The two Hungarians not only played music, they were themselves the music – in every nerve – down to their fingertips.

Adelheid von Schorn on Reményi and Liszt

The Liszt Academy also shares in the pride of the Oscar nomination of ’Sing’

26 January 2017

The soundtrack of the short film by Kristóf Deák was composed by a member of the academic staff of the Liszt Academy, Ádám Balázs, while Ákos Lustyik, former student of the same institution, acted as his assistant during the working process.

All 2017 Oscar nominees were announced on 24 January 2017, also listing Kristóf Deák’s movie in the category Live Action Short Film. Only once before had a Hungarian short film been shortlisted for the Academy Award: it was István Szabó’s graduation movie Concert 53 years ago which was selected as one of the category’s best by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  It is a special kind of synchronicity that ’Sing’, just like Szabó’s film, also focuses on music: the protagonist of the 25-minute movie comes to a new school but has a hard time fitting in, she then gets admitted into the award-winning choir of the school. Click here for the trailer.

For the composition of the soundtrack, Ádám Balázs – member of the academic staff of the Composition Department of the Liszt Academy since 2014 – used his father, Árpád Balázs’s choir piece, Elderflower (Bodzavirág). His assistant and the movie’s musical editor was Ákos Lustyik, who graduated from the joint BA programme of the Liszt Academy and the Academy of Drama and Film in Composing for Theatre and Motion Picture in 2014 and is currently participating in a Master’s programme in London.

Whether the Academy Award in the live action short film category will go this Hungarian movie is to be revealed at the 89th Oscar night on 26 February, 2017.