The full-length animation film Feherlofia is one of Markovics' most important works – Photo: Flickr

Animation film director Marcell Jankovics dies at 79

Acclaimed director of animation films and illustrator Marcell Jankovics, honorary president of the Hungarian Academy of the Arts (MMA), died aged 79 early on Saturday, MMA said.

The academy praised Jankovics as a “visual artist and public figure, a scholar of fairy tales … with an exceptionally wide-ranging, varied work. His oevre remains an important part of Hungarian culture,” the statement said.

Jankovics was born in 1941 in Budapest. Having been denied admission to the Technological University’s architecture faculty for political reasons, he started working in a factory, and soon found a position at Pannonia Film Company, where he was appointed animation director in 1965. He worked with the best of the golden era of Hungarian animation such as Jozsef Nepp and Attila Dargay, MMA said.

His works include full-length animation films such as Janos vitez (John the Valiant), Feherlofia and The Tragedy on Man, all re-imaginings of well-known Hungarian tales and dramas. He also directed an animated series of Hungarian fairy tales.

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