News

A woman in her fifties, left by her husband is in the center of Ferenc Török’s new film which starts shooting this July and is planned to be completed by the end of the year. The shooting will start on 12th of July in Istanbul where the crew will work for 13 days. Afterwards on 2nd of August a 17 day shooting will start in Budapest.

Hungarian director János Szász, beside of preparing his new film Le grand cahier, based on an Agota Kristof novel, has been found by another, English speaking  project – [origo] published recently. The script of the film with the working title Goodbye Komárom has been written by the American Amir Kovács, who has Hungarian origins. The film will tell the story of his parents, who have been chased from the Hungarian city of Komárom during and again after the second world war.

Distribution is the weakest point of the Hungarian film industry – says the new president of the Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation in his interview. Instead of 25-31 films per year only 15 will be financed by the state but – hopefully – under better conditions.

Academy Award winner director István Szabó is working on the adaptation of a Hungarian novel, written by Magda Szabó, which has been translated to 32 languages. The project has recently been included among the international co-productions which are funded by the two national German funds, German Federal Film Board (FFA) and German Federal Film Fund (DFFF).

Cannes Fipresci jury presented the Un Certain Regard Prize of the International Critics to the Hungarian film Adrienn Pál directed by Ágnes Kocsis.

ADRIENN PÁL, Ágnes Kocsis's second feature film will be presented as part of the Un Certain Regard programme at the 2010 Festival de Cannes.

Accomplished short film and commercial director Károly Ujj-Mészáros' first feauture film, Liza the Fox-Fairy now in pre-production. has been invited to Cannes.

MFI and Scriptbase are offering a full scholarship to the Script 2 Film Workshop, held on the Aegean islands of Nissyros and Samos.

Tamás Almási has received Kossuth Prize for his outstanding documentary and feature films, presented on March 15 by László Sólyom, the President of Hungary.Almási directed his feature, Mario, the Magician and several important documentaries, including Puskás, Hungary about the famous Hungarian football player Ferenc Puskás.

The 12th edition of Cartoon Movie, one of the most important events for the European animation industry, took place in Lyon in March 2010. Cartoon is a co-production forum for the animation industry where producers have the opportunity to present their current projects or find partners, investors and distributors.

Gábor Csurdi, production manager for Budapest Film talks about the relationship of Hungarian cinema goers to animation, the potentials of 3D filmmaking, the distribution strategy of BUFI and the soon-to-be-released sci-fi animation movie 9 in Lyon.  

Hungarian director, Bálint Kenyeres, European Film Award (www.europeanfilmacademy.org) short film winner, has finished the script for his feature debut Yesterday based on Agota Kristof's novel, and the project is now in preproduction.

Seven young Hungarian film directors have formed the group "New Faces", a move to refresh Hungary's commercial industry. The group will have a presentation at the Odeon Cinema in Budapest on March 4 for producers and creative directors from the Hungarian advertising companies, screening pieces of their works and presenting their ideas in short pitches.

MMK (Motion Picture Foundation of Hungary) and the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture have signed a three year agreement securing the budget of the main funder of Hungarian film industry, MMK.

Feature Films  

Team Building

16 new feature films will compete for the Golden Reel Award at the 41st Hungarian Film Week running between February 2 -8 in Budapest. The competition of Magyar cinematog