Hungary's Oscar Nomination: “Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time"

In the reent years, Hungary has made a strong showing in the Best International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards, with On Body and Soul making the final round, and Son of Saul winning the statue. This year’s official nomination was announced earlier this month: director Lili Horvath’s drama Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time.

Due to the pandemic, the film has had a quieter opening than other recently lauded Hungarian films, but has done well on the virtual festival circuit, winning multiple international awards. According to Hungarianinsider.com, “The film was screened with great success at the end of the summer at the Venice and then Toronto film festivals. In Antalya, Natasa Stork won the Best Actress award, and in Warsaw, the film was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize by the jury of the International Federation of Film Critics. She also won the grand prize “Gold Hugo” (Arany Hugó) at the longest-running festival in Chicago and returned home with three trophies from the highly prestigious Valladolid Film Festival in Spain. The film, set on the border of reality and imagination, won the Best Feature Film Award at the Philadelphia Film Festival as well.”

Rogerebert.com, in a glowing review, summarises the film as such: “Exemplary neurosurgeon Márta Vizy (Natasa Stork), for whom reality is increasingly becoming elusive, flies back home to Hungary from the U.S. after 20 years. Her return isn't prompted by a longing for homeland or even family, so much as a love pact she made with a fellow Hungarian doctor named János (Viktor Bodó) after they met and fell in love at a convention in New Jersey. The deal was to meet at Liberty Bridge in Budapest a month later. She kept the promise, he didn't. Instead of coming to terms with the ill-advised impulse behind traveling half the world for a spontaneous rendezvous with a stranger, Márta searches for János, only to learn he doesn’t recognize her.”

Natasa Stork

Reviews elsewhere, including in the New York Times, have for the most part been enviable. Daily Variety wrote: “Slippery, supple and sinuous, Hungarian director Lili Horvát’s deliciously reworked psychological noir is a spiral staircase, polished to a glossy shine, down which unreliable motivations, self-delusions and romantic obsessions tumble in gorgeous 35mm.” It goes on to praise — as many other publications have — the work of DP Róbert Maly. “The mood of ‘Preparations…’ is established by DP Róbert Maly’s striking 35mm cinematography, with its warm grain and textural response to color.”

This is only Horvát’s second feature. Her first, Szerdai Gyerek (The Wednesday Child) also performed well, winning awards at Karlovy Vary and multiple other festivals. Only time will tell if '“Preparations…” will have Oscar success. Either way, the film is a rare crowd-pleaser that was also embraced by critics. The Oscar winners will be revealed at the presentation ceremony on April 25 in Los Angeles.

Below, find the trailer for Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time in Hungarian with English language subtitles.

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