Fipresci honours Kocsis in Cannes

“Plaudit was a bet on the future, new auteurs and masters, said Fipresci jury president Alin Tasciyan, announcing the award. In a unanimous decision, Tasciyan said, Fipresci’s Un Certain Regard award went to Pál Adrienn, by Hungary's Agnes Kocsis, a downbeat Aki Kaurismaki-ish tale of an obese nurse’s search for her supposed best friend at school.” (Variety.com)

Adrienn Pál is about Piroska, “an overweight, alienated nurse who can’t resist cream-filled pastries. She works in the terminal ward of a hospital; her life is surrounded by death. One day she sets off to find her long-lost childhood friend. While tracing her recollections, she embarks on a paradox-filled voyage within her own memory and the memory of those she encounters.”
Adrienn Pál was produced by Budapest based KMH Film headed by Ferenc Pusztai, Isabella Films (NL), Freibauter Film (AT), Cinema Defacto (F), Attila Árpa (H) and Oblomova Film (H). The screenplay was written by the director together with Andrea Roberti, the director of photography was Ádám Fillenz and the star of the film is Éva Gábor, an amateur actress. The film was made with the support of the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary, the National Cultural Fund, Rézangyal, Buszesz Zrt. and Lidl Hungary.

Ágnes Kocsis (Budapest, 1971) graduated from ELTE University Budapest, where she studied Polish language and literature, esthetics and film theory. In 2003 she spent two semesters at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, Italy, where she studied directing and screenplay writing. In 2005 she got a degree from the University of Theatre, Film and Television, Budapest where she attended Ferenc Grunwalsky’s class. She published original works and translations of film related topics in various journals.
After short films, which were very well received, in 2006 she made Fresh Air (Friss levegő), her diploma film as a director, which won the Sándor Simó Prize for the best first film at the Hungarian Film Week and was also screened for the international public in Cannes at the Critics’ Week. In the same year her short film Virus (A vírus) was also invited to Cannes to the Cinéfondation, where it was awarded the 3rd prize of the jury presided by Tim Burton.

Fresh Air has been presented at the most important film festivals of the world. In Warsaw it won the prize of Fipresci, the international organisation of film critics. In 2006 it was nominated for the European Discovery Award for the best first feature by the European Film Academy.


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