archives

Mirage, the next film of director Szabolcs Hajdu (Bibliotheque Pascal, White Palm) and Hier (Tegnap) of Bálint Kenyeres (The History of Aviation, short) have been selected to the co-production forum and development platform organised within the Paris Cinéma International Film Festival. The event called Paris Project takes place between 5th and 7th of July and the 14 projects which will be presented to producers and distributors have been selected from more than 300 applications.

Krisztina Goda (director of Children of Glory and Just Sex and Nothing Else) just got a declaration of intent for funding from the Hungarian Motion Picture Association (MMKA) for the first Hungarian 3D movie. Emerson and Co. (Emerson és Tsa) will be an adaptation of a children story written by Levente Lezsák.

More than 40 documentary films from 15 countries will be presented at the 6th Dialect Film Festival in Budapest. The festival looks for the anthropological content of the films and usually selects docs which present and analyse the way of life and culture of people in unprivileged situation. The event will take place between 23-28 of June and the international jury will choose the winners from three sections.

The mandate of the leadership (trustees and president) of the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (MMKA, www.mmka.hu) is going to get expired at the 31st of December 2009, so new election is necessary. At the Summer session of the meeting of the founders (also have the rights of electing the new leadership) a committee was established to put together all the tasks and problems of the organization, and collect all the suggestions on the new leadership.

Two years after the total destruction the biggest sound stage of MAFILM is rebuilt. In 2007 the Huszárik sound stage in the studio of MAFILM ( http://mafilm.hu/hu/index.html ) in Fót, near Budapest burnt itself out. The recontructing works started in the early 2009, the MAFILM, traditional state owned filmstudio financed the work from its own resources, European grants and loan. The total budget was EUR 7.3 million (HUF 511 million).

The major granting and funding organization of the Hungarian film is the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (MMKA). The foundation supports all kind of films and all the phases of the production from the pre-production til the post-production, but at the same time you can win sources for training, researching, education, distribution, running art-house cinemas etc.

The young director Zsombor Dyga is shooting his new feature thriller Rundown (Utolér) in Miskolc until the 24th of December. The film tells paralel three dark stories: a young waitress finding out that the trainer of his son is a pedofile kidnapper, a doctor meets the murderer of his son, and the retired speed skater is blackmailed by a dying old man.

There is four Hungarian films presented in the 19th Filmfestival Cottbus http://filmfestival.pool-production.de/?page_name=Home1 , the festival of the films form Eastern-Europe. György Pálfi and Zsófia Ruttkay is introducing their film I'm not your Friend (Nem vagyok a barátod) themself, which is chosen to the Feature Film Competition where there are ten films competing.

As Bankside Films (http://www.bankside-films.com/), the world sales company of The Door, the new film of István Szabó announced, the Academy Award winner Helen Mirren will play the main role in the film.  

New Hungarian made docu-series is launched by Spektrum in the 7th of November called On the Spot (Veszélyzóna). The purpose is reporting life from those well-known areas which are considered dangerous places. Eszter Cseke and András S.Takács has visited Gasa Strip, Etiopia, Afghanistan for showing what we can't see in the news. Only the two of them formed the crew, all the production was helped and simplified by the digital technology. This technological character helped them also to reach that places where big productions with extended crew couldn't. To reach tham and to create a so close, simple atmosphere.  

The Museum of Modern Art in New York is celebrating the 15th anniversary of the American premiere of Satan's Tango (Sátántangó), Béla Tarr' masterpiece. The screenings started in the 22th of October, the audience two days later watch again the 15 years old, 450 minutes long opus magnum from the original reels owned by the MoMA.

History of Aviation (A repülés története), short of Bálint Kenyeres won the main prize Golden Hugo in Chicago International Film Festival. The oldest film festival of North America celebrated its 45th birthday this year, and there were 38 contesters in the competition of shorts. Among them the jury chose History of Aviation, already multi-awarded (for instance in Sarajevo or in Vila do Conde) short produced by Café Film (http://cafecsoport.hu/cafefilm).

Tamás Sas (Nine and Half Dates, S.O.S. Love) this year is very busy: the director is making three different films. The shooting of the Lull (Szélcsend) has finished, this chamber drama takes place in a boat with three characters. The movie version of series Espresso 2 (Presszó 2) is also in pre-production, and finally there is a romantic comedy just in shooting: the Night of the Singles (Szinglik éjszakája).  

Péter Gárdos' new film, the Prank (Tréfa) http://www.trefa-mozifilm.hu/ is going for the Golden Hugo to Chicago. The Prank was awarded in the 40th Hungarian Film Festival (Filmszemle) as the best directed film, the story is about cruel life in a religious school. The oldest American film festival will celebrate its 45th birthday in 8-12 of October.

Eight new studios are in construction in Rákospalota area, 15th district of Budapest. The first can launch operating in the Spring, and the rest will also be finished until the end of 2010. The American investor is spending HUF 16 billion (EUR 60 million) and can give work hopefully for 2200 employers. The production can start shooting maybe from May of 2010. But not only studios will be built, there will be support facilities like film lab and set workshop as well. As the mayor of the district said, not only the most modern filmmaking technology will be found here, but the translating works – to 50 languages – and the distribution also can be done right there.

Ferenc Port, CEO of Budapest Film Corp. and Alexander van Dülmen, CEO of the german A company Consulting and Licensing AG signed a pre-contract in the 2th of September that the german company acquires 51% stake of the Budapest Film Ltd.