George Kaczender, Hungarian-born Canadian film director, Died at 83

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George Kaczender was born on April 19, 1933, and died on August 24, 2016.

He was a Hungarian-born Canadian film director.

George had directed 26 films between 1963 and 2001.

During 1956, he left Hungary, as a political refugee after studying film and working as an Assistant Director at the Pannonina Film Studios in Budapest.

When he arrived in Los Angeles during the early 80s he worked at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal from 1956 to 1969 where he wrote and directed award-winning documentaries and short dramatic features.

During 1968 George wrote and directed the award-winning feature film, Don’t Let the Angels Fall, starring Arthur Hill, that became the first Canadian feature film invited to the main competition at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.

During the 70’s, George left the Film Board to work in London with the producer, Oscar Lewenstein.

During that same year, he became one of the founding partners of International Cinemedia Center in Montreal.

Also in the 1970s, he directed numerous successful educational films for Learning Corporation of America and five theatrical feature films before leaving Canada for Hollywood.

Among them, In Praise of Older Women based on the best-selling novel by S. Vizinczey, and Chanel Solitaire, the life of Coco Chanel, shot on location in France.

Robert Mitchum, Richard Harris, Jeanne Moreau, Tom Berenger, JoBeth Williams, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Karen Black, are among the stars Kaczender has worked with.

George Kaczender has also directed numerous movies for network and cable television such as Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wanted.

George Kaczender’s film Don’t let the Angels Fall was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival and his film The Girl in Blue was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 1973 Berlin Film Festival.

George Kaczender has numerous international awards for his work on documentaries and short drmatic films.

George Kaczender’s initial novel, An Unreasonable Notion of Desire, was published in 2000 by Xlibris, a subsidiary of Random House.

His next novel, “Notebooks of an Incurable Romantic”, was published in 2013 by Red Cat Tales Publishing, sold by Amazon.com.

From 2002 to 2004 George Kaczender was Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, teaching film directing.

George Kaczender passed away at 83 years old.