Hungarian Film Magazine - 2015 by Hungarian Film Magazine

Hungarian Film Magazine THE 2015 CANNES ISSuE

Son of Saul The impressive debut feature in Official Competition and the young man behind it

From Cannes to Cannes The makers of last year's White Dog and the new generation of Hungarian cinema

Coming Soon What’s in store for 2015?

Published by the Hungarian National Film Fund

Photo by András Németh

Our Fathers and Sons A year has gone by since Kornél Mundruczó’s White God won the Grand Prix of Un Certain Regard, which we were so proud and happy about. We are glad to be back in Cannes again with a debut film in competition: Son of Saul, directed by László Nemes. The young Hungarian director shot his film on 35mm that was frequently used by our filmmaking “fathers”. Son of Saul will be screened from film print in competition in Cannes, and we think that is wonderful. The story László wanted to tell called for film material, according to the director. In his movie, Saul Auslander would like to give a proper funeral to a young boy he calls his son in a concentration camp. This goal determines his acts and words. A simple story of a man, whose most human will is guiding him in the most horrific environment of Auschwitz. A former jury member in Cannes and Best Director Award winner Miklós Jancsó, who passed away last year, is back with his former Cannes competition film The Round-Up in Cannes Classics. We would like to pay tribute to our maestro with a newly restored and digitized version of his film. The Hungarian Film Lab was doing a great job digitizing it and making a DCP from the original negative, while also producing a new negative and a print. This is how we preserve film, our fathers’ legacy. While our late fathers go digital with their forty-year old movies, our sons touch film again. Certainly, many of the new Hungarian filmmakers are shooting digital as well, but there are some who go for film, and insist on prints. Film is alive and well, living peacefully alongside digital cinema prints. In its fourth year of operation the Hungarian Film Fund granted support to 43 feature films and documentaries, 11 of which went to first filmmakers. The latter have either made hundreds of thousands of admissions in Hungarian cinemas or won awards at international film festivals. We step in our fathers’ footprints in Cannes, and are truly proud of our sons who follow them.

Ágnes Havas CEO, Hungarian National Film Fund

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Content 1

Our Fathers and Sons Opening words from the CEO of Hungarian National Film Fund

News

Hungarian Film Community A diversity of ﬁlms, festival successes, expanding box office and strong service quality

8 9 10 11 12 14

The Hungarian Film Support System Production Grants by the Hungarian National Film Fund The Funding System of the Hungarian National Film Fund The Media Council Film and Media Funding Scheme A Quarter of Success: The Festival Journey of Hungarian Films ...So Far Good Strategy in Advance and Better Reactions During the Game Interview with John Durie

A Bustling Film Culture Hungarian ﬁlm festivals in the ﬁrst quarter of 2015

17 18

Upcoming Festivals in Hungary The Graduates Financed graduation (or thesis) ﬁlms of the major Hungarian universities

20 22 23

Sound Stages in and around Budapest Hungarian Tax Rebate Number One in Service Productions Interview with Andrew G. Vajna

A Strong Start for 2015

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Pioneers of Service Productions Interview with Ildikó Kemény

From Cannes to Cannes Articles, interviews about the Hungarian presence in Cannes

A Prototype Against Conventional Beauty Interview with László Nemes

35 The Round-Up Returns to Cannes 36 Creative Filmmaking as an Emergency Exit Interview with Kornél Mundruczó and Viktória Petrányi

It's All About Taking the Next Step Portrait of Résidence participant, Gábor Reisz

Hungarian Directors are Worth Keeping an Eye on Interview with Klaudia Androsovits

Coming Soon What to expect in 2015: new faces, familiar names and brave topics

New Films from Hungary The latest titles in every genre, with detailed cast, crew and contacts

58 64 69 72 74 75 79

Feature Film Feature Documentary TV Drama TV Documentary Educational Documentary Short Film Short Animation

Find us in Berlin

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News

Film Industry Expenditure: The Highest in Europe Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves, Melissa McCarthy, and Robert Pattinson all ﬁlmed in Hungary in the past few years, making Hungary a leader in European ﬁlm production. Film industry expenditure between 2010 and 2014 was 0,15% of Hungary’s GDP, the highest percentage in Europe. According to a study by the European Audiovisual Observatory, this number is two and a half times higher

than the European average. Thanks to the tax rebate, low production costs, experienced crews, and the country’s proven track record in service productions, international productions have come to Hungary to shoot at a greater volume than any previous year. The study was conducted before the tax rebate was raised from 20% to 25%. The raise will make Hungary even more attractive to foreign productions, it is expected that the ﬁlm industry will continue to grow in the future.

Historical TV-Series Released Kossuthkifli, the biggest budgeted Hungarian TV-series in recent years, debuted on Duna Televízió March 15, which is a national holiday that remembers the revolution of 1848. The timing is no coincidence since the 6-part historical comedy mini-series takes place in 1849, after the suppression of the revolution. Kossuthkifli had a budget of 2,7 million euro and was shot in over 200 locations. Director Péter Rudolf also co-wrote on the series, which was adapted from the novel by Béla Fehér. The show starred Tamás Lengyel, Nóra Trokán, and well-known veterans like Gábor Reviczky, Péter Haumann and even 1976 Cannes’ Best Actress winner Mari Törőcsik in a guest role.

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News Liza Rules the Hungarian Box Office Károly Ujj Mészáros’ debut ﬁlm was the sleeper hit of the year. Liza, the Fox-Fairy debuted in February to a respectable opening with 12.000 admissions during its opening weekend. But then something unexpected happened: thanks to rave reviews and very strong word-of-mouth, the movie - sometimes described as the ‘Hungarian Amélie’ for its humor and strong visual style - skyrocketed in popularity and earned a spot in the top 10 at the Hungarian box office. Liza crossed the 100.000 mark at the end of April, and is still holding strong in cinemas.

Photographed by Vilmos Zsigmond Vilmos Zsigmond is the Hungarian cinematographer behind Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter, but there is more to this great man than just the ﬁlms that he’s worked on. The Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest organized a comprehensive exhibition that highlighted Vilmos Zsigmond’s professional life in pictures. Divided into several sections that cover a period from the 1950’s to the present, the collection of some 150

photographs provides insight into Zsigmond’s creative mind. The exhibition displays some of his ﬁlm-related photography with the intention of connecting his work as a photographer and work as a director of photography. These two distinct yet related branches of art help provide a better understanding of each other. The Academy Award-winning DOP personally guided several tours in the museum, as did some of his young admirers, including director Szabolcs Hajdu and cinematographer Marcell Rév. If you come to Budapest, be sure to check out the exhibition, which closes 21 June.

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The

Hungarian Film Community After a very strong 2014, we are looking forward to an even more exciting 2015. A diversity of films, festival successes, growth at the box office and a strong production service industry. Facts, figures and more.

HUNGARIAN FILM SUPPORT SYSTEM FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS suppOrTEd by HuNgariaN NaTiONal FilM FuNd

Live Action Feature

Feature Length Animation

Feature Length Documentary

ANIMATIONS, SHORTS, DOCUMENTARIES, TV suppOrTEd by MEdia COuNCil FilM aNd MEdia FuNdiNg sCHEME

TV Film

Short and Experimental Film

TV Documentary 10

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Animated TV Series

Short Animation

Educational Documentaries

Online Content

PRODUCTION GRANTS BY THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL FILM FUND JANUARY-MARCH 2015: Title

Genre

Support in EUR

Production Company

picturesque Epochs (Festői korszakok)

Documentary

101,000

Fest-ﬁlm

being solomon (salamon király legendája)

Animation

658,000

Solomon Film

The polgár sisters (a polgár nővérek)

Documentary

40,000

Dánielﬁlm Stúdió

The Citizen (Állampolgár)

Drama

955,000

Popﬁlm

a kései szüret

Documentary

87,000

Iamnewhere

PRODUCTION GRANTS BY THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL FILM FUND IN 2014: In 2014, a total of 17 feature-length films were financed by the Hungarian National Film Fund. The biggest amount - 2,5 million euros - went to Home Guards, a tense drama directed by Krisztina Goda. (The film is now in post, see page 44 for more.) 2 million euros were given to Ildikó Enyedi’s long-awaited new movie (her first since 1999), On Body and Soul started principal photography in April 2015. A total of six movies received amounts between 950,000-1,040,000 euros, these are: Bence Fliegauf’s Lily Lane, Isti Madarász’ Loop, László Nemes’ Son of Saul (now in the Cannes Official Competition), Péter Gárdos’ Fever at Dawn, Attila Till’s Kills on Wheels and Bálint Kenyeres’ Hier. More than 14,5 million euros were given to the 17 projects in 2014.

Script Development Grants in 2014

Project Development Grants in 2014 Other Grants in 2014

A total of 367,533 euro was given to 32 projects in 2014. The ﬁlms included a wide variety of genres and directors include András Jeles, Tamás Almási, Zoltán Kamondi, János Szász, Árpád Sopsits, József Pacskovszky, Kornél Mundruczó, Ágnes Kocsis, Árpád Bogdán, Mihály Schwechtje, Ádám Császi, and Nóra Lakos, among others. Two projects – directed by Attila Gigor and Roland Vranik – have already moved into project development.

A total of 366,883 euro was given to 9 projects as project development grants in 2014. Some of the ﬁlms have since received production support (That Trip We Took with Dad, Loop, Comedy Duel, On Body and Soul). Other ﬁlms included projects from Attila Gigor, Márta Mészáros, and Roland Vranik, as well as the debut feature of Csaba M. Kiss. Milorad Krstic’s animated feature Ruben Brandt, Collector received the largest grant: 162,338 euro.

Further financial support totaling 665,585 euro was given to a variety of other projects. Funds were allo cat ed to support the Jameson Cinefest Miskolc International Film Festival, the Budapest International Documentary Festival, films that were selected to prestigious festivals (including White God’s Cannes presence, The Notebook’s Oscar campaign), and a range of film workshops. Film schools also received funds - see page 18 for their successes. HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

THE FUNDING SYSTEM OF THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL FILM FUND APPLICATIONS

1. Script Development

2. Project Development

DECISION MAKING Application (Script)

3. Production

APPLICATION PROCESS Continuous Applications (No ﬁx deadlines)

Readers (evaluating the scripts) Decision in 60 days

DECISION MAKING COMMITTEE (deciding about the support)

with feedback from readers

and the decision of the Committee

Minority Co-Productions

Production Division (ﬁnancial planning and controlling)

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Script Development Division (developing the supported projects)

There is no separate call for minority co-productions, but all projects are encouraged to apply with a Hungarian co-producer onboard. Each ﬁlm is judged by the quality of the screenplay and the potential of the project.

