Ádám Császi (HUN)
Authors / Film / Theater / Directors / Film / Theater
is a Berlin-based film/theatre director and screenwriter. He was born in Hungary and he is the director of the first Hungarian gay coming-out film for which he received a ban on film-making by the Orbán-regime and has been marginalized. He was forced into political exile in Berlin in 2022 where he has been living and working since. Presently, he is working with Burgtheater Vienna, writing and directing his own play.
His features premiered at Berlinale 2014 and Tallinn Black Nights 2022 to critical acclaim. They were nominated for the Best First Feature Award and Teddy Award at the Berlinale, nominated for Best Film and won a Jury’s Special Mention for Best Film at Tallinn Black Nights. They were in competition in Sarajevo, Chicago, Seattle, Guadalajara, Pune, Belgrade, Transylvania IFF, Hague Movies That Matter, Cottbus, Ljubljana, Munich, Porto and Delhi. They won the Main Prize in LiFFE 2024, Best Director in Palic 2023 and the Special Jury Prize at the Taipei Film Festival 2014 as well as the Audience Award at Tel Aviv 2014. They were widely distributed: they went to about 60 international festivals and sold to 14 countries, including US, UK, France, Germany, and Spain.
His scripts were recipients of the following writing programs and scholarships: Official Selection of Berlinale Co-Production Market 2015, Series Mania Seriesmakers 2022, Nipkow Programm 2015, Frontieres Montreal 2017, ScriptEast Program 2016, eQuinoxe Int’l 2016, Midpoint Central European Script Center 2010, Holland Film Meeting Official Selection 2015, Örkény 2017 Playwright Scholarship. He was a coach at PITCHIT@Berlinale with Goethe Institute, and works as a professor of film at SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences.
His theatre directorial work debuted in 2017 in various independent Hungarian theaters. His play 12 ANGRY MEN ran for 7 years and was among the 5 most popular contemporary plays in Hungary. His play GYPSY HUNGARIAN played at Deutsches Theater in Berlin. In 2025/26, he is working for Burgtheater Vienna to write and direct his own play 3000 EINZELTEILE (Akademietheater stage).
Filmography:
THREE THOUSAND NUMBERED PIECES, feature
2022
World premiere: Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
Written by: Ádám Császi und Balázs Lengyel
Directed by: Ádám Császi
HUN, 2022, 93 min.
Watch the trailer (external link)
Festivals/Awards:
2022 – 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Jury’s special mentioning)
“Our special mention goes to a film that shines a light on a previously almost-invisible community and shows its beauty and dignity. But it also examines the borderline between artistic representation and exploitation of the so-called “underprivileged,” and makes us question our own involvement in the voyeuristic culture.” – Jury’s comment
LAND OF STORMS, feature
2014
World premiere: 64th International Film Festival Berlin
Written & directed by: Ádám Császi
HUN, DE, 2014, 105 min
Festivals/Awards:
2014 – Taipei Film Festival: Special Jury Prize
2014 – 64th International Film Festival Berlin: nominated for Best First Feature Award & Teddy Award
Watch the trailer (external link)
Theater works (selection)
3000 EINZELTEILE by Ádám Császi
2026
World Premiere: Burgtheater Vienna
3000 EINZELTEILE
Written and directed by Ádám Császi
In German and Hungarian with German and Hungarian surtitles
Translated from Hungarian by Endre M. Holéczy
THE BIG MEAL by Dan LeFranc
2019
Jurányi Theater Budapest
GYPSY HUNGARIAN – Tudás Hatalom
2019
Deutsches Theater Berlin
Director: Ádám Czászi
Production: Knowledge Power/Tudás Hatalom
Even though their identity cards state their nationality as “Hungarian”, the actors in the play were born Roma. They tell stories that consist of nothing but fantasies and lies. Did God construct stolen cell phones in an overly complicated way and police officers in an amazingly simple way? What does an SEK boot taste like? How quickly do cigarette burns heal after a sexual assault?
A play about how poverty makes people creative, and exclusion makes them extraordinary.
12 ANGRY MEN by Reginald Rose
2018
Kultúrbrigád/Átrium Theater Budapest
GYPSY HUNGARIAN – Tudás Hatalom
2018
Kultúrbrigád/Átrium Theater Budapest
CHURCH by Young Jean Lee
2017
Szkéné Theater Budapest