# Kornél Mundruczó

Kornél Mundruczó (Hungarian:; born 3 April 1975) is a Hungarian film and theatre director.
His 2014 film White God won the Prize Un Certain Regard at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. While Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project (2010) and Jupiter's Moon (2017) were nominated for the Palme d'Or.

## Early life

Mundruczó earned a diploma from Hungary's Academy of Film and Drama in 1998 as an actor, then in 2003 as a film and television director. In that same year, he founded Proton Cinema Ltd., dedicated to film production, along with Viktória Petrányi, a constant co-creator and collaborator in his work and writing since the academy.

## Career
### Film

Mundruczó's first full-length feature This I wish and nothing more won, among other prizes, the award for best first film at the 31st Hungarian Film Week, as well as its Students’ Jury and Directors’ Guild Awards. He directed his short film Afta shortly after leaving school. It went on to win numerous international awards. Pleasant Days, his second feature film, was awarded the Silver Leopard in Locarno in 2002. In 2003, he won the Cinéfondation Program's artistic grant, within the framework of the Cannes International Film Festival, where he developed the screenplay of the film Delta, together with Yvette Bíró in Paris.
He has been a member of the European Film Academy since 2004. In 2005, he won the Nipkow Program's artistic grant to participate for three months in courses and consultations for talented screenwriters and directors in Berlin. His fourth, fifth, and seventh feature-length films were entered in the official competition of Cannes Film Festival: Delta in 2008, Tender Son in 2010 and Jupiter's Moon in 2017. The first won the FIPRESCI Award.
In 2014, his film, White God – which was invited to Cannes Film Festival and made with the support of Eurimages, the European Council's film foundation and the Hungarian National Film Foundation – won the main prize of the Un Certain Regard program at the 67th Cannes Film Festival. Also, the film's canine star won the Palm Dog Award for best performance by a dog. It was screened in the Spotlight section of Sundance Film Festival in 2015.
His first English-language feature, Pieces of a Woman, was in Competition at 77th Venice International Film Festival, where Vanessa Kirby won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her lead performance in the movie. Later she even received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role.
In 2021, his film Evolution premiered in the new section of 2021 Cannes Film Festival, called Cannes Premiere, designed to give returning Cannes auteurs a safe place to screen new work outside of the competition.

### Theatre

Mundruczó has worked in theatre and opera since 2003, first in Hungary and then in theatres abroad such as the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the TR Warszawa, the Schauspielhaus Zürich and the Vlaamse Opera. He is most keen to begin new projects where he finds the subject, collaborators and venue inspiring. During the creative process, he strives to create a team. For new projects, he very often casts the same actors, who work with him as creative partners. After freelancing with more or less the same group of people for several years, in 2009, he founded Proton Theatre, his independent theatre company, with producer Dóra Büki.
Proton Theatre is a virtual artistic company organised around the director's independent productions. Besides preserving maximum artistic freedom, their goal is to ensure a professional structure for their independently produced theatre plays and projects. Chiefly, their performances are realized as international co-productions, and their frequent collaborators include the Wiener Festwochen, HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Trafó House of Contemporary Arts in Budapest and Hellerau in Dresden. Productions directed by the artistic leader include The Ice (2006); Frankenstein-project (2007), which inspired his later film Tender Son; Hard to be a God (2010); Disgrace (2012), based on the post-apartheid novel by Nobel Prize-winner J. M. Coetzee and, in turn, inspiring his film White God; Dementia (2014), Winterreise (2015), Imitation of Life (2016), The Raft of the Medusa (2018), Evolution (2019) inspiring his film with the same title, The Seven Deadly Sins/Motherland (2020) and Parallax. In addition, Proton wishes to provide space for the realisation of company members’ ideas. In this spirit, they created the following performances: Last (2014), directed by Roland Rába; 1 link (2015), directed by Gergely Bánki and Finding Quincy by János Szemenyei.
Proton's performances have toured to more than 130 festivals until 2024, including the Festival d’Avignon, the Adelaide Festival, the Singapore International Festival, the Seoul Bo:m Festival, and the Zürcher Theater Spektakel.
In 2017, for Imitation of life, Mundruczó was nominated for the Faust Award. It was the first time in the history of this award that a non-German theatre, in this case a Hungarian independent company was nominated. In the same year Mundruczó has been nominated for the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities of the Europe Theatre Prize.
In 2024 Mundruczó won the Nestroy Theatre Prize for Best Director for Parallax by Proton Theatre. It was the first time not only a Hungarian director was awarded, but also for a Hungarian production.

