Branko Lustig. He was a Croatian filmmaker, producer, and production manager, known for Gladiator ( 2000 ), Schindler’s List ( 1993 ) and The Holy One ( 1997 ). Survivor of the Holocaust . He was awarded two Hollywood Oscars .
Biographical synthesis
Born in 1932 in the city of Osijek (eastern Croatia ) into a Jewish family, Lustig was interned as a child in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen during World War II .
During the criminal persecution of the Nazi regime and its allies, he lost part of his loved ones, an experience that partially carried over to the film Schindler’s List , directed by Steven Spielberg , with which he won his first Oscar as a producer in 1994 , as well as the Golden Globe .
After the war he studied at the Zagreb Theater Academy and dedicated his life to cinema, working primarily as a director and producer, first in Croatia and then in the United States .
His second Oscar and Golden Globe won in 2001 by the epic film Gladiator by Ridley Scott . Among the more than one hundred films in which he participated are [The Peacemaker]] ( 1997 ), Hannibal ( 2001 ) and Black Hawk Down ( 2001 ).
Decorated in his home country with the Order of the Duke of Trpimir , in 2008 he was appointed President of the Zagreb Jewish Film Festival and in 2019 he was proclaimed an honorary citizen of this capital.
Death
He died on 14 November as as 2019 in Zagreb at 87.