THE MEDIA COUNCIL FILM AND MEDIA FUNDING SCHEME The Media Council Film and Media Funding Scheme financed more than 500 films or related productions in the past 4 years, contributing more than 16,000,000 euro. Their financial support helped produce 22 TV-movies, 45 screenplays, 40 short films, 22 radio plays, 154 documentaries, 115 educational documentaries, 72 animated films, and 6 animated series with 45 episodes. The aim was to make projects that target a broad audience. A letter of intent from a Hungarian TV-channel was requested upon application.

IN 2014, FUNDS WERE DISTRIBUTED AS FOLLOWS: EDUCATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES

34 ﬁlms

811,500 Eur

DOCUMENTARIES

44 ﬁlms

1,096,000 Eur

ANIMATED FILMS

23 ﬁlms

592,825 Eur

ANIMATED SERIES

6 series

698,700 Eur

8 ﬁlms

2,346,885 Eur

SHORT FICTION

13 ﬁlms

265,000 Eur

TV-MOVIE DEVELOPMENT

10 ﬁlms

31,820 Eur

TV-MOVIE

A TOTAL OF 10,227,700 EUR WILL BE GIVEN TO A WIDE VARIETY OF MEDIA PROJECTS IN 2015. THESE ARE THE CATEGORIES FOR TV AND FILM: EDUCATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES

3 deadlines

811,688 Eur

DOCUMENTARIES

3 deadlines

1,071,430 Eur

SHORT ANIMATION

3 deadlines

584,415 Eur

ANIMATED SERIES

1 deadline

811,688 Eur

TV-MOVIE

1 deadline

1,948,050 Eur

SHORT FICTION

1 deadline

243,506 Eur

TV-MOVIE DEVELOPMENT

1 deadline

32,467 Eur

A new category has also been introduced in 2015. With a total available budget of 422,078 euro, application is now open for historical feature-length documentaries that use archive footage and have educational value.

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A Quarter of Success: The Festival Journey of Hungarian Films... So Far Time really flies. It seems like only yesterday when we covered the worldwide success of Hungarian film in 2014 in our Berlinale issue. Now it’s May and we’re getting ready for Cannes. But the last 4 months have not passed by uneventfully. Many Hungarian films have already been celebrated in various festivals around the world. We have gathered a few notable Hungarian success stories from the first quarter of 2015.

The United States of dogs and foxes The start of 2015 was big for Réka Bucsi and her latest project Symphony No. 42. She found herself thrust into the spotlight of the film industry at Sundance Film Festival. Her 10-minute short animation was screened in one of the Shorts Program selections, marking the first time that a Hungarian film earned such an honor at the internationally renowned festival in Park City, utah. Réka’s film, which is about a suicidal fox, continued its busy streak following its screening in Park City utah. Symphony No. 42 went on to get shortlisted for the Best Animated Short Film at the Os-

cars. Even though the film did not earn a final nomination, everyone in the Hungarian film industry was extremely proud of Réka and her brilliant work. Kornél Mundruczó’s film White God was also screened at Sundance in the Spotlight Selection. White God later premiered in the u.S. at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Since then, the film’s rebellious canines have gone on to conquer oversees markets and festivals (including a Best Film award at Sarasota Film Festival), notably earning screen time in an evergrowing number of cities in the u.S.

Teenage troublemakers and women seeking for love in Clermont-Ferrand One of the most famous and important short film events in the world is Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, which takes place in the heart of France at the end of every January. With an impressive film market and a limited number of competing films, the intimate festival is an annual meeting point for talented filmmakers in the short film industry. A few Hungarian films – two animated and one live fiction – made the trip to Clermont and were introduced to the world.

Liza, the Fox-Fairy

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Leftover

Tibor Banóczki and Sarolta Szabó brought their animated short film Leftover to Clermont, which details the lives of 6 disconnected individuals having dinner in their own culture and in their own world. The touching and visually stunning piece won the l’ACSE (Equality and Diverity) Award in Clermont. The second animation film to have had the privilege of premiering and competing in Clermont was LimboLimbo Travel, produced by Zsuzsanna Kreif and Borbála Zétényi. The grotesque and witty story follows a group of women who leave their boring husbands behind and travel to an island, all in the hope of finding the men of their dreams. The film won the Grand Prix for Best Animation at Friss Hús 3.0 in Budapest and was also selected to the Krakow Film Festival. In June, Limbo-Limbo Travel will screen at the Annecy International Animation Festival, which is one of the biggest animation festivals in Europe and will mark the film’s most significant achievement since Clermont. Turning to live fiction, Gábor Hörcher’s Ricsi was selected into the International Competition program. Ricsi is the story of a teenage boy who’s having a farewell party because he needs to go away for a while. It is a fictitious story with a real-life character so real, in fact, that Gábor Hörcher eventually shot a feature documentary about him and his dream of becoming a racecar drifter. The film (Drifter) won IDFA Award for the Best First Appearance Documentary 2014 at the end of last year, which is the most prestigious award for documentaries.

I went to Texas and all I got was.. The South by Southwest Festival in Texas is a truly unique and standout event where ambitious ﬁlmmakers, musicians, and visual artists try to leave a mark and make a name for themselves. Yvonne Kerékgyártó,

a young Hungarian filmmaker, former Berlinale Talents participant was thrilled to learn in March that her first feature film Free Entry was accepted into this prestigious festival. But the joyride did not stop there: the coming-of-age story about two girls at Sziget Festival won the Special Jury Award and has been travelling inside and outside of Europe ever since. Free Entry was not the only Hungarian film selected for SXSW. Although the genre is not as grand as features, it is just as significant. Balázs Simon’s music video called Re (made for the musician Nils Frahm) had a great run prior its arrival in Texas. But the film is still touring to rave reviews – this time, to the 22nd Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film at the beginning of May.

The return of the Fox If last year’s greatest surprise was Gábor Reisz’s first feature film For Some Inexplicable Reason, then 2015 is definitely the year of Károly ujj Mészáros and his lovely film Liza, the Fox-Fairy, which is also Károly’s first feature film. It is a magical story about the modest and lonely Liza, a woman who is looking for love but only ever seems to find death and disaster. Japanese tunes are played and ancient curses need to be broken. It was a long 5-year development process for Liza (years of pre-production, shooting, and additional work), but it was well worth the wait. The film has become the most watched Hungarian feature this year, and it had its world premiere at Oporto International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prize. In the middle of April it also won the Silver Mélies award at the Imagine Film Festival, Amsterdam which is a member of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation. The festival life has just begun for Liza, and we can’t wait to see what comes next for her. by Janka Pozsonyi HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Good Strategy In Advance and Better Reactions During the Game John durie is a specialist in film marketing. He has worked on more than 650 films and works extensively on European films, which account for approximately 15 of his projects each year. He is now starting to work with Hungarian films in order to help the Hungarian National Film Fund reach one of the most important goals: get Hungarians back into cinemas. you’re going to deal with Hungarian cinema, and you’ll work closely with the Hungarian National Film Fund. Can you tell us briefly the history behind this collaboration? My name was brought up to CEO Ágnes Havas through Doreen Bonenkamp, the director of Netherlands Film Fund. I worked in Holland for nearly 10 years in similar circumstances – not only with the Netherlands Film Fund, but also with the producers and productions that they supported financially. In 2014 I met Ágnes and Andrew G. Vajna in Berlin, and we discussed how this kind of collaboration works. We kept in touch through the summer, and in November I came over to Hungary for 2 days to do a presentation and to meet some Hungarian producers and distributors. The HNFF said they wanted to try what I call 'producer film marketing support collaboration', and asked how we can make it happen? Right now we’re on a ‘pilot-phase’. I will first be working with 4 films over 9 months – not too difficult in terms of scope and time frame. So that’s what we’re in the process of doing. I started during a previous trip to Budapest, where I met producers, directors, and some of the distributors. Now we’re working diligently on the positioning and marketing of the 4 films. It's exciting. What do you think about the potential of Hungarian cinema now? First of all, let’s just take a straight market share approach to Hungarian films. If you look at things historically, you’ve had some good years and some not so good years. I would say that one of the challenges - if we’re looking at this as a long term strategy - is to give more continuity and consistency to the film in-

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dustry, and by this I mean the producers, directors, and obviously the distributors. We’re not looking for one massive hit, letting other films fall to the wayside. What we want to do – at least the films that I’m working on - is to make sure that each film has a realistic chance to hit it’s realistic admissions. I have to really take some time, not only to see the films, but also to see the films with the audience to get an idea of how people may respond to them. I obviously believe that there is potential. I say obviously because, in terms of what I have seen so far, the films have many good qualities, and you can see that a lot of them come from the heart. My job, however, tends to come from the head, and that’s how I’ll approach things. What are the most important elements of your working method? The first thing is to find the audience, and the second thing is to think about how can we attract them, create awareness, and make them want to see a ‘mustsee’. This is all very basic in marketing, and industry people deal with this everyday. But the fact of the matter is that today is different from tomorrow. Today is sunny, and tomorrow it might rain. My movie is coming out on Thursday, what’s the weather going to be like? Who or what is competing for the attention of the audience? So what we have to do is go down the checklist of items that we know we can control - the poster, the trailer, the publicity, the stills that go out, the information that we distribute, the message that we put out there. Then, we react to that information. Did the viewers like the film? Love the film? Is it qualified? How do we handle that? How do we handle social media? It’s just like sports: we have our strategy going into the game, but how do we react after the game begins? at what stage do you prefer to get involved in a project? The best time to get involved in the marketing of a film, in an ideal world, is just before you start principal photography. That’s the time for having some discussions and getting input regarding the script and the casting. But during shooting we should put together the basic marketing material: primarily pho-

tographs, stills, what kind of publicity we will need, have we decided on the title of the film, is it a working title, etc. A little bit of pre-planning and foundation-building can be very beneficial. So in an ideal world, I’ll work on a film for over 18 months. If that doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world, but the very minimum has to be 9 months before the theatrical release. if the film has already been shot, then it’s necessary that i come in before the film is finalized. Though we only deal with the marketing of the film, there’s a limited impact that we can have if, say, the film runs too long. The best would be for producers and directors to see this as an open collaboration. I might open a discussion about some sensitive topics, perhaps run time or the necessity of a certain scene, but I’m very aware of the sensitivity of directors. It is, of course, their work. I’m the marketing guy, and I always say, “Whatever you make, we will support”. But if you’re asking me what will give a film its best chance to succeed, or more importantly, what can they expect after the opening weekend, it’s better to have a dialogue when there is still time to make some constructive changes. Again, that’s if the director wants to.