## Filmography
### Feature film

| Year | Film | Notes |
| 2000 | This I Wish and Nothing More | Best First Film – 31st Hungarian Film Festival 2000 Best Film – Students’ Jury – 31st Hungarian Film Festival 2000 Best Film of the Year – Hungarian Film Critics’ Award 2001 |
| 2002 | Pleasant Days | Silver Leopard at the 2002 Locarno Film Festival |
| 2005 | Johanna | |
| 2008 | Delta | FIPRESCI Award – 2008 Cannes Film Festival |
| 2010 | Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project | |
| 2014 | White God | Un Certain Regard Winner – 2014 Cannes Film Festival |
| 2017 | Jupiter's Moon | |
| 2020 | Pieces of a Woman | |
| 2021 | Evolution | |
| TBA | At the Sea | Post-production |
| TBA | The Revolution According to Kamo | Filming |
| TBA | Place to Be | Filming |

### Short film

| Year | Film | Notes |
| 2001 | AFTA - Day after day | ARTE European Short Award – Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2001 Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Honorable Mention – Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2001 |
| 2002 | Little Apocrypha no. 1 | Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2003 |
| 2003 | Joan of Arc on the Night Bus | Director's Fortnight – 2003 Cannes Film Festival |
| 2004 | Little Apocrypha no. 2 | Cinefondation – 2004 Cannes Film Festival |
| 2005 | Lost and Found - Short Lasting Silence | |

