By Pablo Gorondi
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) --Winning an Oscar could be a "poisoned gift" and it will take a great effort to avoid being crushed by the honor, the director of the Hungarian film that won the Academy Award for best foreign-language film, said Wednesday.
"Son of Saul" director Laszlo Nemes said he would put the Oscar in a display case "and hopefully I won't see it every day."
"It can be a poisoned gift but if we handle it with skill it won't crush us," Nemes said after returning to Budapest from Los Angeles. "Wisdom and luck are needed for this but maybe I'll never make a normal film again."
Nemes said that concentrating on one person, a Jewish prisoner forced to dispose of victims in a Nazi death camp, was important to him to "understand the individual." The film follows Saul Auslander as he tries to give a religious burial to a boy who may have been his son.
Steven Spielberg told him that "Son of Saul" greatly contributed to the collective memory of the Holocaust and that he hadn't expected that it would take so long after his 1993 "Schindler's List" to make such a film.
Geza Rohrig, who has received much praise for his portrayal of Auslander, said the Oscar ceremony "was a near clinical case of idiocy."
"It's not my world," said Rohrig, adding the volunteer "seat fillers" used to ensure there are never any empty seats during the ceremony "looked like a long line at the Lenin Mausoleum."
Nemes said his next film, "Sunset," set in Budapest in the 1910s, would be in Hungarian but he was planning to develop several projects at once, including films in other languages.
"My secret plan is to make a world famous actress out of a young Hungarian woman," Nemes said. "But let's not tell anyone."
Jean Smart, Ariana Grande, Michael Keaton among hosts for “SNL” season 50
Fresh off her Emmys win, Jean Smart will kick off the landmark 50th season of "Saturday Night Live."
NBC on Thursday announced the lineup of hosts for the season, which premieres Sept. 28. Joining Smart on the first show will be Jelly Roll as the musical act. He was also at the Emmys, singing during the ceremony's in memoriam segment.
It will be Smart's first time hosting "SNL."
Comedian Nate Bargatze will host on Oct. 5, with Coldplay as the musical guest.
Ariana Grande will host Oct. 12, with musical guest Stevie Nicks.
"Beetlejuice" star Michael Keaton will host on Oct. 19, the last show before Halloween, and Billie Eilish will be that night's musical guest.
The host on Nov. 2 will be "SNL" alum John Mulaney, with breakout sensation Chappell Roan as the music guest.
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