17 Facts About Branko Lustig

Branko Lustig was a Croatian film producer best known for winning Academy Awards for Best Picture for Schindler's List and Gladiator.

Branko Lustig is the only person born in the territory of present-day Croatia to have won two Academy Awards.

Branko Lustig's father, Mirko, was head-waiter at an Osijek Cafe Central, and his mother, Vilma, was a housewife.

Branko Lustig's mother survived the Holocaust and was reunited with him after the war.

Branko Lustig credited his survival in Auschwitz to a German officer who happened to be from the same suburb of Osijek as Branko Lustig.

Branko Lustig began his film career in 1955 as an assistant director at Jadran Film, a state-owned Zagreb-based film production company.

Branko Lustig was the location manager for Fiddler on the Roof.

Branko Lustig received his first Oscar in 1993 for the production of Schindler's List, a film based on the novel of Thomas Keneally.

Branko Lustig himself had a cameo early in the film as a nightclub maitre d'.

In July 2015, Branko Lustig presented the Oscar to Yad Vashem for eternal safekeeping.

Branko Lustig received his second Oscar for the epic movie Gladiator about a struggle for power in Imperial Rome, in 2001.

In 2008, Branko Lustig helped establish an independent production company Six Point Films to produce "meaningful, thought-provoking independent films".

Branko Lustig is honorary president and one of the founding members of the Jewish Movie Festival in Zagreb.

Branko Lustig celebrated his bar mitzvah on 2 May 2011 at Auschwitz, in front of barrack No 24a.

Branko Lustig missed his rite of passage as a 13-year-old because at the time he was a prisoner in the very same barrack, having been deported from Osijek when he was ten years old.

Branko Lustig died in Zagreb on 14 November 2019, aged 87.

Branko Lustig's life was remembered in BBC Radio 4's obituary programme Last Word in December 2019.