---
name: "Miklós Jancsó"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/miklos-jancso"
fi1m_id: "miklos-jancso"
imdb_id: "nm0417352"
tmdb_id: 137349
wikidata_id: "Q259240"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "27 September 1921"
died: "31 January 2014"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-26T17:19:03.498431+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Miklós Jancsó

## Identity

Miklós Jancsó

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/miklos-jancso
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** miklos-jancso
- **IMDb ID:** nm0417352
- **TMDB ID:** 137349
- **Wikidata ID:** Q259240
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikl%C3%B3s_Jancs%C3%B3, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q259240, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0417352/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/137349

Director. Born 27 September 1921 in Vác, Hungary. Died 31 January 2014.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 27 September 1921, Vác, Hungary
- **Died:** 31 January 2014
- **Active:** 1967–1972
- **Also known as:** Jancsó Miklós, Миклош Янчо, 米克洛什·扬索, 미클로시 얀초, 미클로슈 얀초,  미클로스 얀크소, 얀초 미클로시, 얀초 미클로슈
- **Frequently works with:** [Gyula Hernádi](https://film.one/person/gyula-hernadi.md)
- **Cannes Film Festival:** 1 Cannes prize (1 won)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikl%C3%B3s_Jancs%C3%B3, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q259240, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0417352/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/137349

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Red and the White*](https://film.one/film/the-red-and-the-white.md) (78)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Miklós Jancsó

> Miklós Jancsó builds his historical films around bodies and a camera in motion. We value their sustained pressure, though the severe choreography can keep the people at a distance even when their danger holds our attention.

The camera keeps moving in *The Red and the White* (1967), and it does little to put us at ease. Jancsó builds long takes around groups crossing open ground, with the camera tracking, circling and finding a new position. We have to watch where people stand and how their control over others changes. This is demanding filmmaking, worth the effort for its sustained pressure, though the severity can become tiring.

Cinematographer Tamás Somló is an essential collaborator here: the movement through space supplies much of the drama. We felt persistently uneasy watching *The Red and the White*, because the restless camera makes it difficult to relax while lives remain at risk. There is little stirring spectacle to soften that experience, and Jancsó does not make individual psychology his priority. The cost is that the people can remain distant even when their danger holds our attention.

The approach had brought international recognition with *The Round-Up* (1966), also shot by Somló. Longstanding screenwriter Gyula Hernádi was another important collaborator in a cinema that gives more attention to pursuit, humiliation and changing allegiances than to private motives. János Kende began shooting for Jancsó with *Silence and Cry* (1968). *The Confrontation* (1969), his first colour film, made song and dance more prominent. By *Red Psalm* (1972), also photographed by Kende, folk songs and ritual were central to the action.

The danger is that the movements become more interesting than the people making them. Some later work drew precisely that criticism, with ritual and nudity seeming arbitrary in *Elektra, My Love* (1974) and other films of the period. He worked in Italy in the mid-1970s. The satirical comedies he made with recurring actors in the 1990s and 2000s are a useful warning against treating his severe historical films as the whole career.

For a first encounter, we would choose *The Red and the White*. Its 90 minutes offer concentrated tension, but the distance from the characters remains a substantial obstacle. Save it for an evening when a war film without conventional excitement sounds like a welcome proposition.

## Biography

Miklós Jancsó was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. Born in Vác in 1921, he studied law before graduating from the Academy of Drama and Film Arts in Budapest in 1950. He began his career making newsreels and documentaries before directing his first feature film in 1958.

Jancsó directed and co-wrote *The Red and the White* (1967) and directed *Red Psalm* (1972). He is also known for *The Round-Up* (1966). *Red Psalm* won him the Best Director prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. He received the Kossuth Prize in Hungary in 1973 and a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 1990.

Jancsó died in Budapest in 2014.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, telegraph.co.uk, nfi.hu.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Red and the White* (1967), Fi1m 78, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-red-and-the-white.md)

