Branko Lustig

Infobox actor


imagesize =
name = Branko Lustig
birthdate = birth date and age|1932|6|10
location = Osijek, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (today Croatia)
occupation = Producer
yearsactive = 1955–present
academyawards = Best Picture
1993 Schindler's List
2000 "Gladiator"
baftaawards = Best Film
1993 Schindler's List
2000 "Gladiator"

Branko Lustig (born June 10, 1932) is a prominent film producer. He is the only Croatian person to have won two Academy Awards.

Lustig was born in Osijek, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (today in Croatia), to a Croatian-Jewish family. During World War II, as a child he was imprisoned for two years in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Most of his family members perished in the death camps throughout Europe. [cite web | url=http://www.jutarnji.hr/kultura/film/clanak/art-2007,4,19,lustig_hollywood,71075.jl | title=U Hollywoodu održana večer posvećena Branku Lustigu | publisher="Jutarnji list" | language=Croatian | date=April 19, 2007 | accessdate=2008-07-10]

Lustig began his film career in 1955 as an assistant director at Jadran Film, a Zagreb-based film production company. In 1956 he worked as a unit production manager on "Ne okreći se sine" ("Don't Look Back, My Son"), a notable World War II drama. In the 1980s Lustig worked on the miniseries "The Winds of War" (1983) and its sequel "War and Remembrance" (1988). He moved to the United States in 1988.

Lustig received his first Oscar in 1993 for the production of "Schindler's List", a film based on the novel of Thomas Keneally (which is, in turn, based on the true-life story of a German manufacturer who saved hundreds of Jews during World War II). He received his second Oscar for the epic movie "Gladiator" about a struggle for power in Imperial Rome, in 2001. Other major Hollywood films that Lustig has worked on as a producer or executive producer include "The Peacemaker" (1997), "Hannibal" (2001), and "Black Hawk Down" (2001).

Lustig received the Order of Duke Trpimir by President Franjo Tudjman for his work on the film.cite web | url=http://www.vjesnik.hr/html/2007/04/20/Clanak.asp?r=kul&c=1 | title=Hollywoodska večer za Branka Lustiga | publisher="Vjesnik" | language=Croatian | date=April 20, 2007 | accessdate=2008-07-10] In 2008 he became the first filmmaker ever to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Zagreb.cite web | url=http://www.jutarnji.hr/zagreb/clanak/art-2008,7,10,,126081.jl | title=Oskarovac predavač na Akademiji | last=Penić | first=Goran | publisher="Jutarnji list" | language=Croatian | date=July 10, 2008 | accessdate=2008-07-10]

In 2008, Lustig helped establish an independent production company Six Point Films to produce "meaningful, though-provoking independent films".

References

External links

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* [http://www.cinema.com/people/004/409/branko-lustig/index.phtml Short biography]