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Tamás Yvan Topolánszky

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The native form of this personal name is Topolánszky Tamás Yvan. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Tamás Yvan Topolánszky
BornJanuary 28, 1987
Männedorf, Switzerland
CitizenshipHungarian
EducationVeres Pálné Secondary GS
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design
Occupation(s)film director, screenwriter, producer
AwardsNew York Short Film Festival, New York; Grand Prix, Best Short Film – 2015
LA Indie Film Fest, Los Angeles; Best Director – 2015
Montreal World Film Festival, Montreal; Grand Prix des Amériques Award for Best First Feature Film – 2018
Burbank International Film Festival, Burbank, USA, Best Foreign Language Film - 2019
Riviera Independent Film Festival, Sestri Levante, Italy; Best Director - 2019

Tamás Yvan Topolánszky (Männedorf, Switzerland, January 28, 1987) is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, producer, and winner of several international awards.

Early years, studies

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Tamás Yvan Topolánszky was born in Switzerland in 1987 and later moved to Hungary with his family. He graduated from the Veres Pálné Secondary Grammar School in Budapest in 2005. He continued his university studies at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, where he graduated in media design in the class of Péter Fazekas, László Csáki and János Szirtes in 2015.

Career

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In 2011, before starting university, Topolánszky founded the HalluciNation[1] production office with two partners.[2][3] His first film was Bath: An American Urban Legend, made in 2014.[4][5] It was a short film nominated for an award at both the Hungarian Independent Film Festival and the Catalina Film Festival in Los Angeles.[6][7]

His second short film was also made in 2014. The drama film Letter to God[8] has won awards for both Best Film and Best Director at several international film festivals. The film has won awards at festivals such as the Los Angeles Short Film Festival, the New York Short Film Festival and the Winter Film Awards.[3] The distribution rights to Letter to God were later acquired by HBO for Central and Eastern Europe.[9]

In 2016, Topolánszky and his producer wife, Claudia Sümeghy set up their production company JUNO11 Pictures.[9] He made his documentary film A lehetetlen határán (On the Edge of the Impossible)[10][11] that year, in collaboration with the Magyar Paralimpiai Bizottság. The film tells the story of Hungarian para-sport through the lives of five successful athletes. The film was screened as part of the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Paralympics and was shown in hundreds of schools on 22 February 2018, the Hungarian Para Sports Day, in cooperation with the Magyar Paralimpiai Bizottság. The film was screened regularly in online film clubs five years after its release, ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, and the screenings were accompanied by discussions with the filmmakers.[12]

Topolánszky directed several commercials, animations, documentaries and short films before he started making his first feature film. One of his most popular works was the trailer for the film project DVNA,[13] which he made as his graduation project in 2015. The mood film was seen by 300,000 viewers in two days thanks to positive press coverage. In mid-2021, it was the most viewed Hungarian trailer on YouTube with more than 800,000 views.[3] The film project is being developed into a series with the support of the Nemzeti Filmintézet.[14][15]

Budapest's international tourism campaign was launched under the slogan Spice of Europe, with an image film directed by Topolánszky. The campaign film, which premiered in 2018, was broadcast continuously on online platforms around the world by several prominent international TV channels, including CNN. The film has been included in the academic on nation branding.[16] Topolánszky, in response to university invitations, analyzed together with the students the content and artistic means of nation branding in Spice of Europe.[17]

Topolánszky's first feature film, Curtiz, is an English-Hungarian historical drama about the famous Oscar-winning Hungarian film director Michael Curtiz,[18][19] made with the support of the NMHH Médiatanács Magyar Média Mecenatúra.[20][3] The film gives viewers an insight into the few months during the shooting of the classic film Casablanca in 1942, when Curtiz had to deal with political censorship, his troubled family relationships, and, most of all, his own egotistical, aggressive personality.

Topolánszky stressed the importance of filmmaking as a team effort, where the director realizes his vision with the help of his creative team.[3][21]

The film won, among others, the Grand Prix des Amériques Award for Best First Feature Film, the most prestigious category of the 2018 Montreal World Film Festival. This makes Topolánszky the second and last Hungarian film director to win the main prize at the festival, after Árpád Sopits, as this was the last Montreal Film Festival in 2018.

In addition to the Montreal award, Topolánszky won the Best Director Award at the 2019 Riviera International Film Festival in Sestri Levante; the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 2019 Burbank International Film Festival, and the Best Directorial Debut Award at the 2019 Camerimage Festival.

