Death of Manfred Durniok
Manfred Durniok, the renowned German film producer and director died in the Benjamin Franklin hospital in Berlin from unknown causes. He was 68.
In the course of his long and ecletic career, Durniok worked in both film and television. He greatest successes were Mephisto directed in 1981 by Istvan Szabò, starring Klaus Maria Brandauer, and based on the novel by Klaus Mann. The film won Hungary the best foreign language Oscar in 1982, and Oberst Redl (1985), also by Istvan Szabo, which won the Jury Prize at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a best foreign film Oscar (Hungary) in 1986.
Durniok won numerous awards including the 2002 Freedom Award presented by the American Cinema Foundation, as well as Austria’s highest honorary award for his services to the film industry. In 1988 the Republic of China presented Durniok with the Hua-Biao Award for an animated feature he directed entitled In 80 Tagen um die Welt and in 1999 Durniok became the first European to be honoured with an honorary citizenship of Beijing, the twin city of Berlin.
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