Where do you see the audience of the Hungarian film? do you concentrate on theatrical releases or either dVd or VOd? My first objective is to help films get into theatrical marketplaces. That’s priority number one. So in this initial phase that’s what we try to accomplish. Can you tell us your proudest achievements from your successful career? Success is when you take a film that presents some inherent obstacles - whether it’s a controversial film or an indie film – and, working closely with the producer and sometimes the director, you unexpectedly help the film reach its true potential. In other words, you find your audience, and then some. That's always nice. Films that surpass their potential or projected target do so because of the hard work of the producers and distributors. A little inspiration and a little bit of luck, and those are the good ones – the really satisfying ones. Find more about the topic on John durie’s website: www.strategicfilmmarketing.com by Gábor Osváth, Dániel Deák

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A Bustling Film Culture For Hungary, 2015 started off with two important film festivals and a few other various cultural events – French Film Days, to name one – which often include screenings, panels, and Q&A-s with foreign film directors. Going by the number of tickets sold, it’s clear that audiences love these kinds of events and always come back for more. The two film festivals of note were Friss Hús 3.0 International Short Film Festival at the end of March, and the 22nd annual Titanic International Film Festival, which was held in the middle of April. The third edition of Friss Hús (translated as “Fresh Meat”) focused on both Hungarian and international short films and had packed screenings. Daazo.com, an online platform that specializes on short films, put the event together for the first time three years ago. The organizers also wanted to gather industry professionals and young talents for a roundtable panel, so they arranged the first Hungarian Short Pitch Forum in conjunction with the festival. Based on the response of both the audience and filmmakers, there’s definitely going to be a second event. The three Grand Prix awards went to Fanni Szilágyi’s End of Puberty, Zsuzsi Kreif’s and Borbála Zétényi’s animation short film Limbo-Limbo Travel (which will be in competition at the Annecy Animation Film Festival), and Daisy Jacobs’s Oscar-nominated animation short film The Bigger Picture. Titanic International Film Festival is one of the most significant festivals in Hungary. The program, which lasts more than a week and runs in several cinemas, includes a range of genres: from the avantgarde like documentaries and experimental films to good oldfashioned comedies and dramas. Every year the organizers arrange different cultural events to accompany the festival, such as concerts, Q&A-s with foreign directors, and exhibitions. At the conclusion of the 8-day festival, the Grand Prix ‘Wavebreaker’ Award was presented to director Lucie Borleteau for Fidelio, Alice's Journey and the Special Jury Award was presented to Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää for They Have Escaped. Moholy-Nagy university of Art and Design (MOME) also organized an animation festival, which took place at the end of April. The university has developed many promising young stars in animation filmmaking, particularly in the last few years. Every year MOME presents its freshest student projects in a specific “MOME Fresh” selection. They center the theme of the festival around one specific country, and the 2015 edition focused on the world-renown Japanese animation. Besides screening contemporary Japanese animations, MOME also shared several works made by students in the Animation Department at Tokyo university.

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Photo by Déri Miklós

in Hungary, film festivals are the most important platform for art projects and other niche and indie content like short, animation, and documentary films. The first quarter of 2015 was quite eventful for cinema lovers, and many more festivals are scheduled for the rest of the year. These are engaging and colorful festivals that delight both Hungarian and international audiences.

Titanic Film Festival

End of Puberty

Friss Hús Budapest

Upcoming Festivals in Hungary a country renowned for its cultural forte and high standards in hospitality, Hungary puts a huge emphasis on film festivals, reaching out to wider and wider audiences by exhibiting more foreign artists, themes, special guests and spicing up its events with concerts, workshops, even wine tasting. 2015 will be a year of such initiatives. The growing animation scene in Hungary and around the world will be celebrated at the 12th Annual Kecskemét Animation Film Festival at the end of June. KAFF is at the center of attention these days, thanks not only to an abundance of critically acclaimed and award-winning short animations, but also to the special events and competitions presented before and throughout the festival. They also have a supporting program called SZAFT, which is short for Independent Animation Filmmakers Meeting (translation by us). The main goal here is to create an open space for the independent animation filmmakers who don’t have an academic or studio background behind them. Here they can meet with professionals, visit workshops, and showcase their work to many equally independent fellow artists. The 12th Miskolc International Film Festival Jameson Cinefest has also become one of the most important events in the local industry. It’s held every September in the heart of the great city of Miskolc, where the festival’s good vibe and enjoyable screenings always attract big audiences. Having Jameson whiskey as their main sponsor doesn’t fail to help set the tone. At Cinefest, apart from the screenings of notable international and Hungarian features and short films, the festival organizers also treat the audience to special workshops, exhibitions, professional meetups, while at the end of each day they can relax at concerts. Submissions are open on Reelport until the end of May. Despite being the youngest festival in the country, the Budapest International Documentary Festival (BIDF) started off with a very strong lineup and many de-

voted viewers in 2014. For their sophomore year, BIDF is moving from Corvin to uránia National Film Theatre, an even bigger space, also the main venue for Titanic International Film Festival. As a new addition, the 2nd edition of BIDF will include a pitching workshop and a test-pitching session in front of a panel of international professionals. The festival will take place in September, and submissions for international short and featurelength documentaries are open until June 30th. Visit www.bidf.hu for more details. by Janka Pozsonyi HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

The Graduates Three years ago the Hungarian National Film Fund started to finance graduation (alternatively: “thesis”) films at major Hungarian universities as part of its efforts to support better local film production. Now it’s time to look back at the results. Financial support for graduation films is a crucial investment into the future of Hungarian film. This is, after all, what gives up-and-coming talent the chance to get into the film industry’s spotlight. Graduation films allow filmmakers to gain invaluable experience and inspire them to be experimental. Following the foundation of the Hungarian National Film Fund three years ago, a number of glaring gaps in the country’s film industry were filled. One such gap was the lack of financial support for local film schools and film students. Today there are three institutions that have the privilege of distributing HNFF funds amongst their students: the Academy of Drama and Film Art, Budapest (SZFE); Eötvös Loránd university – Department of Film Studies (ELTE); and Moholy-Nagy university of Art and Design (MOME). The latter has become one of the major incubators of groundbreaking animation films in Europe. With the help of the Film Fund, many opportunities are opening up for young aspiring filmmakers to share and watch each other’s works - the type of industry networking that facilitates creativity. It’s also worth mentioning that short film festivals, social gatherings and special industry events are organized on a more regular basis, because both the number and quality of the films have increased steadily over the years. Several of these new Hungarian pieces have been presented abroad and have consequently collected numerous awards worldwide.

unusual piece recounting the story of late-twentysomething Budapest youth looking for a way to survive and maybe grow up along the way. Funny, moving and painfully accurate, the ﬁlm had its international debut at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, won at Torino International Film Festival and received amazing reviews from audiences well beyond the borders of Hungary. Reisz might have focused on the young adults of downtown Budapest, but he did it so sincerely and candidly that his story resonated with viewers around the world. The ﬁlm was one of the great surprises of the past year, and since then became a real hit in Hungary having been seen by more than 50.000 people. (You can read more about Gábor Reisz on pages 36-37!)

As mentioned before, one of the biggest success stories of Hungarian cinema in 2014 was Réka Bucsi’s animation short film Symphony No. 42. Her film – a lively story about a fox trying to find the meaning of life – was produced as a graduation film at MOME with the support of the Film Fund. Réka received the kind of recognition that most young filmmakers only dream about: she collected hundreds of awards, visited the most important festivals in Europe and around the world - from Hiroshima to Sundance -, and (the ultimate icing on the cake) was shortlisted for an Oscar.

Yet another university concentrating on film studies and filmmaking provides their students with HNFF support: ELTE university. They opened their Department of Film Studies 20 years ago. A lot of emerging filmmakers started their careers behind these walls, for example IDFA-winning director Gábor Hörcher who made his graduation short film Ricsi at ELTE with the help of HNFF. The story of a young boy trying to get away from punishment attracted the attention of Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and got selected into its competition.

But Réka Bucsi wasn’t the only director who got a chance to shine.

As of the near future, Mátyás Szabó’s Border is expected with high hopes: it will premiere at the 50th Karlovy Vary Film Festival in a program called Future Frames, which is a new initiative by the European Film Promotion. Border is the story of a young captive who has a chance to break free and fall in love despite being handcuffed to a hand trolley in the forest. Border is one of the ﬁrst productions of the Academy of Drama and Film’s new scheme, called 6x6, which fosters collaboration between students. This beautiful cinematic allegory is also heading for a worldwide festival tour after Karlovy Vary.

György Mór Kárpáti premiered his short film Provincia at the Cinéfondation selection at the 67th Cannes Film Festival. The story is about a young man who wanders into an archaeological site and soon finds himself in the excavation holes too… After graduation György Kárpáti went to the Cannes Film Festival right away. Then, after Cannes, his wild tour also took him to Sarajevo, Angers, and several other significant film festivals around the world. Gábor Reisz’s For Some Inexplicable Reason - the only feature graduation film at SZFE in recent years - is an

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by Janka Pozsonyi

Ricsi by Gábor Hörcher

Provincia by György Mór Kárpáti

For Some Inexplicable Reason by Gábor Reisz

Symphony No. 42 by Réka Bucsi

Border by Szabó Mátyás

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THE SOUND STAGES IN AND AROUND BUDAPEST

POMÁZ STERN STUDIO

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space 23 000 sqm important productions: • 2012-2013: Dracula (NBC, universal) • 2011-2012: Titanic (ITV Studios) • 2007: The Nutcracker (Independent)

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Number of stages: 4 specialities: • The stages, offices and workshops can be dry-hired to productions, allowing producers the freedom to locate the crew and service providers. • The studio’s full-time crew includes carpenters, metal workers, electricians, and plumbers who are available for hireby the production. • The Catering and Craft Services offer delicious, ever-changing meals and snacks throughout the day.

POMÁZ STERN STUDIO 21 km

KORDA STUDIOS 29 km

KORDA STUDIOS

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space: 15000 sqm important productions: • Ridley Scott: The Martian • uli Edel: Houdini • Neil Jordan: The Borgias 1-3 • Hellboy 2

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Number of stages: 6 specialities: • Built-in lighting and scenic bridges with rigging points are able to hold 500 kg per intersection points, and 200 kg per sections • Silent ventilation and full climate control • Independent and redundant high voltage power network • Redundant ﬁber optic network (up to 10GB/s) and WIFI

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ORIGO

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space: 18000 sqm important productions: • A Good Day to Die Hard • In the Land of Blood and Honey • Hercules • 47 Ronin

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Number of stages: 9 specialties: • High bandwidth ﬁber optic connection between stages and posthouse. • High quality soundprooﬁng and acoustics. • Full service: from set construction to post production

MAFILM Fót 22 km

ORIGO

MAFILM

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MAFILM has 2 sound stages, supporting rooms and offices in central Budapest, in Fót: 2 sound stages, supporting rooms, offices and storages and 3 backlots: Medieval town, WWII Prisoner of War camp, Western town on 230 000 m2.

