Laszlo Nemes is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. He was born on 18 February 1977 in Budapest, Hungary. László Nemes grew up between two countries and two cultures, choosing to first study in Paris before leaving for Budapest, in 2003 at the age of 26, to learn the ropes of filmmaking. He thus became Béla Tarr’s assistant on the Prologue segment of the collaborative film Visions of Europe and on The Man from London. He then directed three short films, notably With a Little Patience, which was chosen for the 2007 Venice International Film Festival. Béla Tarr taught him: “To focus on details, to understand a scene’s significance, the fact that everything is a consistent and rigorous process from your choice of collaborators all the way to the film shoot.”

He worked for two years as Tarr's assistant director, mostly on The Man from London (2007). In September 2007 his first short was presented at the Venice International Film Festival in competition and in Dec. 2008 it was nominated at the European Film Awards as 'Best Short Film'. Nemes shot his second short The Counterpart (2008) in Romania and after that The Gentleman Takes His Leave (2010) again in Hungary, finishing it in January 2010. The 3 short films have won more than 30 awards at more than 100 international film festivals. Nemes' first feature film project "S.K." was selected for the Résidence program which is overseen by the Cannes Cinéfondation. His 2015 debut feature film, Son of Saul, was screened in the main competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. He is the first Hungarian director whose film has won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. His film, Son of Saul, is the second Hungarian film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.