Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr, who introduced slow cinema to the world, passes away

Legendary Hungarian filmmaker, Béla Tarr has passed away at the age of 70. Fellow filmmaker Bence Fliegauf announced the news of Béla's death on behalf of his family.

Known for his extraordinary body of work, Béla Tarr was the pioneer of the "slow cinema" movement, marked by sparse dialogues and lengthy visuals: all in black and white. The theme of his films were mostly realist, depicting the daily life and struggles of the people who lived in Eastern Europe.

Béla Tarr had a long, inspiring career with a major influence on World Cinema

Béla Tarr was born in 1955, in Hungary's Pécs. He entered the world of filmmaking at the ripe young age of sixteen as an amateur. He went on to work for Hungary's major experimental film studio, the Balázs Béla Stúdió. It was here, that Béla directed his first feature film, Family Nest, which released in 1977.

His feature directorial debut earned him accolades including the Grand Prix at the Mannheim Film Festival. Parallelly, he for admitted to the Academy of Theatre and Film in Budapest and he graduated in 1982.

After working at various studios on different film, Béla finally became a member of the European Film Academy in 1997. A few years later, in 2003, he started Filmműhely, aimed at nurturing independent films. He ran it till 2011, when he retired as a filmmaker after his last feature film, Turin horse.

Post 2011, the filmmaker worked on finding newer ways of filmmaking and cinema direction and also worked as a mentor for young filmmakers. He founded the Sarajevo Film Academy (film.factory) in 2012 where he served as professor till 2016. He headed several Bachelors, Masters and other programmes, making it one of the most sought after film schools.

Béla Tarr's legacy is not one that can be written in a few words. He dedicated his life to Cinema and was passionate about spreading his learnings to generations that came after him. The

The European Film Academy honoured the filmmaker on their website, documenting his extraordinary life. Concluding the statement, the Acdemy wrote, "Béla Tarr passed away on 6 January 2026 after a long and serious illness. We will miss him".

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