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Major productions shot at MaFilM studios: • Red Heat (1988) • Hudson Hawk (1990) • Evita (1996) • underworld (2002) • Eragon (2006) • Season of the Witch (2008) • Asterix (2011) • Dracula (2013) • Houdini (2014) • Spy (2014) , etc.

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specialties: • MAFILM Studio can provide a wide range of sets and props and also a choice of over 100 000 pieces of wardrobe and accessories

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It can also provide a large inventory of weapons and we are licensed to import specialized weapons for international productions

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location: the Budapest studios are 35 minutes drive from Liszt Ferenc Airport, Fót Studios can be reached in 30 minutes by car from the Airport and 20 minutes from the city centre.

HUNGARIANFILM FILMMAGAZINE MAGAZINE HUNGARIAN

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FROM ANY OF THESE CATEGORIES?

DO YOU WANT TO SHOOT A FILM? does it meet the Hungarian cultural test criteria?

Feature Film

Animation Film

Documentary Film

Experimental Film

TV Film

Short Film

WHAT CAN HUNGARY PROVIDE FOR YOU?

tax rebate of your overall production spendings

* 1,000,000

1,000,000

250,000

800,000

200,000

1,000,000

250,000

600,000

400,000

750,000

150,000

* Max. 1,25x of the Hungarian spend

Find more info here: www.mnf.hu/en 24

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after 2014 proved to be a record-breaking year, 2015 is in line to be even bigger for the Hungarian film industry, as big growth is expected in service productions. We sat down with andrew g. Vajna, the legendary Hollywood producer who has been the government commissioner for the development of the Hungarian film industry since 2011. according to the latest figures, we can say that 2014 was the most productive year for the Hungarian film industry. What are your thoughts on that? I think we improve on all fronts every year. One of our missions is to export Hungarian labor. Or, in other words, to produce foreign productions from Hungary. That is a very important part of our business, but we’re also looking to support the production of Hungarian films so we can present them at the most important festivals and to encourage Hungarian audiences to come back to the movie theater. Last year was definitely our best so far, in no small part because we received a huge revenue boost from foreign productions. The big difference between last year and the year before was that we increased the tax rebate from 20 to 25 percent, which is a big jump. For all the foreign productions who film here to have a 25 percent investment, so to speak, from the Hungarian government in the form of a non-refundable tax rebate is a great incentive for producers and production companies. If I were producing a movie as an American production company, I would choose a country where I can operate efficiently and get the maximum return on my investment - and Hungary has become that country. There are a few other countries that offer a 25 percent tax rebate; however, the labor charges in those countries are double or triple the cost when compared to Hungary. besides the tax rebate, what are some other attractive elements that Hungary can offer? Our crews are very good, and all the international production companies are very happy with the quality of work that we can provide. We have great locations, many of which have not been used in movies. Hungary - and particularly Budapest - can double as a number of locations, including Paris, Rome, or London. In fact, it’s normal for productions to dress Hungary up a bit, since Hungary itself has rarely been used as a set location for major productions. Because the various locations in Hungary can double as a number of major international cities, we have great flexibility in that regard. It’s hard to make any city look like Berlin or Moscow, and we can do that. This, coupled with the tax rebate, and we’ve fostered a work-friendly environment that has quickly become number one in Europe in terms of service productions. What were the most common fears of international

Photo by Gábor Valuska

Number One in Service Productions

productions before coming to Hungary? The biggest fear is whether they’d be able to find enough labor capacity, because we really did have a shortage here for a while. In fact, most of the time, 100 percent of the people in the local film business are working regularly, which isn’t common around the world. So supply just barely met demand. The second fear is whether or not - or how, even - international productions get 25% money back from the government. That’s why we created a deposit account which is overseen by the Hungarian National Film Fund. The HNFF collects the money so production companies from abroad can see how much money is available for their claim at any time. That system has definitely raised the comfort level of foreign production companies. The third main fear is just a general unknown factor: Hungary is not necessarily a country that everyone has visited, and it might seem like a strange place for international productions. But with my knowledge of the film industry, international crews and companies can rely on me and take my word that this place can provide what they need. I have been involved with the local film industry and have known the local people for the last 30 years. I have grown up with them, so we trust each other. For me, it’s a big benefit to have this knowledge of who does what and where to turn for help. you mentioned the labor capacity, which can be a problem concerning the growth of the service production industry. do you have any plans to solve it? We are going to start a training system, something very similar to SkillSet in England. We are going to train people for all specific and relevant professions. Not so much the creative jobs, but technicians, lightning electricians, hairdressers, and make-up artists etc. - all of the support functions expected of a full production team. We plan to start the school this Fall in order to create a more skilled and deeper selection pool for the production companies who plan to come to Hungary from abroad. last year was huge for the film industry in Hungary. What is in store for 2015? The biggest production - Ron Howard’s Inferno starring Tom Hanks - is about to start shooting. And there are two or three other great pictures which I don’t want to talk about, because they have not been officially announced yet. Our goal is to get as many foreign productions to come to Hungary as possible, which should help ensure that we continue our streak of 100 percent employment. (To read more about the projects currently filming in Hungary, turn to the next page!) by Gábor Osváth, Dániel Deák

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Marco Polo

A Strong Start for 2015 2014 was a record-breaking year for Hungary due to an influx of major foreign film and television productions. Now that the tax rebate has been raised from 20 to 25 percent, 2015 is looking to be an even better year for the Hungarian film industry. Here’s a glimpse at what’s going on. Mid Atlantic Films is still the busiest production service company in Hungary. The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott, started filming at the end of 2014 and wrapped in March 2015 at Korda Studios before going to Jordan to shoot some exteriors. The Martian stars Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The movie will be released in November 2015. BBC Two and BBC America joined forces on The Last Kingdom, which is a large-scale TV-series that started principal photography in December 2014. The Game Of Thrones-esque epic series stars Matthew Mac-

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fadyen, Rutger Hauer, Jason Flemyng, and Ian Hart. The story is set in the late 9th century, and all 8 episodes of the first season are being filmed in Hungary until May 2015. Ron Howard’s latest movie is probably the biggest feature film to be shot in Hungary this year. Inferno, the third adaptation of a Dan Brown novel, is currently shooting in Italy with filming expected to move to Hungary for 2 months in mid-May. Just like The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, the film stars Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. Hanks is joined by a stellar international cast which includes Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Irrfan Khan, and Denmark’s leading lady Sidse Babett Knudsen. Mid Atlantic also have two TV series on their agenda. The second season of FX’s Tyrant is currently in production while Marco Polo, a Netflix adventure series, is expected to start shooting in late June and will film in Hungary until August.

Childhood of a Leader

Besides the two aforementioned TV-series, Hungary hosted two pilots this spring. French director JeanPierre Jeunet (Amélie) shot Casanova at Maﬁlm’s Fót studios in April with Diego Luna starring as the iconic character. Co-produced by Andras Hamori of H2O Motion Pictures and made for Amazon Studios, the show takes place in the 18th century and is about a littleknown period in Casanova’s life. It portrays the famous heartbreaker during the time he moved to France and became a spy for the Parisian government. The pilot will be available for streaming within a few months, along with all other pilots of Amazon Instant Videos. Pioneer Pictures also wrapped the pilot for Virtuoso, which was written and directed by Academy Award winner Alan Ball – the creator of the iconic shows Six Feet Under and True Blood. His latest project takes place in 18th century Vienna, and if HBO picks up the series, the remaining episodes will also shoot in Hungary. As mentioned in our interview with Ildikó Kemény (on page 26), Pioneer Pictures is having a great year. They’ve already wrapped Hunter’s Prayer, a thriller starring Sam Worthington. The star of Avatar already visited Hungary a couple of years ago for The Debt (another Pioneer Pictures project), but this time around he’s also acting as a producer on the project. Directed by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3), the action-thriller moved to Hungary after wrapping in the uK for an intense 3-week shoot in and around Budapest.

FilmTeam – still celebrating the box office hit of their Hungarian film Liza, the Fox-Fairy – co-produced the directorial debut of actor Brady Corbet. Loosely inspired by the early childhood experiences of many of the great dictators of the 20th Century, Childhood of a Leader takes place in France in 1918 and was made as a u.S.-Belgian-Swedish-Hungarian co-production. It was filmed entirely in Hungary from January to March, and has an A-list cast which includes Robert Pattinson, Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, and Stacy Martin. This wasn’t Pattinson’s first trip to Hungary: he worked in Budapest a few years ago on the film Bel Ami. Many Hungarian crewmembers took key positions on the set of Childhood of a Leader, including editor Dávid Jancsó. Protagonist Pictures is screening the movie at the Cannes Film Market. Proton Cinema is once again facing a busy year thanks to an increasing number of projects coming to Hungary, mostly from northern European countries. Their first co-production of the year wrapped the Hungarian portion of its shooting schedule in late April after 26 days of filming. Actress-turned-director Pernilla August’s epic love story The Serious Game was adapted from the novel written by Hjalmar Söderberg. Set in Stockholm at the turn of the 20th century, the film tells the story of a young couple who fall madly in love but eventually separate and marry other people. Ten years later they meet again and start an affair that has unforeseeable consequences on their lives. (To read more about Proton Cinema and their humble beginnings, turn to page 36.) by Gábor Osváth HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Pioneers of Service Productions An interview with Ildikó Kemény, managing director of Pioneer Pictures/Pioneer Stillking

‘The tax rebate going up from 20 to 25% is a big attraction. We are busier than ever,’ says ildikó Kemény, managing director of pioneer pictures/pioneer stillking, one of Hungary’s leading production and service companies. as mentioned on the pages before, they have busy months behind them. We interviewed ildikó on the set of their latest project, the HbO pilot Virtuoso, to discuss the past, present and future of the company.

Photo by Gábor Valuska

How did you become a producer? I was already working on international productions as an assistant to directors and producers, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to direct or produce. Soon I realized I

Ildikó Kemény and Alan Ball on the set of Virtuoso

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was actually more interested in producing, especially after working on Meeting Venus with David Puttnam and Warner Brothers. Following this, I applied to the National Film and Television School in England to study producing, as it was impossible to do this in Hungary at that time. I was at film school for four years and during that time my life changed a lot: I got married and started a family as well as my producing life in London. I produced my first short films which won various awards, and fairly soon we could proceed with our first features. When the Hungarian film law was introduced, my friends from the British film industry started sending me projects to see if they could

Ildikó Kemény

be shot in Hungary. I was attracted by this combination of lower production costs and the tax rebate, which has matured into a world-class system.

