Engage with your audience: Hungarian filmmaker
Ildikó Enyedi discusses her experience and ideas on filmmaking at the SIFF master class on Tuesday.
Hungarian film director Ildikó Enyedi believes that the key to making a successful film as a first-time director is to share your ideas through storytelling.
"If you firmly believe in self-expression through film, you must put your heart and soul into it so that the audience can hear and understand it," said Enyedi, who insists that cinema is a mode of communication with others.
"It's all about opening up to the audience. If they can empathize with your feelings and ideas through your film, it will be a success," Enyedi said, encouraging new filmmakers to express their feelings and ideas at the start of their careers.
"We are storytellers. People like stories. So we should not feel embarrassed when telling our stories through our film."
Enyedi was speaking at the SIFF master class on Tuesday. She is one of the masters this year along with Ho-sun Chan, a Chinese director and writer, Zhang Lu, also from China, and Sho Miyake, a Japanese director.
Ildikó Enyedi (second from left) walks the red carpet at the 21st Shanghai International Film Festival as a member of the Golden Goblet Awards jury in this 2018 file photo.
Enyedi was one of the members of the 2018 Shanghai International Film Festival jury.
While talking about innovation in filmmaking, Enyedi said curiosity and sharing mattered more than forced inventions.
"If your motive to create a film is to share something inside your mind and lead the audience to explore your individual thoughts and experiences with curiosity, your work will definitely be something unique and innovative," said Enyedi, who also has extensive experience as a film school teacher.
"The actor in each film, in fact, is not just an actor, but more of a real person of flesh and blood, with rich personalities," Enyedi said as she discussed her experience working with a first-time actor who played the lead role in her 2017 film "On Body and Soul," which won the Golden Bear in the main competition of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.
The role required a strong screen presence. Enyedi said that his strong comprehension suited the character's image and qualified him for the job.
"The scene I chose for his audition was very close to his daily life. I also instructed him with patience and encouragement. He understood how to play the role," Enyedi said, adding that it proved to be a success.
Ildikó Enyedi urges cinema students and new filmmakers to incorporate more self-expression and share their stories in their work.
