Marcell Jankovics, honorary president of the Hungarian Academy of the Arts, died at age 79 – the directors work remains an important part of Hungarian culture.
The academy praised Jankovics as a “visual artist and public figure, a scholar of fairy tales … with an exceptionally wide-ranging, varied work.”
Jankovics was born in 1941 in Budapest. Having been denied admission to the Technological University’s architecture faculty for political reasons, he started working in a factory, and soon found a position at Pannonia Film Company, where he was appointed animation director in 1965.
He worked with the best of the golden era of Hungarian animation such as József Nepp and Attila Dargay, MMA said. His works include full-length animation films such as “János vitéz” (“John the Valiant”), “Fehérlófia” all re-imaginings of well-known Hungarian tales and dramas.
In 1975, his film “Sisyphus” got an Oscar nomination, later in 1977 his film “Küzdők” won Palme d’Or in short film category. One of his finest work is “The Tragedy of Man”, based on Imre Madách’s novel, which is available on Netflix.