Which were your ﬁrst productions? Our very ﬁrst project was Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution, a fairly low-budget Anglo-Hungarian co-production, starring Catherine Tate and Iain Glen. The BBC drama Einstein and Eddington followed, with Andy Serkis and David Tennant.

What is the difference between pioneer pictures and pioneer productions? Pioneer Productions was set up in 1995 by Jennifer Webster, Ilona Antal and Eleonóra Peták. It was the very first company in Hungary to work on top international commercials, with directing talent like Jonathan Glazer. When they decided to extend their business into film and TV, they were looking for partners. I was still mostly working in London but I jumped at the opportunity to partner up with them as they had set such high standards in the services they provided for incoming producers. I thought if those standards got translated into the film world, we would be able to create something truly exciting. So we set up a separate company in 2005, Pioneer Pictures, fully dedicated to film and TV production, in which I am both a partner and managing director.

What were the greatest milestones for pioneer pictures? Our biggest milestone was undoubtedly The Debt, which Miramax financed. The film’s story took place in East Berlin, ukraine and Israel - but they went looking for the “old East Berlin” in Berlin and couldn’t find it because the city had been cleaned up so much. I got a call from the director, John Madden, asking if they could hop on a plane from Berlin and have a look around Budapest. At that stage, we were a new company so it was quite a challenge to persuade Miramax to accept us but, after two conference calls, we got the job and it turned out to be a really gratifying partnership. The movie starred Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Tom Wilkinson and Sam Worthington.

and what is pioneer stillking? Pioneer Stillking is a new venture. As of January 2015, we’ve entered into full partnership with Stillking, a Prague based production company, run by Matthew Stillman and David Minkowski. The joint venture is about pooling our resources in order to handle more and bigger international productions.

Which one was your most challenging project so far? They’re all challenging in their own ways! For example, after The Debt, we did The Eagle, starring Channing Tatum and directed by Kevin Macdonald. We had to re-create Roman Britain in Hungary. Everything in the movie that takes place south of Hadrian’s Wall was shot in Hungary, and everything over the border

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Strike Black

The Eagle

The Raven

The Duke of Burgundy

Einstein and Eddington

was shot in Scotland. The big challenge was to find places where we could build a Roman fort, the uncle’s home, and basically be able to turn around 360 degrees and not see anything modern in the background. We constructed magnificent sets in four different locations not too far from Budapest and manufactured all the Roman costumes in Hungary. What is the most rewarding part of your job? I find it most rewarding when we have financiers and producers coming back to us. For example HBO, Sky, BBC Films, Film 4 have all returned while, just to mention a couple of names, Laurie Borg, our producer on the Virtuoso pilot, has worked with us previously on Bel Ami and similarly, Bill Shephard, who came here first for Einstein and Eddington, later returned for three seasons of Strike Back. We also recently did a small film called The Duke of Burgundy, directed by Peter Strickland who lives here in Hungary. This was our very first film together but hopefully many more will follow! We shot it last summer and it received great critical acclaim first in the uK, then the uS and now in Hungary too, following

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our premiere a couple of weeks ago at the Titanic Film Festival. It’s a niche ﬁlm for a certain type of audience so originally Mozinet, our distributor, was only going to release it in art-house cinemas. However, following the fantastic reception in the press, we’re now opening in multiplexes too. you had an extremely busy past 12 months Oh, yes. Besides The Duke of Burgundy, the HBO-Sky series Strike Back came back for a third season. Then there was Disney’s The American Girl (now re-titled: Grace Stirs Up Success), Hunter's Prayer starring Sam Worthington and also the Canadian TV-series, X Company. At the moment, we’re wrapping HBO’s Virtuoso, a pilot written and directed by Alan Ball, the writer of American Beauty and creator of Six Feet Under and True Blood. It’s such an honour to have him around. The story takes place in 18th century Vienna in a music school run by Salieri, where young music prodigies study. If the show is green-lit by HBO, the rest of the episodes will hopefully also be shot in Hungary next year. Which of your upcoming projects can you tell us about? Well, we’ve just had three new projects green-lit. One is

Bel Ami

X Company Houdini

Kemény Ildikó fotók szerkesztés alatt

an American production called A Man in the Dark which is a psychological thriller produced by Sam Raimi. It takes place in Detroit, but they will start here in Hungary for an 8-week shoot before moving to the uS. X Company, a Canadian-Hungarian co-production, is coming back for a second season – last year we ﬁlmed 8 episodes, now 10 episodes are commissioned for the new season. We will shoot it from July to October. We will also work on Maigret, a new TV series for ITV, whilst developing, budgeting, location scouting, negotiating on new potential projects including a very exciting Hungarian ﬁlm.

Therese

What do you consider the Hungarian ﬁlm industry’s biggest challenges? Crew training is certainly what we need to establish, and actually we have just started working on it. Andy Vajna and the Hungarian National Film Fund commissioned a study and I am one of the advisors. I believe the uK system is working very well, so it would be very good to introduce a training program like that here in Hungary. The Debt by Gábor Osváth HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

From

Cannes to Cannes After last year's triumph with White God, Hungarian cinema once again has a strong presence with Son of Saul, the only debut feature in this year's Official Competition! Turn the pages for these and more.

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Photo by Gábor Valuska

A Prototype Against Conventional Beauty

Working consciously against beauty following his own dogma - that was the main ambition of lászló Nemes, who is among the very few directors who can debute with a ﬁrst feature (Son of Saul) in the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival. We had a thought-provoking talk with lászló Nemes about the magic of celluloid, important references and masters.

There is another important world famous Holocaust story in the Hungarian and European culture, the Nobel prize winning book, Fatelessness. reduced language, dispassion, certain perspective – your films are entitled with similar attributes. did it occur on your horizon when you were working on the script? Fatelessness has always been a highly important book for me, so it is great to be compared with it, even though it was not among my conscious references. However, it served as an example to be brave enough to drop the conventional depicting of the Holocaust. In this sense it helped a lot to realise this film. you lived in France and in the us from 1989 to 2003, but you come from a traditional filmmaker family. your closest colleagues are also from Hungary, but from many other countries too. Which language do you work in? I work mostly in English or French. I made the major part of my studies abroad, so certain complex expressions just come to mind in the two above-mentioned languages. Especially when I am writing, but I like to use them for pitching too. Maybe it is also because of this – that despite of the Hungarian traditions – your first feature is not a “so i came” like film, which would tell your lifestory, your milieu. I am an outsider in this sense. My references are Antonioni and Kubrick. They made several films about their present times though. Son of Saul is not like that. The society we live in carries the weight of 80 years of unprocessed history. The traumas of the Holocaust – which are represented in Son of Saul – are here with

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us. This is why it is an important story for me. I hope that it makes us discuss about our past and the way it keeps haunting us. The story of my next film takes place in the past as well, and also highlights present problems – it is set in the 1910s, a coming of age story that is also a thriller, and ultimately deals with the end of a civilization. and what other references did you have? Come and See by Elem Klimov, certainly. It is a completely different film, but there is a similar franticness, a way the protagonist is being followed by the camera - this influenced me. Throughout the film, a journey through a space of uncertainty, the viewer is transported into a world of dangers with this boy who tries to survive. We worked consciously against beauty. All the aestheticising approaches of former Holocaust films served as counterexamples. We made our own “dogma” with my director of photography, Mátyás Erdély. Hand-held camera, the importance of Point of View (POV) shots, the recurring use of the same lens, no classic film-style dramatization: these were a few of our founding principles. We still have the piece of paper we wrote this on. We considered this film as a prototype with certain rules. The point-of-view and how we followed the protagonist organised both the dramaturgy and the visual atmosphere of it. We used only a limited number of visual openings: as the main character does not watch the horrors unfold, only passes them by, we would not clearly reveal those, but would open onto a very subjective realm – everything in connection with the boy Saul wants to bury. The rhythm was a big question as well, already when we started to figure out the scenes with Mátyás Erdély and editor Matthieu Taponier. We wanted to find the right tempo for it with the right combination of POV shots and close-ups. The result is a bit like a sea snake, which coils forward in its own strange distinct pace. you have expressed your commitment to the 35mm film material many times. The Cannes Film Festival

Photo by Laokoon Filmgroup

also supports you in it, as they will screen Son of Saul on 35mm too. What is the significance of celluloid? The digital image is a regressive, deceitful technology. With film, the combination of darkness and projected image induces in the viewer a physical reaction, which is absent from digital projection. In a sense, projected physical film hypnotizes the viewer. On the side of acquisition, because of the incredible amount of shot raw material, the time and significance of post-production has disproportionately grown. The major part of production is IT, which is good for projector and camera manufacturers, certain post-production studios, but at the end of the road the audiences get less value for their money, as you cannot compare film and digital in terms of texture, resolution, depth, color rendition and latitude. It is absolutely inexplicable why so many directors accept this and why they don’t fight more for 35mm. It is harder to work on film – but so much more rewarding. A few of us still fight against television mentality and aesthetics entirely taking over filmmaking and the experimental attitudes attached to it. During shooting the existence of film provides discipline and a sense of urgency that the digital technology is unable to convey, as it is based on virtuality and endlessness. With video, there is no more rehearsal, which means that all rehearsal is a take! In the case of celluloid, as raw stock is limited and valuable, the entire crew has to perform well for a limited number of occasions. You can feel the electric atmosphere during the film shoot, and I believe you can get better performance out of actors this way. The limited

amount of film stock reflects our own fragility and disappearance, and the use of it is a constant struggle against the elements. For me, that what makes filmmaking valuable – to be on the edge and to take risks. On the other hand shooting on digital drives results in the inflation of shots and weakens the director. One is tempted to record everything from every angle. This attitude postpones the entire decision making process into the editing room, degrading the director to a content editor. I personally feel the magic of the physical, chemical processing of film. There is a ceremony in it – creating something from nothing. The image on the monitor is not the image you will get on the screen. This is why I am interested in filmmaking. When Thierry Frémaux, the director of Cannes international Film Festival announced that Son of Saul is in the Official Competition, he mentioned you as a protege of béla Tarr. Béla doesn’t really like it when I talk about him, but sometimes I have to. It’s a much better way to learn filmmaking from an experienced master instead of playing among each other in a less professional way. I worked with Béla Tarr for two years on his film The Man from London. It was a difficult project full of challenges – in an international cast and crew, with a constant fight with the elements. I learnt from him that you should not take no for an answer. You should always measure what you can and what you cannot accept. As a director you are never allowed to accept bad compromises. HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

you spent 6 months in paris thanks to the Cinéfondation résidence programme, writing son of saul there. What was that experience like? Fortunately, I already had my treatment when I was selected for this program, so I had the opportunity to write the script in Paris. At the Résidence there is no real framework. You are treated as a grown-up: you get money, you have a desk and a room, and there is no control. You do whatever you want. If I hadn’t had so many wasted years at universities, I wouldn’t have been able to handle this kind of freedom. I think that’s the best way to be there, to have the [treatment] ready with a strong concept, which you can elaborate and develop. I made my own schedule, which was based on finishing one scene each day. It could be just 2 lines or 3 pages long, it didn’t matter. The program itself is well conceived. I had the chance to meet inspiring people, especially film directors, and living in Paris is great anyway. But above all, if you participate, the project will get a kind of stamp which will be on it ever after. The people at Cinéfondation and at the Cannes film festival will follow your project and your entire career.

