Barna Szász is a Budapest-born filmmaker, who moved to the U.S. in 2017 on a Fulbright and graduated in Stanford University’s M.F.A. Documentary Film program in 2019.

 

His documentary work was acquired by The Guardian, Staff Picked at Vimeo, screened at DOC NYC, DOK Leipzig, Big Sky, Atlanta IFF, Frameline, Outfest and other festivals. His video journalism work has been viewed by more than 1M viewers and has been shared by more than 100k. The short documentary Share (co-directed with Ellie Wen) was nominated for the Young Eyes Award at DOK Leipzig and won the InspirASIAN Award at CAAMFest, San Francisco. 

 

Barna believes that important stories told well can make a great impact. This is why beyond story and dramaturgy he's also an enthusiastic explorer of forms old and new: besides documentary films, his Instagram is loaded with 35mm analogue photos, and his recent works include full scale, location-based live VR experiences as well as 360 documentaries. By thinking openly about form, his goal is to find emotion-driven, impactful, personal stories and present them in a form that best suits them.

 

Before moving to the U.S., Barna earned a BA in Motion Picture at his country's main film school, the University of Film and Theatre Arts, Budapest. Then he worked as video journalist and later as Head of Video at Index.hu, Hungary’s equivalent of The New York Times. As a lecturer he’s taught Video Journalism at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, and in 2019 he’s teaching 360 Video & VR at Stanford University, California.