Pioneering Hungarian filmmaker Marta Meszaros will receive this year’s lifetime achievement award from the European Film Academy.
Meszaros’ debut, The Girl (1968), was the first feature film from Hungary directed by a woman. In her long career, Meszaros has largely focused on the lives of women, often drawing from the experiences of her own family.
Meszaros celebrated her international breakthrough in 1975 with Adoption, an intimate portrait of the bond between a lonely middle-aged woman and a 17-year-old girl, which won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Film Festival, the first time a female director had taken the top prize at the Berlinale.
Nine Months, the story of a young woman working in a factory who is seduced by the manager, won the Fipresci international critics award in Cannes in 1977. Her follow-up, Just Like at Home, took the Silver Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 1978.
In a statement, the European Film Academy called Meszaros “one of the most significant female directors” in European cinema. This is the first EFA lifetime achievement award to go to a female director for central or eastern Europe.
Art house screening platform MUBI will celebrate the award with a special focus on Meszaros, screening a selection of her films from mid-November on.
Meszaros will receive her honor at the 34th European Film Awards in Berlin on Dec. 11.