Photo by Laokoon Filmgroup

The Hungarian National Film Fund takes efforts to participate in the development of the supported project. Was it comfortable for you? They supported the project from the very beginning. It was part of the game that the development team of the HNFF worked with us, led by Réka Divinyi and our personal consultant, Tamás Beregi. They handled the script in a very constructive way, always trying to ﬁnd ways to make it better. It was a very empathic team work, they did not want to push me in other directions, and they fully respected the material. From the very beginning of the project there’s been

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an international attention for it. it is a surprise though that the film was not an international co-production. It was not a co-production, since our international partners were not able to secure financial support for it. Most of the time the decision makers considered it too risky for a first feature director and had doubts about the feasability of the project. Would the film have been different if you could have worked in a co-production? It was a more simple like this, because we did not have to consult too many people about everything. Of course there would have been possibilties to spend the extra money from the co-production partners. But at a certain point we had to make a decision whether to start production, “small scale”, as one of my producers, Gábor Sipos said. He and the other producer, Gábor Rajna helped me tremendously re-calibrate the project as a 100% Hungarian production, while allowing me to use actors from many different countries, as the Babel of languages was a prerequisite of the film’s dramaturgy. you mentioned that you already work on your new project. Where does it stand now? We’re in the process of writing a first draft and the project is being submitted to the Hungarian Film Fund’s development fund. We have already started thinking and working on it, prepare it, both production–wise and mentally. My creative team (screenwriters Clara Royer, Matthieu Taponier, DOP Mátyás Erdély, casting director Eva Zabezsinszkij among others) is fully assembled and the producers at Laokoon Filmgroup have already started implementing the financing strategies. I would like to aim for a shooting within a year and a half – we will see whether there will be co-production opportunities. by Dániel Deák

The Round-up Returns to Cannes was restored from its original 35mm negative. The project was completed by the Hungarian Filmlab in collaboration with MaNDA (Hungarian National Digital Archive), and also with the support of the Hungarian National Film Fund. Having The Round-Up back in Cannes is not just a celebration of Hungarian film heritage, but it’s also a demonstration of Hungary’s expertise in post production. The Round-Up is a must see for anyone who wants to understand Hungarian culture and European art films. Jancsó was a true master of combining visual style, narratology, and the film’s topic itself – and this combination is quite rare. The story is about the retaliation following the Hungarian revolution of 1848, and in the process reveals the working methods of a dictatorship. In The Round-Up, Jancsó perfected his style of long shots by using them on the flat, endless Hungarian fields, moving the crowd and the camera in the same rhythm. Its panorama shots help us to construe the situation, describing the relation of prisoners, soldiers and the people in between them. The Round-Up did not win the Palme d’Or in 1966. According to rumors, the jury was too tired on the last day of the event to watch it - and the award ceremony was followed by a smaller demonstration by the cinephiles who missed Jancsó’s film among the award winnings. It is also remarkable that more than 1 million people watched the film in Hungary - which is quite a number in a country with a population of 10 million. 10 years after the 1956 revolution The RoundUp had a very special meaning. Miklós Jancsó had several more works appeared the Cannes Film Festival, and he won Best Director for Red Psalm. But The Round-Up remained his most well-known film. It’s especially great to have the chance to rewatch it a little more than a year after he passed away. by Dániel Deák

The 68th Cannes Film Festival is a celebration of Hungarian cinema. lászló Nemes’ debut feature Son of Saul is in the Official Competition. Meanwhile, the Cannes Classics section will pay tribute to Miklós Jancsó by screening his film The Round-Up (szegénylegények), which was in competition at Cannes in 1966. Cannes Classics demands the best possible screening quality of masterpieces. The purpose of Cannes Classics is on one hand to promote film restoration, and on the other to showcase the best of recent laboratory works in restoration. The screening copy of the film

The Hungarian Filmlab and MaNDA (Hungarian National Digital Archive) started to restore films from 35mm negative with the support of Hungarian National Film Fund in 2014. The first to be restored was Michael Curtiz’ silent movie The Undesirable. The restored version of the 100-year-old film premiered at the Hungarian Filmweek and at the Lumiere Festival in Lyon. Round-up was the second restoration project and we hope that many other films will be saved in the future.

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Creative Filmmaking as an Emergency Exit Viktória petrányi and Kornél Mundruczó. a producer and a director. beyond question one of the most successful, most influential and most outstanding filmmakers in contemporary Hungarian cinema. Their recent collaboration on the Cannes prize-winning White God has become a major hit not only across Europe, but also in the united states. All beautiful friendships have a beginning worth revisiting. Viktória and Kornél met and started talking, and then kept talking until they became close friends. Today, they’re the masterminds behind some of Europe’s most controversial art house films. It all began at the university of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest in 1998 and, as they say, the rest is history. Their friendship wasn’t just about talking and brainstorming: the two friends made a number of short films at the university and shortly became frequent guests at the Cannes Film Festival. They built their careers together, “climbing the ladder” in a way most filmmakers can only dream of, from the smallest recognitions to great hits. “At that time we both were at a major turning point in our lives: I was leaving behind a life in theatre and opening up to filmmaking, while Viktória was fed up with the Liberal Arts way of sitting and thinking. We were a kind of emergency exit for each other, a kind of remedy.”, says Mundruczó recalling the early days of their careers. In order to achieve complete artistic independence, they started their own production company. They call it an “island” for creative people. “Today Proton Cinema is a collective of the energies and ideas of our colleagues who we handpicked ten years ago.”, adds Petrányi. “Together we can produce very different pieces of art with a similar vision.” The pieces they were working on together soon caught the eye of the organizers of Europe’s most acclaimed film festival. And Cannes gave them all it could offer: screening opportunities, networking support, recognition… With the help of the Cannes community, Kornél Mundruczó and Viktória Petrányi became one of the most significant personalities of contemporary European cinema. But their success had many uncommon, unorthodox twists: they began their “Cannes experience” at the independent section Directors’ Fortnight with a short film (Joan of Arc of the Night Bus) originally part of an anthology film (A Bus Came…). A couple of years later, Little Apocrypha no. 2, the second part of the series, earned Mundruczó a selection at Cinéfondation, making him the program’s first Hungarian participant. Little Apocrypha no. 2 was basically a pre-study for Delta, which was then developed during Cinéfondation’s feature residence and made it to the competition program. During these years, the full-length opera interpretation of their very first Cannes-contestant short film, Joan of Arc, also got invited to Cannes.

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Their latest feature film, White God, won the main prize at un Certain Regard and was subsequently selected for Sundance Film Festival. Mundruczó’s apocalyptic dystopia became an art house box office hit in Hungary as well as abroad, and not only in Europe: no Hungarian film has ever achieved such success in America. The film premiered in the uS last March, and is still on in the theaters of over 30 cities around the country. Critics keep raving about it being “unusual, upsetting, unforgettable cinema” and “a powerful, pure-cinema reminder” or its portrayal of “the unusual, the unique, the human experience”. Beyond doubt, at this point White God is the most important item of Hungary’s cultural export. Behind all this stellar success stands producer Viktória Petrányi. She’s managed Proton Cinema since day one. Petrányi calls her relationship with Mundruczó a “table tennis game of intellects for artistic purposes”. Mundruczó is a very dynamic creator – he has the highest standards which his collaborators have to internalize. But his passions need balancing – a solid ground to bounce from. Mundruczó and Petrányi share an office in their labyrinth-like HQs in downtown Budapest, where they imagine, write and develop together. “Our relationship has changed and grown so much throughout the years! A lot of things about us were immediately obvious, but our interdependence and symbiosis came only later. It’s now been 16 years since we’ve been working together, we have our respective families and children, and I never feel we’re growing apart just because we don’t spend every waking minute of our lives together anymore. Certainly not when we still find ourselves having artistic quarrels in the middle of the night…” - muses Petrányi. If we look at the repertoire of Proton Cinema, it’s clearly no longer about Mundruczó’s work alone. In the past

Photos by Anita Libor

years, most of Proton’s productions made it to Cannes, while Land of Storms found success at the Berlinale and For Some Inexplicable Reason at Karlovy Vary. Their dedication and commitment to quality make their collective eligible for the world’s biggest festivals. They’re currently developing Gábor Reisz’s (For Some Inexplicable…) new feature at the Résidence Program of the Cannes Film Festival, as well as trying to distribute a very unconventional experimental movie by the Buharov brothers. These works stem from the artistic vision Mundruczó and Petrányi share. They’re also working on the next Mundruczó piece together – watch out for Vladimir Sorokin’s Ice, a play which Mundruczó has previously adapted for the stage with huge international success. by Anita Libor

Films to watch: White God, 2014 Tender Son - the Frankenstein Project, 2010 Delta, 2008 Johanna, 2005 Lost and Found (episode in the omnibus ﬁlm called Shortlasting Silence), 2005 Little Apocrypha no. 2, short 2004 Little Apocrypha no. 1, short 2004 Pleasant days, 2002 Afta, short, 2001 This I Wish and Nothing More, 2000 HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Photo by Gábor Valuska

It's all About Taking the Next Step 2014 was a year of full of surprises in the Hungarian film industry, and one of the biggest of those surprises was gábor reisz’s first feature film, For Some Inexplicable Reason. The film attracted Hungarian viewers and quickly became one of the most-watched Hungarian pictures in the last few years. it premiered in Karlovy Vary Film Festival last year. From the halls of the university of Theatre and Film arts, budapest (sZFE), gábor landed at this year’s acclaimed résidence program at Cannes Film Festival.

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Gábor, a student of SZFE, started his filmmaking career with the help of the greatest minds in Hungarian film. He started making short films about young people who cope with growing up, search for love, and simply trying to find themselves. In The Reason of Denial, Honestly, Somebody’s Something, On a Lower Level, and Péter, Gábor regularly brought back interesting and familiar characters, many of which are typical characters of contemporary Budapest. Budapest itself plays a main role in his films.

