Legendary Hungarian filmmaker László Nemes has spoken plainly about “an orgy of antisemitism overtaking the West.”
In a new interview with The Guardian published on Monday, the acclaimed director discusses bringing his latest World War II venture — a biopic on the French resistance hero Jean Moulin — to the Cannes Film Festival, but much of the piece centers on what Nemes describes as a “puritan, moralising, self-righteousness” looming over Hollywood.
Nemes, who won an Oscar in 2016 for Son of Saul, begins by considering reaction to the award-winning film, as well as 2025’s Orphan. The former follows a day-and-a-half in the life of an Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, while the latter is about a young Jewish boy’s search for his missing father, as he instead unveils the truth of his mother’s survival of the Holocaust.
Nemes tells the U.K. publication about Son of Saul‘s award success: “I don’t even think it would make the [Oscar] shortlist today. Because of the politicisation of cinema, because anything that’s Jewish is now considered… Nobody would touch it with a 10ft pole.”
Orphan, which he says was “ignored” at last year’s Venice Film Festival, failed to nab an Academy Award nod for best international feature, and has so far not landed a U.S. distribution deal: “You should be able to talk about these things without being ostracized,” he continues, saying he feels “a little bit” ostracized by the industry: “Even some response [to Orphan] from the media smells of an ideological standpoint.”