## Complete filmography (63)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Hungary 2011* (2012), Director, Writer
- *So Much for Justice!* (2010), Director, Screenplay
- *Ed's Eaten Elevenses* (2006), Writer, Director
- *From Europe Into Europe* (2004), Director
- *The Battle of Mohács* (2004), Writer, Director
- *Wake Up, Mate, Don't You Sleep* (2003), as Miklós Jancsó · Writer, Director
- *Legkisebb film a legnagyobb magyarról* (2002), Actor
- *Last Supper at the Arabian Gray Horse* (2001), Director, Writer
- *Damn You! the Mosquitoes* (2000), as Miklós Jancsó · Writer, Director
- *The Lord's Lantern in Budapest* (1999), Director, Writer
- *Hősök tere - szubjektív történelmi mese I* (1998), Director
- *The Great Brain Death* (1996), Director
- *Elmondták-e...?* (1996), Director
- *Message of Stones: Budapest* (1994), Director
- *Message of Stones: Máramaros* (1994), Director
- *Message of Stones: Hegyalja* (1994), Director
- *Message of Stones - Kárpátalja* (1994), Director
- *Message of Stones - Moldova* (1994), Director
- *The Blue Danube Waltz* (1992), Director, Writer
- *God Walks Backwards* (1991), Director, Screenplay
- *Jesus Christ's Horoscope* (1989), Director, Writer
- *Season of Monsters* (1987), Director
- *The Dawn* (1986), Director, Writer
- *The Presence III* (1986), Director
- *Muzsika* (1984), Director
- *Omega, Omega, Omega* (1984), Director
- *Faustus Faustus Faustus* (1984), Director
- *Jancsó sukulaisten luona* (1984), Director
- *Budapest* (1983), Director
- *The Tyrant's Heart, or Boccaccio in Hungary* (1981), Director, Writer
- *Das Lied* (1980), Cinematography
- *Allegro Barbaro* (1979), Director, Writer
- *Hungarian Rhapsody* (1979), Director, Writer
- *The Presence II* (1978), Director
- *Laboratorio teatrale di Luca Ronconi* (1977), Director
- *Private Vices, Public Virtues* (1976), Writer, Director
- *Electra, My Love* (1974), Director
- *Rome Wants Another Caesar* (1974), Director, Story, Writer, Producer
- *The Technique and the Rite* (1972), Director, Writer
- *Red Psalm* (1972), Director
- *Agnus Dei* (1971), Director, Writer
- *The Pacifist* (1970), Director
- *Winter Wind* (1969), Director, Writer
- *The Confrontation* (1969), Writer, Director
- *Decameron '69* (1969), Director
- *Silence and Cry* (1968), Director, Writer
- *The Red and the White* (1967), Writer, Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/the-red-and-the-white.md)
- *With a Camera in Kostroma* (1967), Director
- *The Round-Up* (1966), Director
- *My Way Home* (1965), Director
- *The Presence* (1965), Director
- *Cantata* (1963), Director, Screenplay
- *Encounter* (1963), Editor
- *An Indian Story* (1962), Director
- *Három csillag* (1960), Director
- *Salesmanship* (1960), Director
- *A város peremén* (1958), Director
- *The Bells Have Gone to Rome* (1958), Director
- *Autumn in Badacsony* (1954), Director
- *Harvest in Orosháza* (1953), Director
- *A 8. szabad május 1* (1952), Director
- *A szovjet mezögazdasági küldöttek tanításai* (1951), Director
- *We Took Over the Cause of Peace* (1950), Writer, Director

## Gallery

- ![Miklós Jancsó at a press screening of his movie, So Much for Justice!, February 1, 2010, Budapest](https://film.one/media/person/3913152/gallery-eda59badd987.jpg) Miklós Jancsó at a press screening of his movie, So Much for Justice!, February 1, 2010, Budapest — Peter Josvai, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Jancs%C3%B3_Mikl%C3%B3s_01.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Miklós Jancsó at a press screening of his movie, So Much for Justice!, February 1, 2010, Budapest](https://film.one/media/person/3913152/gallery-3e54a8034116.jpg) Miklós Jancsó at a press screening of his movie, So Much for Justice!, February 1, 2010, Budapest — Peter Josvai, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Jancs%C3%B3_Mikl%C3%B3s_021.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Miklós Jancsó at home in 2000. My own picture. Created by Rita Molnár 2000.](https://film.one/media/person/3913152/gallery-80e5da84c5da.jpg) Miklós Jancsó at home in 2000. My own picture. Created by Rita Molnár 2000. — Nikita, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Mikl%C3%B3s_Jancs%C3%B3_at_home_in_2000.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Jancsó Miklós interjút ad a Magyar Rádión munkatársának. (1980)](https://film.one/media/person/3913152/gallery-1c73c6ea1e7b.jpg) Jancsó Miklós interjút ad a Magyar Rádión munkatársának. (1980) — Fortepan adományozó RÁDIÓ ÉS TELEVÍZIÓ ÚJSÁG / VERESS JENŐ felvétele, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Jancs%C3%B3_Mikl%C3%B3s_fortepan_56444.jpg/1280px-Jancs%C3%B3_Mikl%C3%B3s_fortepan_56444.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Miklós Jancsó](https://film.one/media/person/3913152/gallery-23d73dc76525.jpg) Miklós Jancsó — Image via TMDB
- ![Miklós Jancsó](https://film.one/media/person/3913152/gallery-e18a870b508f.jpg) Miklós Jancsó — Rita Molnár, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Mikl%C3%B3s_Jancs%C3%B3%2C_2000.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

## Awards

### Cannes Film Festival — 1 won

- 1972: Cannes Best Director Award (won)

### Other awards — 8 won

- The Republic is Twenty Years Old Prize 2009: The Republic is Twenty Years Old Prize (won)
- Master of Hungarian Motion Picture 2004: Master of Hungarian Motion Picture (won)
- Commander with Star of the Order of Merit of Hungary 2002: Commander with Star of the Order of Merit of Hungary (won)
- honorary citizen of Budapest 2001: honorary citizen of Budapest (won)
- Great Artist of Hungary Award 1980: Great Artist of Hungary Award (won)
- Kossuth Prize 1973: Kossuth Prize (won)
- Meritorius Artist of Hungary 1970: Meritorius Artist of Hungary (won)
- Béla Balázs Award 1966: Béla Balázs Award (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/miklos-jancso