For Some Inexplicable Reason tells the story of a young man who is heartbroken, searching for a job, and dreading his 30th birthday. He talks too much, often speaks nonsense, and comes face to face with the tribulations of a hard knock life. Gábor made the film with the help of his friends, and together they created something genuinely familiar. Because of the success of VAN (a short “nickname” of the film in Hungarian), Gábor can now enjoy the hospitality of the Cannes Résidence program in the heart of Paris while working on his second feature film. On getting accepted to Résidence: “I found out about it when I was still overwhelmed about the unexpected success of VAN. In the beginning, I couldn’t believe that it was really happening. When we were waiting for feedback on Résidence, I remember that I went to the kitchen, had a glass of water and said to myself: even if it doesn’t happen, I’m still the happiest man on earth. But I began defending a potential rejection by saying that the French don’t have a taste for anything anyway…. One minute later, they called me to say congratulations. We were all crying, including me.” But the 5 months of intensive script development and his search for inspiration weren’t so easy in the beginning. “I had a hard time with the English language, and it was strange to be away from Budapest for such a long time. I had to find my rhythm and learn to manage my time, while having to travel to many festivals with VAN. But I got used to my life here, and now I truly enjoy it. The other participants in the Résidence are really cool, so the community

played a big role in my adjustment. Although, my writing method is quite different from the others’ because I technically started the script from scratch.” Living the life of a part-time Parisian is incredible, but in general Gábor is living a completely normal life there. “I wake up early in the morning and start writing with the help of 3 coffees. In the afternoon I do my shopping, cook, eat, sleep, or watch a film. Then I go out for a run. My evening plans vary because they depend on the others. We often go to the cinema, since most of the theaters are free for us to visit. But Paris is incredible. A few days ago I saw a Buster Keaton film in a full 450-seat screening room!...” He’s still reluctant to go into details about his next film, but he shared parts of the story on the official website of the Résidence program. “I only just started to get an idea of what I want to get out of this film, but it’s still too fresh to talk about it in detail. All I can say is that the title is going to be Bad Poems (Rossz versek).” Gábor is honored that he can spend so much quality time in Paris. But he dedicates all of this success to his former “lovechild”. VAN completely made it possible for me to be here in the program, and it really helped me grow as a filmmaker. Every film is an individual step, or at least this is how I think of them. Even if, at first, these steps don't seem to be greater than the previous one.” by Janka Pozsonyi

Out is in L’Atelier Hungarian-Slovak director and FAMU-graduate György Kristóf is getting ready for his first feature, and he will get significant help from L’Atelier at Cannes. Out is one of the 15 projects selected for the 11th edition of Cinéfondation’s Atelier. Previous Hungarian directors attending L’Atelier include Bence Fliegauf, Károly Ujj Mészáros (both of whom have since realized their projects) and Bálint Kenyeres (now in pre-production), so Kristóf is clearly in good company. Out is described as a minimalist comedy with absurd humour, and tells the story of a middle-aged father’s journey across Eastern Europe. Starring Sándor Terhes in the main role, the film is expected to start shooting at the end of July. The cinematographer will be Gergely Pohárnok, the frequent collaborator of György Pálfi (Taxidermia, Free Fall). The project will be a Hungarian-Slovak-Latvian-Polish co-production. The Hungarian co-producer are Ferenc Pusztai (KMH Film) and Andrea Taschler (Mirage Film Studio). The script development of the project is supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund.

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Photo by Gábor Valuska

Hungarian Directors are Worth Keeping an Eye On supporting the development and production of Hungarian cinema is just one of several missions of the Hungarian National Film Fund. Finding international audiences and fostering commercial success is also among its most important goals. The person in charge of this is Klaudia androsovits, who has led the HNFF World sales (the sales department of the Hungarian National Film Fund) for 4 years now. We asked her about sales activities and her personal approach to Hungarian ﬁlms.

Selling Hungarian ﬁlms is not easy and ﬁnding our buyers is very challenging. Buyers who have bought from us before keep coming back to check what’s new in our line-up. We sell to major territories on every continent. Just to name a few: The Exam was sold to Australia/New-Zealand; In The Name of Sherlock Holmes to Brazil, Germany, and Japan; Coming Out to India; and Chameleon to North, Central, and South America.

How did you become the sales manager of Hungarian ﬁlms? I was approached in 2011 and was asked if I would be interested in joining the international division of HNFF. I worked at HBO Central Europe for 15 years as an acquisition manager, so I was already familiar with the international market, the companies, and have even attended the major ﬁlm and TV markets. My experience was a key factor in landing the sales position.

I am very confident that the success of the previous years’ films - such as Just the Wind, The Notebook, White God, and now Son of Saul (which is in the main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival) - will help draw attention back to the Hungarian film industry.

What is the main mission of HNFF World sales? We act as a sales agent – under the wings of the HNFF – with the goal of building new business relationships, establishing good communication with buyers and film companies, and bringing Hungarian film back into public awareness. We represent the majority of the films that are funded by the HNFF, but independently financed movies can also be found in our catalogue. We also offer a separate, extensive library catalogue for the domestic market. We use the new name HNFF World Sales to emphasize that our division within HNFF only deals with international and domestic sales and shouldn’t be confused with the other activities of the film fund, in fact this is its sales arm. On many occasions, we cooperate with the Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute, as they own the rights to the majority of the Hungarian Classics. The Undesirable by Michael Curtiz, the director of the legendary Casablanca, is a silent black-and-white classic that we first brought to the market at AFM last year. What type of programs can we find in your line-up? Our line-up is diverse and offers award-winning indie and mainstream feature films, animated short films like the Academy Award shortlisted Symphony No. 42, live action shorts, animation series, and feature films. What markets do you usually attend? We exhibit at major markets like EFM, FILMART, Cannes Film Festival, MIPCOM, AFM. We come up with one or two new titles for every market. What was the most surprising Hungarian success story in recent years? Can you describe the typical buyer of Hungarian films?

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What do you concentrate on when you’re watching a film? Practically everything. The production quality, the acting, the story, and the characters and their development throughout the film. if you could ask for a specific Hungarian film, what would that be? Which would be easy to sell? There’s always a need for quality films geared towards family and children, so they would be my first choice. Otherwise, I’d say a sexy, funny, and witty comedy. Equally sellable are feature films with high artistic value, for buyers representing art film distributors or cultural TV channels. Cinema, Television, dVd, VOd? Which platform is the best fit for Hungarian films? Hungarian films can be sold to all platforms. What field has developed the most in the past few year? There is a new generation of young, talented, and brave Hungarian directors worth keeping an eye on. What are the upcoming Hungarian films we should keep our eye on? Definitely Home Guards from director Krisztina Goda. Her previous credits include Hungarian box office hits like Just Sex and Nothing Else and Children of Glory. These films have been sold globally. I can also mention Weekend, which has me very excited and will be the first Hungarian thriller of the year. Kills on Wheels, the new film of Attila Till (who had his short film Beast selected at Cannes Directors' Fortnight in 2011) is a promising second full length feature film of the director, focusing on a hit man in a wheelchair. We also have high hopes for Fever at Dawn, which is a beautiful love story based on the true story of two Holocaust survivors. The original novel, from which the script is adapted, will be published throughout the world. by Gábor Osváth, Dániel Deák

HNFF WORLD SALES CANNES LINE-UP HIGHLIGHT

HNFF World Sales - Cannes booth: Riviera C15 email: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu / Tel: + 36 30 936 3389 HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Coming Soon A wide variety of new films are currently filming or in post-production. This is where you can learn about them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; new faces, familiar names and bold topics.

Home Guards (Veszettek) A mysterious yet charismatic leader has a big impact on two boys living in poor circumstances. Inspired to make a change, the boys join a vigilante task force to combat a surging crime rate in their town. But soon after they join, the boys realise that it’s not so easy deciding who’s guilty and who’s innocent. Even the best-laid plans can easily backfire when using violence to right a wrong. Home Guards is a dramatic story filled with thrilling action scenes that reflect on many of today’s most relevant societal issues.

This film is an adaptation of a Hungarian novel written by Bernát László Czető. The topic of the novel touches on very relevant subject matter - not just relating to Hungary, but to all of Europe. Director Krisztina Goda says that she wants people to think critically while watching the film. Her hope is that the sensitive subject matter covered in the film will elicit a serious debate amongst viewers. In regard to prodution schedule, additional work on the film is currently being finalized. A sample screening is planned in the near future to help with the editing process, and once that is completed, the crew will begin work on the sound editing and the color timing.

DIRECTOR: Krisztina Goda DOP: Tamás Babos MAIN CAST: ifj. Attila Ifj. Vidnyánszky, Viktor Klem, Iván Fenyő PRODuCED BY: Gábor Kálomista FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu

The ﬁlm was supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by Megaﬁlm.

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Photo by László Seregi

Fever at Dawn (Hajnali láz) This film follows a love story that begins in the unlikeliest of circumstances between two long-suffering people who had survived the Holocaust’s fiery pits of hell. Their love shall overcome numerous obstacles, eventually death itself. The story takes places in the Swedish rehabilitation camps during the fall and winter of 1945. “The film begins where most others end. It’s a film about the Holocaust without the Holocaust itself. The story is a recounting of the love story between my parents, so it’s really close to me on a personal level. Their letters and vivid memories form the foundation of the film. The two characters are trying to recapture the life they lived before the Holocaust, which was a time of peace and happiness. But their latent anxiety and sense of panic often boils over at unexpected moments. They can’t really explain their psychological breakdowns and emotional outbursts, and their inability to comprehend what’s happening to them is what triggers most of the conflict. The structure is a contrast between their tranquil environment in Sweden and their passion for each other. A church, a cinema, a pastry shop, a boat deck, a canteen, a dance floor. Barracks, hospital corridors, rail coupes, stations, mugs, pans, medical charts, bathtubs, confectionery, thermometers, pencils, ambulances, church pews, X-ray equipment, cigarette cases... The message of the film is that people have the ability survive the deepest layers of Hell.” – Péter Gárdos DIRECTOR: Péter Gárdos DOP: László Seregi MAIN CAST: Emőke Piti, Milán Schruff, Gila Almagor (Israel) PRODuCED BY: Dénes Szekeres, Tivoli Film-Plusz Kft., FocusFox Kft., Christer Nilson, GötaFilm International AB, Miriam Zachar, Miki Zachar Productions Ltd. FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu The film was supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund, MEdia programme of the European union, swedish Film institute, stockholm, Filmpool Nord, luleå, gotlands Filmfond via Filmregion stockholm Mälardalen, swedish Television, stockholm and the Jerusalem Film & Television Fund.

