‘Vilmos Zsigmond was in his early teens when the Russian army installed a puppet government in Hungary answerable to the communist regime in Moscow. He wasn’t allowed to continue his education or pursue an interest in becoming a photographer because his family was considered bourgeois. Zsigmond was put to work in a factory, where he saved money to buy a camera and taught himself how to take pictures. He organized a camera club for factory workers. That impressed the commissars who sent him to the Academy of Theatre and Film Art in Budapest to learn cinematography. Zsigmond completed his formal education in 1955, and was working as an apprentice at the state film studio in October 1956, when a popular uprising spilled into the streets of Budapest.’ [From the ASC website.] Zsigmond and his film school classmate László Kovács took an Arriflex camera from their school and filmed the battle between the Budapest citizens and the Russian troops and tanks. In November 1956 they fled to Austria where the film was processed and sold to a producer [the film was shown on CBS-tv in 1961]. He [and Kovács] arrived in the USA in March 1957 as a political refugee. He spent time in a refugee camp in New Jersey, and worked briefly in Chicago, before moving to Los Angeles hoping to find a job in the film industry. Worked as laboratory technician and as still photographer [for 5 years] on educational films. Owned his own 16mm Arriflex camera modified for Techniscope. Made a short film on modern dance, ‘Lullaby‘, which gained him entrance in the unions.

Ph and dir commercials. Also active as director.

Was one of the ‘masters’ at the ‘International Masterclass [1999 & 2001], Budapest.

Active member of the ASC since 1973, honorary member of the HSC and associate member of the SOC.