János Bán

He was born in 1968 in Kecskemét. 
He has more than 30 years of professional experience in management, editing and publishing, in the fields of print, online, television and publishing. Since 1 June 2024, he has been the managing director of Kecskemétfilm Kft. He is also editor-in-chief of Hitel publishing house. As a writer, he is the author of almost thirty novels and several short stories and some screenplays.
Between 2020 and 2023, he was director of the M5 Channel and from 2019 to 2023 he was also president of the National Cultural Fund's College of Arts. He teaches creative writing to screenwriters at the University of Theatre and Film Arts. As a journalist, he has been awarded the Ministry of Defence's Defence Medal three times for his war reporting in Iraq and Afghanistan. His literary achievements include the Herczeg Ferenc Award and Laurel Wreath of the Hungarian Republic.

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
- Zsoldos Péter Award - For the best Hungarian-language science fiction literary work of the year - five times.
- Ministry of National Defence - "For Defence" three times for in-country reporting and for reporting from Afghanistan and Iraq.
- Bács-Kiskun County Award - 2013.
- National Association of Entrepreneurs: Príma Award, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County: literature category - 2014.
- Szolnok City Press Award - 2015.
- National Association of Entrepreneurs: Príma Award, Bács-Kiskun County: literature category - 2017.
- Szalézi Szent Ferenc Award (Press Award of the Archdiocese of Kalocsa-Kecskemét) - 2018.
- Herczeg Ferenc Award - 2019.
- Laurel Wreath of the Hungarian Republic - 2021.

LITERARY ACTIVITY
- He has published nearly 30 novels and numerous short stories.
- He has won the most prestigious Hungarian professional prize, the Zsoldos Péter Award, five times for his sci-fi and fantasy works.
- His series of fantasy novels, entitled “Kárpáthia” (Carpathia), draws on the mythology of Hungarian and other Eastern European peoples rather than the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic foundations so typical of the genre.
- The “Hunyadi” series of novels, which covers perhaps the most illuminating century of Hungary's national history, including the life of János Hunyadi, has been published since 2008. The twelve volumes of the series have sold 450,000 copies so far.
- His novel “Isten katonái” (Soldiers of God) - 1456 has been published in Spanish by Narativa in Spain, South America and the United States.

FILMS
- “A kékítő” (The Bleacher) - documentary 2018 - producer - KTV
- “Kecskeméti kardok” (Kecskemét Swords) - documentary 2019 - producer - KTV
- “Mátyás király utolsó éjszakája” (King Matthias' Last Night) - documentary feature film 2019 - screenwriter
- “Egy felépített élet” (A Life Built) - documentary 2019 - producer - KTV
- “Elveszett idők” (Lost Times) - short feature film series, two seasons, eight episodes - producer - MTVA
- “Hunyadi” - Hungarian-German-Canadian-Italian TV series based on the novel series by Mór Bán - script development, story by, and scriptwriter of first episode.
- “A vörös polip” (The Red Octopus) - 6-part documentary feature film series - co-screenwriter with Zsuzsa Borvendég and Gábor Mezei, and series editor - 2023.