László Nemes

László Nemes (born February 18, 1977) is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. His 2015 debut feature film Son of Saul was screened in the main competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. Nemes was born in Budapest, Hungary, but grew up in Paris. He is the son of film director András Jeles. He got interested in filmmaking at an early age, when he made horror films in the basement of their Paris home. After studying History, International Relations and Screenwriting, he started working as an assistant director in France and Hungary on short and feature films. For two years, he worked as Béla Tarr's assistant. After directing his first 35-mm short film, With a Little Patience, he moved to New York to study film directing. Beginning in September 2011, he spent five months in Paris as part of a scholarship program arranged by the Cinéfondation, where he, in collaboration with Clara Royer, developed the script for Son of Saul.