Hungary Selects Orphan for Oscar for Best International Feature Film

Hungary has selected Orphan (Árva), directed by László Nemes, as its country entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards.

Orphan is a historical drama set in 1957, after the failed Hungarian uprising, in Budapest. It follows a young boy named Andor who was told his father was sent to a camp and presumed dead. As the story unfolds, the truth about his biological father emerges, forcing Andor and his mother to grapple with truth, identity, and traumatic family history. The film stars Bojtorján Barabás in the role of Andor, with Grégory Gadebois and Andrea Waskovics

Orphan had its world premiere in the main competition at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival where it was nominated for the Golden Lion.

In a recent interview with Cineuropa, Nemes described the story as one that “ … has haunted my family’s lives ever since it actually happened. Its genesis also concerns and affects me. I’ve been aware of it since childhood, as my grandmother told it to me. My father had to learn that his name and origins were not what he had thought they were, and this at the age of 12. Tremendously traumatic. I used his story as background material, and then adapted it, with personal projections of my father together with my own ideas on approaching the subject.”