Márta Mészáros

Mészáros' work often combines autobiographical details with documentary footage. Prominent themes include characters' denials of their pasts, the consequences of dishonesty, and the problematics of gender. Her films often feature heroines from fragmented families, such as young girls seeking their missing parents (The Girl) or middle-aged women looking to adopt children (Adoption). Although Mészáros has made over fifteen feature films, she is arguably best known for Diary for My Children (1984), which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. It was the first entry in a trilogy of autobiographical films which also includes Diary for My Lovers (1987) and Diary for My Mother and Father (1990). Throughout her career, Mészáros has won the Golden Bear and the Silver Bear awards at the Berlinale; the Golden Medal at the Chicago International Film Festival; the Silver Shell at the San Sebastian International Film Festival; and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1991 she was a member of the jury at the 17th Moscow International Film Festival.

• Born — 19 September 1931 • Birthplace — Budapest, Hungary • Occupation — * Film director • screenwriter • Years Active — 1954–present • Spouse — László Karda (1957–1959) (divorced) Miklós Jancsó (1960–1973) (divorced) (3 children) Jan Nowicki (?-2008) (divorced)

Born in Budapest, Mészáros spent eleven years of her childhood in the Soviet Union, where her parents had emigrated as communist artists in 1936. While there, Mészáros's father, László Mészáros, was arrested and killed in 1938 under the Stalinist regime and her mother died giving birth. Orphaned, Mészáros was raised by her foster mother in the USSR where she attended school. After returning to Hungary in 1946, Mészáros went back to Moscow to study at VGIK, returning again to Hungary only after her graduation in 1956.

Mészáros began working at the Budapest Newsreel Studio in 1954 where she made four short films, and then for the Alexandru Sahia documentary studio in Bucharest, Romania, from 1957–1959. She then returned to Budapest in 1958 to make science popularization shorts, and documentary shorts, where she worked until 1968. Mészáros joined the Mafilm Group 4 in the mid-1960s, and directed her first feature in 1968. At this time, Mészáros was the first woman director in Hungary to make a feature film. In the 1980s Mészáros made her semi-autobiographical "Diary films" that had a major impact on "Hungarian cinema" because of her conscious depiction of the government and individual past experiences. She challenged the censorship in Hungary and ascertained herself as an integral voice in the country's cinema. Since Mészáros first feature in 1968 she has made over fifty films, won numerous awards, and has been a judge on various film panels; she also continues to make films to this day.

Mészáros was first married to László Karda (a filmmaker), in 1957, but they divorced in 1959, and in 1960 she married Miklós Jancsó, a Hungarian film director and screenwriter whom she met during her time with the Mafilm Group 4. They raised his two sons and her son from previous marriages together. Although they later divorced in 1973, their two sons, Nyika Jancsó and Miklós Jancsó Jr., have each separately worked as director of photography on many of her films. She later married the Polish actor Jan Nowicki, but they divorced in 2008. Nowicki starred in many of her films, including the principal role in The Unburied Dead. His son from an earlier relationship, Łukasz Nowicki, starred in Mészáros' film, Kisvilma. Mészáros also has a daughter, Kasia Jancsó, from her second marriage.

Director (65 titles)

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

• Year — Title — Director — Screenwriter • 1968 — The Girl • 1969 — Holdudvar/Garden Party • 1970 — Szép lányok, ne sírjatok! • 1973 — Szabad lélegzet/Riddance • 1973 — Szeptember végén (TV Movie) • 1975 — Adoption • 1976 — Kilenc hónap/Nine Months • 1977 — The Two of Them • 1978 — Olyan mint otthon/Just Like Home • 1979 — Útközben/On the Move • 1980 — The Heiresses • 1981 — Anna • 1983 — Délibábok országa • 1984 — Diary for My Children • 1987 — Diary for My Lovers • 1989 — Bye bye chaperon rouge • 1990 — Diary for My Mother and Father • 1992 — Edith és Marlene/Edith and Marlene (TV Movie) • 1994 — Foetus • 1996 — The Seventh Room • 1998 — Három dátum (Documentary) • 1999 — A Szerencse lányai/The Daughters of Fortune • 2000 — Kisvilma – Az utolsó napló/Little Vilna: The Last Diary • 2004 — The Unburied Man • 2009 — Utolsó jelentés Annáról/The Last Report on Anna • 2011 — Ármány és szerelem Anno 1951 (TV Movie) • 2017 — Aurora Borealis

•...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)