Since 2020, the film is available worldwide on Netflix.[22][23][24]

In 2021, Topolánszky was listed as producer of the film Magasságok és mélységek / Heights and Depths.[25]

Awards

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Bath: An American Urban Legend

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Hungarian Independent Film Festival, Budapest; Nominated for award – 2014

Catalina Film Festival, Los Angeles; Nominated for award – 2014

Letter to God

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  • New York Short Film Festival, New York; Grand Prix, Best Short Film – 2015
  • LA Indie Film Fest, Los Angeles; Best Director – 2015
  • Winter Film Awards, New York; Best Short Film – 2016
  • HSC - Golden Eye Cinematographer Film Festival, Budapest; Best Short Film – 2014

Curtiz

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References

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  1. ^ "Halluci-Nation Vizualis Szolgaltato Korlatolt... Hungary, Budapest | Info-clipper.com". www.info-clipper.com. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  2. ^ "Halluci-Nation [HU] - Production Companies". Cineuropa - the best of european cinema. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  3. ^ a b c d e Edit (2017-08-16). "Another successful Hungarian film round the corner?". Expat Press Hungary Magazine (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  4. ^ Topolanszky, Tamas Yvan, Bath: An American Urban Legend (Short, Action, Crime, Drama), Jaro Mayda III, Halluci-Nation, JUNO11 Pictures, retrieved 2021-06-14
  5. ^ Bath: An American Urban Legend (in Hungarian), retrieved 2021-06-14
  6. ^ "Catalina Film Festival". Festagent. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  7. ^ pendancefilmfestival (2019-01-02). "Curtiz". Pendance Film Festival. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  8. ^ Levél Istenhez (in Hungarian), retrieved 2021-06-14
  9. ^ a b www.pro-idea.cz, Pro-idea s r o /. "Claudia Sumeghy | MIDPOINT Institute". www.midpoint-institute.eu. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  10. ^ Topolanszky, Tamas Yvan (2016-09-24), A lehetetlen határán (Documentary), János Becsey, Gyöngyi Dani, Katalin Engelhardt, Gitta Ráczkó, Halluci-Nation, retrieved 2021-06-14
  11. ^ A lehetetlen határán - magyar parasportolók (in Hungarian), retrieved 2021-06-14
  12. ^ "Topolánszky Tamás Yvan: A lehetetlen határán // DOKU filmklub | | Faludi Ferenc Akadémia" (in Hungarian). 2021-05-26. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  13. ^ DVNA // OFFICIAL TEASER, retrieved 2021-06-14
  14. ^ "DVNA - Sorozatjunkie" (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  15. ^ "37 produkciót támogat az NFI". Nemzeti Filmintézet. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  16. ^ Turizmus, fogyasztás, generációk. PTE 2019 https://ktk.pte.hu/sites/ktk.pte.hu/files/images/news/2019/09/Tan_kotet_Nemz_Turizmus_Konf_II.pdf
  17. ^ Papp-Váry Árpád: Országmárka-építés Budapest, 2020 https://nkerepo.uni-nke.hu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/16130/843_Orszagmarka-epites_web.pdf?sequence=1
  18. ^ "Curtiz (Film): Reviews, Ratings, Cast and Crew - Rate Your Music". rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  19. ^ "CURTIZ - Budapest Classics Film Marathon". National Film Institute - Film Archive. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  20. ^ Topolanszky, Tamas Yvan (2019-09-12), Curtiz (Biography, Drama, History), Ferenc Lengyel, Evelin Dobos, Declan Hannigan, Scott Alexander Young, JUNO11 Pictures, Halluci-Nation, Sparks, retrieved 2021-06-14
  21. ^ "Meglátszik, ha a rendező úgy áll a filmjéhez, hogy majd leforgatjuk a Skanzenben, a többit meg zsebre rakom". 24.hu (in Hungarian). 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  22. ^ "Curtiz | Netflix Official Site". www.netflix.com. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  23. ^ "Mától a Netflixen látható a Hollywood magyar zsenijéről készült film". 24.hu (in Hungarian). 2020-01-15. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  24. ^ "Review: Curtiz". Cineuropa - the best of european cinema. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  25. ^ "Film készül a tragikus körülmények között elhunyt magyar hegymászó, Erőss Zsolt özvegyéről - Mafab.hu". www.mafab.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2021-06-14.
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