### Television

| Year | Film | Notes |
| 2023 | The Crowded Room | Director, 3 episodes |

## Theatre

| Year | Title | Theatre | Notes |
| 2024 | Method | Volksbühne, Berlin, Germany | |
| 2024 | Parallax | Proton Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | Best director: Kornél Mundruczó – Nestroy Theatre Prize 2024 |
| 2022 | Minime | Volksbühne, Berlin, Germany | |
| 2021 | Krum | Thalia Theatre Hamburg, Germany | |
| 2020 | The Seven Deadly Sins/Motherland | Theater Freiburg, Germany; Proton Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | |
| 2019 | Evolution | Ruhrtriennale, Bochum, Germany; Proton Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | A performance lying on the boundary between the genres of concert and theatre |
| 2019 | Liliom | Thalia Theater, Hamburg, Germany; Salzburger Festspiele, Austria | Suburban legend in seven scenes by Ferenc Molnár (1878–1952) |
| 2018 | Pieces of a Woman | TR Warszawa, Poland | Konrad Swinarski Award for the best director of the 2018/2019 season Best performance – Boska Comedia Theatre Festival 2019. Krakow, Poland |
| 2018 | The Raft of the Medusa | Ruhrtriennale, Bochum, Germany; Proton Theatre, Budapest, Hungary |
| 2017 | The Weavers | Thalia Theatre Hamburg, Germany | A play written by the German playwright Gerhart Hauptmann in 1892 |
| 2016 | Imitation of life | Proton Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | Audience Award – Baltic House Festival 2017. Saint Petersburg, Russia Nominee for best direction: Kornél Mundruczó – Faust Award 2017. |
| 2015 | Winterreise | CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival; Danubia Orchestra Óbuda; Proton Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | |
| 2014 | Hotel Lucky Hole – 3rd part of the suicide trilogy | Schauspielhaus Zürich, Switzerland | |
| 2013 | Dementia – 2nd part of the suicide trilogy | Proton Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | Critics’ Award – Baltic House Festival 2014. Saint Petersburg, Russia |
| 2012 | The Bat or my Little Cemetery – 1st part of the suicide trilogy | TR Warszawa, Poland | Guarantees of Culture 2012 award in "theatre" category, Telewizja Polska, Poland Grand Prix of the 53rd Kalisz Theatre Meetings for the actors 2013. Kalisz, Poland Best performance – Międzynarodowy Festiwal Teatralny "Boska Komedia" (Divine Comedy Festival) 2013. Krakow, Poland |
| 2012 | Disgrace | Proton Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | Best direction: Kornél Mundruczó – 13th National Theatre Festival 2013. Pécs, Hungary |
| 2012 | Pleasant Days | Theater Oberhausen, Germany | |
| 2011 | Betrothal in St. Domingo or my Sweet Haiti | Staatstheater Hannover, Germany | |
| 2011 | Time of the Possessed | Thalia Theatre Hamburg, Germany | |
| 2010 | Eszter Solymosi of Tiszaeszlár | Staatstheater Hannover, Germany | |
| 2010 | Hard to be a God | Proton Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | Price of the Federal Agency for Civic Education – 8th Politics in Independent Theatre; Staatsschauspiel Dresden 2011. Hellerau, Germany International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) award – MESS International Theatre Festival 2012. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina MESS Forum "Luka Pavlović" Award by Theatre Critics and Journalists – MESS International Theatre Festival 2012. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Special Mention of MESS Jury – MESS International Theatre Festival 2012. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 2009 | Gospel of Judas | Thalia Theatre Hamburg, Germany | |
| 2007 | Frankenstein-project | Bárka Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | Best Performance – 8th National Theatre Festival 2008. Pécs, Hungary Audience Award – 8th National Theatre Festival 2008. Pécs, Hungary Special Prize of BITEF – 44th BITEF Festival 2010. Belgrade, Serbia |
| 2006 | The Ice | Krétakör Company, Budapest, Hungary | Best young creator: Kornél Mundruczó – XIX. Międzynarodowy International Theatre Festival "Kontakt" 2009. Toruń, Poland Silver Laurel Wreath Award for Best Performance in the Mittel Europa category – MESS International Theatre Festival 2009. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina The Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble – MESS International Theatre Festival 2009. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina The Avaz Dragon Award – MESS International Theatre Festival 2009. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Texture Name Prize – Texture Film and Theatre Festival 2010. Perm, Russia |
| 2006 | Caligula | Radnóti Theatre, Budapest, Hungary | |
| 2005 | Zérus - the poems of Sinead Morrissey | Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest, Hungary | |
| 2004 | Nibelung-Residency | Krétakör Company, Budapest, Hungary | |

### Opera

| Year | Title | Theatre | Notes |
| 2024 | Tosca | Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Germany | |
| 2024 | Rusalka | Staatsoper Berlin, Germany | |
| 2023 | Journey of Hope | Grand-Théâtre de Genève, Switzerland | |
| 2022 | Lohengrin | Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Germany; Shanghai Opera House, China | |
| 2022 | Tannhäuser | Staatsoper Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany | |
| 2021 | Sleepless | Staatsoper Berlin, Germany | Best Creation of the Year – Opernwelt, Germany 2022 |
| 2016 | The Makropulos Affair | Vlaamse Opera, Antwerpen, Belgium | Nominee for best new production – International Opera Awards 2017 |
| 2014 | Bluebeard's Castle / Winterreise | Vlaamse Opera, Ghent, Belgium | An unconventional combination of two classical works. The sinister tale Bluebeard's Castle by Béla Bartók, which is shaped with astonishing orchestral strength, is juxtaposed with the intimate quietness of the piano notes and singing voice at the heart of Schubert's Winterreise. |
| 2009 | Bluebeard's Castle | Budapest Spring Festival, Hungary | |
| 2003 | The Respectful Prostitute | Budapest Autumn Festival, Hungary | Kamilló Lendvay's one-act opera, based on Jean-Paul Sartre's drama |