagreb. www.jff-zagreb.hr.
- 14.Branko Lustig primio priznanje počasnog građanina grada Osijeka. Osijek.hr. 16 September 2010.
- 15.Torok, Ryan. "‘Schindler’s List’ producer named Mensch" , jewishjournal.com, 6 February 2013; accessed 6 February 2013.
- 16.Lustig: 'Bio sam nedavno u Auschwitzu i bilo me je sram! Vijorile su se sve zastave svijeta. Osim moje Hrvatske'. Jutarnji list.
- 17.U ZG skupštinu ulaze poznata glazbenica, bivše ministrice, proslavljeni filmski producent. dnevnik.hr.
- 18.UMRO BRANKO LUSTIG Dvostruki dobitnik Oscara napustio nas je u 88. godini - Jutarnji List. www.jutarnji.hr. 14 November 2019.
- 19."Schindler's List" Producer Branko Lustig Dies at 87. The New York Times. 2019-11-14. 0362-4331.
- 20."Schindler's List" producer Branko Lustig dies at 87. ABC News.
- 21.Branko Lustig, Oscar-Winning Producer of 'Schindler's List' and Holocaust Survivor, Dies at 87. The Hollywood Reporter. 14 November 2019.
- 22.Last Word: Kenny Lynch OBE, Chris Moncrieff CBE, Kate Figes, Branko Lustig.
- 23.Branko Lustig. IMDb.
References
Citations
References
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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