István Szabó's SUNSHINE To Be Honoured at Cannes Film Festival

                 Director István Szabo and Producer Robert Lantos will be in attendance

Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 – It was announced today that the award-winning film SUNSHINE (2000) will screen at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 as a Cannes Classics Selection. Academy Award-winning director István Szabó will be in attendance with award-winning producer Robert Lantos at the special screening. The film recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and stars Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Rosemary Harris, Jennifer Ehle, Molly Parker, Deborah Kara Unger, William Hurt, and Mark Strong. SUNSHINE was a Canada / Germany / Hungary co-production. It was recently restored by the NFI (National Film Institute of Hungary), under the supervision of cinematographer Lajos Koltai.

SUNSHINE follows three generations of a Hungarian-Jewish family as they navigate anti-Semitism, assimilation, fascism, war, communism, and revolution -- with Ralph Fiennes playing his own son and grandson across all three eras. Sunshine debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival before going on to play in theatres across the world. It was nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Picture,and  won three European Film Awards and Canada’s Genie Award for Best Picture.


"We are survivors of the tragedies of the 20th century in Central Europe, children and grandchildren of the persecuted and persecutors. This is the story of the Sunshine family,” says director István Szabó. “This film also gave me a friend, producer Robert Lantos, who read the script on a long flight and called me on the phone as soon as he landed: ‘We're going to make this film together.’ I'm delighted that the National Film Institute’s film lab and film archive have restored Sunshine.”

**Quote in Hungarian below.


"In the 1990s, signs of resurgent Jew hatred surfaced throughout the Western World. This is what motivated Oscar-winning director István Szabo and I to make a cautionary tale about the events that preceded World War II and paved the way for the Shoah,” says producer Robert Lantos. “For self evident reasons, this screening at Cannes could not be any more timely.”


** A 20. század közép-európai sorstragédiáinak túlélői vagyunk, gyerekei, unokái üldözötteknek, üldözőknek. A Napfény íze családtörténete erről akar beszámolni. Ez a film nekem egy barátot is adott ajándékba, Robert Lantos producert, aki egy hosszú repülőúton elolvasta a forgatókönyvet, és leszállva felhívott telefonon: „Ezt a filmet együtt megcsináljuk." Nagy öröm számomra, hogy az NFI filmlaboratóriuma és filmarchívuma felújította a Napfény ízét.



ABOUT ISTVÁN SZABÓ

István Szabó is the most celebrated Hungarian director of all time. In 1981, he wrote and directed the film Mephisto, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It was also nominated for the Cannes Palm D’Or, where Szabó won for best screenplay. This was followed in 1985 by the critical success Colonel Redl, which was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and won the Cannes Jury Prize. His films Confidence and Hanussen were nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar statuettes, as well, with Confidence also winning the Silver Bear in Berlin and Hanussen receiving a Cannes Palm d’Or nomination. His 1977 film, Budapest Stories, was nominated for a Palm d’Or at Cannes, too. In 1992, Sweet Emma, Dear Bobe won the top prize in Berlin and Szabó took home the European Film Award for its screenplay. Szabó then ventured into English language with 1991’s Meeting Venus which won the Golden Lion in Venice, followed by 2000’s Sunshine, which won three European Film Awards and earned Szabó the Best Director Golden Globe, and 2004’s Being Julia for which Annette Bening won the Golden Globe and Szabó won the European Film Award for Best Director. He has since continued to work in Hungarian with films like Relatives, The Door starring Helen Mirren, and his most recent Final Report.


ABOUT ROBERT LANTOS

Four Robert Lantos productions – The Sweet Hereafter, Being Julia, Eastern Promises, and Barney’s Version – have received Academy Award nominations, while Sunshine and Eastern Promises were nominated for Best Picture Golden Globes, and Being Julia and Barney’s Version received the Golden Globe for Best Actress and Best Actor. Ten of his films have been in the Official Cannes Selection, with The Sweet Hereafter, Adoration, and Crash receiving prizes. His most recent film is the 2022 Cannes Competition Selection, Crimes of the Future. Barney’s Version and Remember were selected in competition in Venice, while eXistenZ and Museo both won the Silver Bear in Berlin. His most recent production is the 10 hour, 15th century epic series Rise of the Raven, currently setting rating records in Eastern Europe.


ABOUT NFI

National Film Institute Hungary - Film Archive is a public institution carrying out its activities as a division of the National Film Institute Hungary since 2017. The Archive's duties contain collection, acquisition, restoration, preservation, valorisation and distribution of the Hungarian long and short features, documentaries, newsreels, experimental films and animations. It is a member institution of FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives) since 1958.

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