is a Hungarian film director and CEO of Müpa Budapest. He was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 2020 and the Kálmán Nádasdy Prize in 2013.
Káel earned a degree in structural and architectural engineering in 1986 from the Technical University of Budapest's Department of Structural Engineering. In 1989, he graduated from Budapest's College of Theatre and Film Arts, where he studied film and television directing under teachers Károly Makk, István Szabó, Gyula Gazdag, Elemér Ragályi and György Illés.
After serving as a manager at the Balázs Béla Film Studio from 1989 and 1990, he went on to work at Novofilm Kft between 1990 and 1993. In 1990, he took part in the East-West Producers Seminar in London under the tutelage of Lynda Myles and David Puttnam. In 1990, he founded the Happy End Advertising Agency, later becoming its creative director. A member of the Association of Independent Hungarian Producers from 1995 to 1998, he became founder and executive director of Z+ Hungarian Music Television. In 2001 and 2002, he served as artistic advisor for the Millenéris Theatre and Television Studio, where he developed the core concept for that institution. Starting in 2002, he spent two years back at the (by then) University of Theatre and Film Arts working on his DLA before joining Müpa Budapest in 2005 as an artistic advisor responsible for putting together the institution's opera programmes. Following a stint at the Novus School of Art from 2006 to 2007, he has been teaching at the Werk Academy since 2008. He has been the CEO of Müpa Budapest since 17 March 2011, and between 2013 and 2020 he was appointed chairman of the body that runs both the Budapest Spring Festival and the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival. Káel has been a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts since 2014 On 1 September 2019 he was appointed government commissioner for the advancement of the Hungarian cinema industry and the National Film Institute was founded under his leadership. In 2020 he was elected as a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (IATAS), the organization which presents the International Emmy Awards, often described as the “Oscar of television industry”. In 2021 the Bartók Spring International Art Weeks and the Liszt Fest International Cultural Festival were founded with his direction
