Sólyom, who admitted Jancsó?s films had had a great impact on him ever since his youth, praised Jancsó for enriching the culture of film in Hungary and abroad.
Jancsó said the award was an acknowledgement of not just his own work, but the work of all those involved in his films. ?Film is not something you do on your own,? he said.
The award is usually presented on March 15, Hungary?s national holiday, but an exception was made in the case of Jancsó to mark his 85th birthday.
Jancsó was presented a Kossuth Prize 33 years earlier, but, he said, the award at the time was considered third-rate.
Miklós Jancsó was born in Vác in 1921. He studied law, ethnography and art history at the University of Cluj and then attended the Academy of Theatre and Cinematic Arts in Budapest from 1946 to 1950.
In 1958 he completed his first full-length feature film ?The Bells Have Gone to Rome?. Jancsó's 1965 film ?The Hopeless Ones? was his first major critical success abroad. Other important works from this period are the films ?The Red and the White? (1967), ?Silence and Cry? (1968) and ?Winter Wind? (1969). By this time, he had developed his trademarks: long takes, bold camera motions and emphatic choreography and composition. Jancsó was awarded Best Director for ?The People Still Ask? in Cannes in 1972. He was presented with lifetime achievement awards at Cannes in 1979, at Venice in 1990 and at the Budapest Film Festival in 1994.
The Kossuth Prize was established in 1948 to celebrate the centenary of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. This year 22 people were awarded the prize: Margit Bangó, performing artist, Sándor Benkó, musician, Lajos Boross, performing artist, Yvette Bozsik, choreographer and dancer, Eszter Csákányi, actress, István Ferencz, architect, Iván Fischer, conductor, Gábor Görgey, writer, János Herskó , director, Gábor Karátson, writer and painter, János Kulka, actor, Péter Léner, director, Andor Lukáts, actor and director, János Megyik, sculptor, Emil Petrovics, composer, Gizella Solti, textile designer, György Spiró, writer, poet, literary historian and translator, Erzsébet Szőnyi, composer, Zorán Sztevanovity, performing artist, Zádor Tordai, writer and philosopher, Nelly Vágó, stage designer, and Sándor Zsótér, actor and director.
