There are more celebrities of Hungarian descent than one might think

Animatiqua Studio has compiled a line-up of legendary figures of Hungarian descent in a hand-drawn animation. Those featured include prominent artists, some of the founders of Hollywood as well as well-known pop musicians. The studio made the short film with an explicit educational purpose and used freehand drawing techniques throughout, without the use of artificial intelligence, with the creators estimating that the entire project took roughly 700 hours of work.

"There are some famous individuals whose Hungarian roots are not even well-known in Hungary”, András Kondacs, founder of Animatiqua Studio and the film's creator said. "While making the film, even I was surprised to learn how many world-famous individuals have Hungarian ancestry. One of the biggest challenges was to present all the characters appearing in the film as equals, while respecting their authenticity. There were some about whom we could hardly find any surviving photos or stills that we could process, which made gathering the material more difficult."

Among others, the film features Estée Lauder, whose mother emigrated from Sátoraljaújhely. The mother of Goldie Hawn, who also appears in the short film, was Hungarian, and Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of Tony Curtis, is also among the icons drawn. Tony Curtis' parents, Manó Schwartz and Ilona Klein emigrated to the United States from the Hungarian town of Mátészalka.

According to Kondacs, the short film is the first in a longer series, with plans to feature other famous people of Hungarian descent in upcoming episodes, including Nobel laureates and inventors, as well as legendary artists and athletes.