The opening/award ceremony of 2023 Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles was held at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center.
Bijan Tehrani , jury members, announced the winner of MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award for The Best Feature Film.
CWB jury statement: At Cinema Without Borders, we have had the honor of offering our Bridging the Borders Award to the Best Feature Film at the Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles since 2014. MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award is offered by Cinema Without Borders and sponsored by MOZAIK Philanthropy.
For this year we amazing films to choose the winner from. The winner of 2023 Best Feature Film Award is a beautifully made, sophisticated film that shows how under the dictatorship of any kind, corruption leads individuals to destroy others for personal gains. Also this film brilliantly challenges the viewer in discovery of the truth. This film is Semmelweis directed by Lajos Koltai”
Semmelweis
2023, feature, drama, 124 minutes
1947, Vienna. Ignác Semmelweis, the short-tempered but passionate Hungarian doctor delivers babies and carries out autopsies on a daily basis whilst looking for the cause of puerperal fever, the mysterious epidemic that decimates patients in the hospital. His boss prohibits him from conducting research into the subject and sends his right-hand man to cross him at every turn. He also threatens a young midwife, Emma Hoffmann, to spy on him. After a rocky start, the relationship between Semmelweis and Emma develops into a romance. When Semmelweis’s friend gets wounded mid-autopsy and dies with the same symptoms as the women in labour, Semmelweis discovers the cause and prevention of childbed fever. Half of his peers discredit him, yet he carries on with the fight to prove his theory at all cost.
Director: Lajos Koltai, Screenplay: Balázs Maruszki, Director of photography: András Nagy, Editor: Zoltán Kovács
Music: Attila Pacsay, Visual design: Pater Sparrow, Costumes: Györgyi Szakács, Producer: Dr. Tamás Lajos, Joe Vida, Production company: Szupermodern Studio
Cast: Miklós Vecsei H., Katica Nagy, László Gálffi, Tamás Kovács, Ferenc Lengyel, Nelli Szűcs, Ferenc Elek