Cannes award to legendary Vilmos Zsigmond

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The photography director of the film ‘Atatürk,’ Vilmos Zsigmond will receive an award at Cannes Film Fest.

The legendary Hungarian-American cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, director of photography of the soon-to-be-released film ‘Atatürk,’ will receive a Life Time Achievement Award today from the 67th Cannes International Film Festival 2014.

In an extraordinary, Academy Award-winning career spanning some six decades, Zsigmond’s outstanding credits include “The Deer Hunter” and “Heaven’s Gate” directed by Michael Cimino, “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” and “Sugarland Express” by Steven Spielberg, “The Long Goodbye” by Robert Altman, “Blow Out” by Brian de Palma, “Deliverance” by John Boorman and “Tall Dark Stranger” and “Melinda & Melinda” by Woody Allen.

Carnaby International Sales & Distribution PLC will introduce “Atatürk” to international buyers at Cannes, the company said in a press release.

A special presentation of “Atatürk” was held May 15 by visionary producer/director Fuad Kavur, who wrote the screenplay, while renowned executive producer Anthony Waye, who has worked on no fewer than eight “Bond” movies, with the guest of honor, Szigmond.

The cocktail party was also be attended by “Atatürk’s” star, the young English Actor Jack Fox. The film also stars Edmund Kingsley, Terence Stamp, Sarah Gadon, Daisy Bevan, Miles Richardson and Julian Rhind Tutt.

A story of love

“Atatürk” is a story of love, betrayal and revenge, set against the turbulent backdrop of the Turkish War of Independence in the aftermath of the World War I as the Allied powers are posed to partition Turkey.
It is the story of two men, Kemal and Fuat, who start life as the best of friends, but end up the worst of enemies. “Atatürk” is an Anglo-Hungarian co-production to be filmed entirely in Hungary, aside from one week in Istanbul. The principal photography will start in October at ORIGO Film Studios in Budapest, whose owner, Greg Szetlik, is the producer of the film.

“The story of Atatürk is about the triumph of good over evil. Oddly, the idea to make the film was not mine. It came from an old friend Branko Lustig, who was my first assistant on ‘Memed My Hawk,’” said Kavur.

“He is an extraordinary man,” he said. “Although he is not a Turk but a Croatian Jew, he understood Atatürk instinctively. The goodness of Kemal Atatürk, a man who sacrificed himself for the Turkish nation, lies in the fact that he did not rely on any dogmas. Atatürk wanted his people to understand each individual is free to choose their own destiny. Of course his policies ruffled some feathers and made him enemies.”