Peter Hegedus

Early life

Peter Hegedus was born in Budapest, Hungary and moved with his mother and his sister to Brisbane, Australia in 1991. In 1995 Peter was accepted into the Queensland College of Art to study film. At twenty-one, he produced and directed a documentary for television Grandfathers and Revolutions about his grandfather; this marked the beginning of his professional career in filmmaking.

Professional career

Peter's first film, Grandfathers and Revolutions, is a story about his own grandfather, András Hegedüs; the Prime Minister of Hungary who called in the Soviet troops to quash the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. The documentary was produced and directed by Hegedus for SBS TV Australia. The film won multiple awards at international film festivals. (See Awards and achievements)

In 2002 Hegedus formed Soul Vision Films Pty Ltd. According to him, the company's philosophy is to produce and direct films which provide insight into the human condition. Under this company he produced Inheritance, a Fisherman’s Story, a Hungarian-Australian co-production based around the ecological disaster in Hungary in 2000. The film was shortlisted for the 2004 Academy Awards and won an additional seven awards around the world. In 2004, Hegedus made his first short drama, Redemption which he says captures the nine most important minutes of a man's life in a single take. Redemption participated at many international film festivals and was also shown at the annual conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty accompanying the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore.

In 2005 Peter wrote and directed Hole in the Wall, an eleven-minute drama that explores the importance of dealing with the past in order to move on with our lives. The film participated in many festivals around the world and won best screenplay at the Queensland Short Film Festival.

In 2007 Peter produced and directed a longitudinal documentary for the ABC; Wings to Fly following the life of Catrina Lawrence, a 21-year-old girl living in Mackay over seven years.

Since 2009 Peter has expanded his work into the not-for-profit sector, working with major Australian organisations, such as Micah Projects Inc. and the Australian Suicide Prevention Foundation, in producing drama and documentary work.

In 2011, Hegedus completed My America, a feature documentary about his search for the American dream. Peter co-produced, directed and wrote the film, which is due for theatrical release in late 2011. My America received a favorable review by Richard Kuipers in film-industry magazine Variety. Also in 2011, Hegedus completed an observational documentary for ABC TV, The Trouble With St Mary’s following the life of a Catholic Priest who is sacked by the Vatican for unorthodox practices. The film has been selected to compete in the inaugural BIFFDOCS competition at the Brisbane International Film Festival 2011.

In 2012 Peter wrote and directed the award-winning short film Welcome to the Lucky Country, a dark comedy about the plight of asylum seekers in Australia. The film won the Audience Choice award at the Brisbane Backyard Film Festival and was picked up for educational distribution in Australia. 2012 also saw Peter featured as part of The Courier-Mail’s “Queensland’s 50 Best and Brightest People”.

Since 2013 Peter has been employed by Griffith Film School. He is currently the course convenor of both Documentary Production and the Master of Screen Production. Peter has also been appointed as the program advisor for the Master of Screen Production and has published in the prestigious film journal Metro Magazine.

In 2014 Peter was commissioned to create a series of short documentaries entitled Big Stories, Small Towns, a selection of short films highlighting the personal stories of individuals in the town of Beaudesert, Queensland.

In 2016 Peter produced and directed Éva, a short documentary about Holocaust survivor Éva Fahidi and her passionate perspective on the refugee crisis in Europe. Peter also co-directed Strudel Sisters with Jaina Kalifa, a short documentary selected for Hot Docs International Documentary Festival as well as the Sydney Film Festival. Strudel Sisters won the 2016 Devour! Golden Tine Award for Best Short Documentary. Both Éva and Strudel Sisters were nominated for best documentary at the St Kilda Short Film Festival.

Peter has also co-founded Signature Films, a startup company aimed at promoting creative storytelling in the corporate sector. Peter is currently developing a number of projects with Screen Queensland and Screen Australia, including a factual series, a feature documentary. He is also developing several short films and a feature film.

Awards and achievements

2016 - Strudel Sisters - short documentary (co-director)

2016 - Éva - short documentary (producer, director)

2012 - Welcome to the Lucky Country - short film (writer, director)

2011 - Awarded the Griffith University Alumni Recognition Award for his achievements in documentary filmmaking.

2011 - The Trouble with St Mary's - feature documentary (writer, director)

2011 - My America - feature documentary (co-producer, writer, director)

2008 - Awarded the Doctor of Visual Arts from Griffith University.

2005 - Hole in the Wall - short drama (Writer/director)

2004 - Redemption - short drama (Writer/director)

2003 - Inheritance, a Fisherman's Story - A feature-length documentary for SBS TV Australia, RTBF, Lichtpunt (Producer, writer, and director)

1999 - Grandfathers and Revolutions A 52-minute documentary for SBS TV, Australia (Producer, writer and director)