[7] In that same year, he founded Proton Cinema Ltd., dedicated to film production, along with Viktória Petrányi, a constant co-creator and collaborator in his work and writing since the academy.

[19][20] In 2005, he won the Nipkow Program's artistic grant[21] to participate for three months in courses and consultations for talented screenwriters and directors in Berlin.

[27] His first English-language feature, Pieces of a Woman, was in Competition at 77th Venice International Film Festival,[28] where Vanessa Kirby won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her lead performance in the movie.

Besides preserving maximum artistic freedom, their goal is to ensure a professional structure for their independently produced theatre plays and projects.

Chiefly, their performances are realized as international co-productions, and their frequent collaborators include the Wiener Festwochen,[33] HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin,[34] Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels,[35] Trafó House of Contemporary Arts in Budapest[36] and Hellerau in Dresden.

[37] Productions directed by the artistic leader include The Ice (2006);[38] Frankenstein-project (2007), which inspired his later film Tender Son;[39][40] Hard to be a God (2010);[41] Disgrace (2012), based on the post-apartheid novel by Nobel Prize-winner J. M. Coetzee and, in turn, inspiring his film White God;[42] Dementia (2014),[43] Winterreise (2015),[44] Imitation of Life (2016),[45] The Raft of the Medusa (2018),[46] Evolution (2019)[47] inspiring his film with the same title,[48] The Seven Deadly Sins/Motherland (2020)[49][50] and Parallax.

It was the first time in the history of this award that a non-German theatre, in this case a Hungarian independent company was nominated.

The sinister tale Bluebeard's Castle by Béla Bartók, which is shaped with astonishing orchestral strength, is juxtaposed with the intimate quietness of the piano notes and singing voice at the heart of Schubert's Winterreise.