ILDIKÓ ENYEDI
Ildikó Enyedi, born in Budapest in 1955, is one of the most distinguished voices in contemporary European cinema. She began her artistic journey as a concept and media artist, and was a member of the art collective Indigo and the Balázs Béla Studio, the only independent film studio in Eastern Europe before 1989. She later moved into directing and screenwriting.
Her feature film debut, My 20th Century
, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989, winning the Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature and establishing her as an international auteur. The film was also selected as one of the 12 best Hungarian films of all time. This was followed by Magic Hunter, presented in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, and Tamás és Juli, shown in a special screening at Venice, while Simon, the Magician garnered a Special Prize at the Locarno Film Festival.After a period working in television — including directing the Hungarian adaptation of HBO’s In Treatment — Enyedi returned to feature filmmaking with On Body and Soul in 2017, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and received an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film, further solidifying her critical acclaim. In 2021, she returned to Cannes
with The Story of My Wife. Her most recent work, Silent Friend (2025), was selected for the main competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actress (Luna Wedler).
Enyedi’s films have been screened at major festivals worldwide, and she has received more than forty international awards across her career. She is a member of both the European Film Academy and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Enyedi has taught masterclasses and served on juries at festivals such as Berlin, Venice, and Cannes. The Trieste FF presented My 20th Century during the first edition of the festival (1990, Alpe Adria Cinema – Meetings with the Cinema of Central Eastern Europe), Simon, the Magician in 2000 and The Story of My Wife in 2022.
