Fred Kelemen

Fred Kelemen (born in Berlin) is a Hungarian-German film and theater director, cinematographer and writer.^[1]

The late Susan Sontag helped to promote Kelemen's work in the mid-1990s, comparing it to the likes of Alexander Sokurov, Béla Tarr and Sharunas Bartas.^[2]

Fred Kelemen studied painting, music, philosophy, science of religions and theater before attending the German Film & TV Academy in Berlin from 1989 to 1994. His debut film Fate in 1994 received the German National Film Award. He has also directed Frost (1997/98), Nightfall [de] (1999) and Fallen (2005), each drawing international attention and numerous awards.

Kelemen has served as cinematographer for film directors including Béla Tarr (Journey to the Plain, 1995, The Man from London, 2007, The Turin Horse, 2011), Rudolf Thome (The Visible and the Invisible [de], 2007), Gariné Torossian (Stone, Time, Touch, 2005), Joseph Pitchhadze (Sukaryot /Sweets], 2012/2013), Pavel Lungin (Esau, 2018) and others.

Since 2000 he has also directed several plays, including an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 at the Schauspielhaus in Hanover, and Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under The Elms at Volksbühne in Berlin. In addition, Kelemen has worked as a teacher at film and media institutes and universities at several locations.

With his production company Kino Kombat Filmmanufactur, Kelemen produced his film Krisana/Fallen (co-producer: Laima Freimane/Screen Vision, Latvia, 2005) and he produced or co-produced the films Moskatchka by Annett Schütze (co-producer: Laima Freimane/Screen Vision, Latvia, 2005), "Girlfriends" by Jana Marsik (co-producers: Laima Freimane/Screen Vision, Latvia, jana Marsik) and Fragment by Gyula Maár (producer: Béla Tarr/TTFilmműhely, Hungary, 2007).