The following is an adapted version of an article originally published in Hungarian in Magyar Krónika.

The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in Hollywood on 16 May 1929, at the Roosevelt Hotel. With an obvious bias, Magyar Krónika recalls the acceptance speeches of the Hungarian winners below.

In March 1981, at the 53rd Academy Awards ceremony, a small Hungarian delegation waited tensely in the auditorium of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Next to István Szabó, who was nominated for his film Trust, sat István Dósai, former head of Hungarofilm, who was at the peak of his international relations career at the time.

And then something unexpected happened… When the envelope containing the winner of the Best Animated Feature Film award was opened, Margot Kidder and Alan Arkin read out the name of Ferenc Rófusz, who received the award for his film The Fly. ‘Mr Rófusz is unfortunately unable to be here…,’ Arkin began, when Margot saw a man approaching the stage, whom he naturally assumed to be the winner. However, it was Dósai who went up on stage and began with the surprising sentence: ‘It’s not me, I’m so sorry…’ He then concluded his short speech in front of the bewildered stars with the following: ‘Even the short film can be great.’

The organizers became suspicious of the scene and took the statue back from Dósai in a nighttime operation, which Ferenc Rófusz later personally received in the United States. The episode became one of the funniest Oscar scenes.

Three years before Rófusz, Vilmos Zsigmond, an outstanding cinematographer who emigrated after the 1956 Revolution and photographed Spielberg’s film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, received his Oscar. His Oscar episode is moving and instructive. In his short speech, he first thanked the American people for giving him a second chance in life, but immediately afterwards, he mentioned not Spielberg’s name, but the three Hungarian masters who taught him at the University of Theatre and Film Arts. It is a twist of fate that, if for no other reason, the name of the little giant of Hungarian cinema, György Illés, whose life’s work would have also deserved an Oscar, or rather Oscars, was mentioned in Hollywood at that moment. He was the cinematographer of Budapest Spring, The House Under the Rocks, Skylark, and Be Welcome, Major! and the master of all significant Hungarian cinematographers from Zsigmondy to Lajos Koltai and beyond. The other two professionals whom Vilmos Zsigmond thanked were Béla Bojkovszky and János Badal.

In 1982, the year after the Dósai incident, István Szabó took to the stage in Hollywood for Mephisto, although ‘stormed’ would be a more accurate description. He rushed out with explosive joy, accepted the statue from Ornella Muti and Jack Valenti, then invited the lead actor, Klaus-Maria Brandauer, to join him, and they danced together in front of the whole world.

Four years later, the award presenters once again had to spell out a tongue-twisting Hungarian name: Zoltán Elek, who received the statue as the makeup artist for the film Mask, starring Cher. ‘Now I start to believe my dream came true. It was a very long way from Hungary to here. But I have to thank to [sic!] all those people who’ve been helping me and believed in me. Thank you again,’ he said humbly.

After a few years’ hiatus, in 2016, Son of Saul was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category, and László Nemes Jeles received the award. He had to condense his message into 45 seconds. ‘Even in the darkest hours of mankind, there might be a voice within us that allows us to remain human,’ the then 39-year-old director said.

And then, new year—new Oscar! In 2017 producer Kristóf Deák took to the stage with Anna Udvardy, one of the film’s leading actors, Zsófia Szamosi, and his creative partner, his wife, to receive the Oscar for Best Short Film for Sing. ‘This is dedicated to the only people who can basically make the world a better place for us. Kids. So let’s try and raise them in a good way, in a way we can be proud of them,’ he said.

In 2022 and 2024 Hungarian professionals received the award for best visual design. Zsuzsa Sipos was recognized for her work on Dune, while Zsuzsa Mihalek was honoured for Poor Things.

Zsuzsa Sipos does not even remember what she said on stage, but her award and the interview that followed took place at the same time as Will Smith’s memorable slap, so the Hungarian director only found out about it afterwards. Zsuzsa Mihalek also only found out about her own award on television, because after some hesitation, she decided that the Hollywood awards ceremony was not her scene, and she would not travel to the ceremony.

Related articles:

Click here to read the original article.