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Lily Lane (Liliom ösvény) Rebeka has been living alone for a while and it’s during this time that she meets her son Dani. The two of them share a life full of grand secrets and magical tales. Soon, Rebeka’s mother dies and she is forced to face her past, looking up her father and going back to her childhood home – the place where her mother died. Tale by tale, Rebeka reveals her past to her son. Her memories soon turn into demons, but Rebeka and Dani don’t turn back. They meet the demons head on – embracing them, riding them, and using them to move forward. “The film is like walking in the woods. It’s peaceful at first, but then the sun starts to set and everything around us becomes more threatening. We hurry to get out of the forest, but something is drawing us inside, towards the darkness. We can’t resist, so we give up and hope for dawn to come. Lily Lane is dealing with a lot of subjects: the unfathomable and mysterious relationship between a parent and her child, the reunion of a broken family, and PTSD. These subjects greatly interest me, and are what ultimately drive the film. I hope that I share those interests with others. We are in the final phase of editing and are close to finishing the visuals. The test screenings will start in the next few weeks. The first round is reserved for co-workers and friends. Lily Lane is based on montage, made with mixed technology, so I was thrust into a whole new world of editing techniques – ones I didn’t even know existed. It was a pleasure to work on this film”. – Bence Fliegauf

DIRECTOR: Bence Fliegauf DOP: Zoltán Lovasi MAIN CAST: Bálint Sótonyi, Angéla Stefanovics, Miklós Székely B. PRODuCED BY: Ernő Mesterházy and Bence Fliegauf CONTACT: ﬂiegauf@gmail.com The ﬁlm was supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by Fraktál Film

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Loop (Hurok) Loop, as its name suggests, is structured to constantly move forward, yet manages to always return to the same point. The film grows out of a simple love story and keeps the audience thinking in a loop – about what comes next, or what comes again. In this Möbius strip-like thriller in which the concept of beginnings and endings quickly loses all meaning. Adam is presented with a series of opportunities to correct his previous mistakes; but a new opportunity does not necessarily mean a clean slate. As Adam deals with his determined pursuers and battles on, he is forced to face the complicated repercussions of his past decisions. “I am confident that we will succeed in constructing a real – yet extraordinary – world in which our story not only works, but is completely plausible. Like the unbroken structure of the Möbius strip, we have to move certain scenes forward without cutting them to create a feeling of continuous movement, while somehow managing to take the story back to the same point over and over. Avoiding cuts at certain points in the story will make it all the more believable, but it will still be surreal – and this is very important in a film like this.” – Isti Madarász

DIRECTOR: Isti Madarász DOP: András Nagy MAIN CAST: Dénes Száraz, Dorina Martinovics PRODuCED BY: Tamás Hutlassa FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu The film was supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by Café Film.

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Weekend (Víkend) The film Weekend uses an ill-fated hunting party as a backdrop while addressing several darker themes, such as overconfidence, deceit, and immorality. Its main characters effortlessly take part in the secretive and manipulative “games” of the business world. They are deceptive professionals who readily and willingly use the tools of the judicial system to their advantage. As they begin to play these games of manipulation against each other, the tables are soon turned and they very suddenly become the victims rather than the oppressors and must ultimately pay for their misdeeds. “The film is a revenge story that plays out in the wilderness at the end of the world. I was immediately drawn to the subject. I liked that the story showed interesting and complex characters within a genre movie. It was a pleasure developing such complex characters with the actors.” – Áron Mátyássy “This film is my favorite because it addresses important themes without taking anything away from the core elements of the film as a thriller. Here in Hungary, but probably in other parts of Eastern Europe as well, a lot of people think that they can get away with anything by simply using their money and connections. It’s not about mafia so much as it’s about “gentlemen” who break the law without considering the repercussions or the effects on others. The protagonists are the kinds of people who affront not only each other, but also the local people who live in the mountains of Transylvania. The simple lifestyle of the local people and the unrestrained lifestyle of the urbanized men end up clashing. I wanted to shoot this film to address a serious issue, but I wanted it to be a thriller instead of a documentary. We were shooting at real locations and sometimes under difficult circumstances in remote Transylvanian locations. Áron Mátyássy prepared to shoot this film for years and specifically chose the Transylvanian landscape. The premiere should be in Autumn 2015.” – Sándor Csortos Szabó DIRECTOR: Áron Mátyássy DOP: Márk Győri MAIN CAST: Tamás Lengyel, Kornél Simon, Dorka Gryllus, Attila Árpa PRODuCED BY: Sándor Csortos Szabó, Ferenc Pusztai FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu This film was made with the support of the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by budapest Film and KMH Film.

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The Wednesday Child (A szerdai gyerek) Maja and Krisz – both 19-years-old – are a couple living on the outskirts of Budapest. They survive day to day and support themselves with odd jobs, some of which don’t always respect the law. They grew up together in an orphanage and now have a 4-year-old son who lives in the same orphanage. Krisz doesn’t want anything to do with the boy. He is, after all, practically a child himself and wants to move on with his life. But not Maja. Despite being an irresponsible teenage parent, Maja desperately fights to get custody of her child. She doesn’t want her son to suffer the same fate that she has. When Maja gets into a microcredit program that offers small loans to people living in deep poverty to support their entrepreneurial ventures, the prospect of a new life is opened to her. It’s her chance to find herself and grow – not only as a member of society, but also as a woman. “The Wednesday Child is my first feature and is currently in post-production. After making award-winning short films and graduating from the university of Theatre and Film in Budapest, I really wanted to tell this coming-of-age story. It’s about Maja, a girl standing on the threshold of adulthood, but is stuck in a rather unusual situation because she’s the mother of a 4-year-old boy who lives in an orphanage. »You were born on a Wednesday, and Wednesday’s children can make it anywhere they really want to.« These were the last words Maja heard from her mother before Maja was abandoned as a child. Maja is now 19. She tries to live by those words – fighting against all hope to get custody of her son, despite her self-destructive tendencies. Her struggles lead her into an unexpected love story. I hope our film reaches arthouse cinema-goers who want to see a film full of inner tension. I want people across the world to keep their fingers crossed for Maja.” – Lili Horváth DIRECTOR: Lili Horváth DOP: Róbert Maly MAIN CAST: Kinga Vecsei, Zsolt Antal, Szabolcs Thuróczy, Enikő Börcsök, Annamária Németh, Ede Kovács PRODuCED BY: Károly Fehér CO-PRODuCED BY: Henning Kamm, Fabian Gasmia, Ági Pataki FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu

The ﬁlm was supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by popﬁlm.

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

My Night, Your Day (Éjszakám a nappalod) Novák cannot sleep. So as to not disturb his girlfriend, he spends his nights in the streets of Budapest and sneaks home in the morning. The fine line between night and day gradually fades away and Novák gets lost in a dream-like Budapest – complete with strange, magical, and dangerous creatures. This is a modern coming-of-age story disguised as a black comedy with hints of a classic thriller. “We wanted to document contemporary Central-European city life in a way that light and dark and East and West meet. We love to show typical, everyday people and events and take them out of familiar settings by putting them into an elevated, surreal world. In the end, our goal was to make an actor’s film. This film, I think, is a black comedy that blends dreams and reality. But it’s still centered on a heartfelt and realistic story about a man’s struggle to begin a responsible life as an adult. We created a world that should feel familiar in regard to the details, but as a whole, it should also look and sound like a bizarre dream. The release is scheduled for autumn 2015.” – András György Dési, Gábor Móray

DIRECTOR: András György Dési – Gábor Móray DOP: Sándor Csukás MAIN CAST: Balázs Czukor, Zsófia Szamosi, Zsolt Anger, Péter Scherer, Hanna Pálos, Krisztián Kovács, Milán Vajda PRODuCED BY: László Kántor FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu

The ﬁlm was made with the support of the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by Új budapest Filmstúdió.

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Kills on Wheels (Tiszta szívvel) This is a story about a young handicapped man who – driven by despair and the fear of worthlessness – ignites his life by joining a wheelchair-bound hitman who works for the maﬁa. Murder by murder, and with a dose of dark humor, this dramedy blurs the line between reality and imagination during a boy’s search for friendship, roots, and for a greater meaning in life.

“We were in deep contact with handicapped people throughout the whole process and have learned a lot about their lives. Our aim is to show that wheelchair-bound people have the same enthusiasms, wild desires, and flaws as their walking companions. It was essential that actual wheelchair-bound people played the roles in this movie – instead of actors trying to portray a world they do not truly know. Our actors had the opportunity to reveal their own bodies, experiences, and messages in this special story. This intimidating realism, spiced with action and gunfight scenes, creates an atmosphere that has never been seen before. The premiere of the film is planned for spring of 2016.” – Attila Till

DIRECTOR: Attila Till DOP: Imre Juhász, MAIN CAST: Szabolcs Thuróczy, Zoltán Fenyvesi, Ádám Fekete, Mónika Balsai PRODuCED BY: Judit Stalter EXECuTIVE PRODuCED BY: Gábor Rajna, Gábor Sipos FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu

The ﬁlm was made with the support of the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by laokoon Film.

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Zero Zero is a parable - a provoking and anarchistic caricature of modern consumer society. The manager of a commercial honey-bottling plant has his life completely transformed by a bee. After he tastes real honey, he decides to leave the factory and move to the forest where he can work with bees in a meaningful way. It is here that he establishes an environmentalist commune and ﬁghts to prevent pollution and save his beloved bees.

“Ecological catastrophe and social and political injustice enrage me, so they also inspired me to make a controversial film. Zero is a provocative manifesto against globalization, capitalism, pollution, and political dictatorship. The funny thing is that this project was supported by governments from countries around the world, which shows that revolt is a basic need and should be an accepted part of the system. The national premiere of the film will be set once we know the international world premiere of the film.” – Gyula Nemes

DIRECTOR: Gyula Nemes DOP: Balázs Dobóczi MAIN CAST: Krisztián Kovács, Martina Krátká, Udo Kier PRODuCED BY: Gyula Nemes CO-PRODuCED BY: Iván Angelusz, Jiří Konečný, Eike Goreczka FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu

The ﬁlm was made with the support of the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by absolutﬁlm.

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Think of Me (Gondolj rám!) Think of Me is the bizarre tale of a surgeon whose life seems perfect until he learns that he only has a couple of months left to live. Driven by the best intentions, he decides that the only way to assuage the suffering of others when he dies is to drive everyone away. He deliberately cheats on his wife, starts to drink heavily, gets fired from his job, and generally flies in the face of all things respectable and legal. He has a falling out with all those who were once close to him, and the effects of his bad behavior really start to show when…. Somewhere between moral drama and ironic comedy, this touching film stars Hungary’s most popular actors. “The subject was interesting for me. It’s been awhile since a film revolving around a doctor was made in Hungary. This is a twisted story with a lot of good ideas that are simultaneously dark, dramatic, and funny. It’s more of a black comedy, but I have always liked the concept, and the main role was a really good one for an actor like me. I think that the story talks about daily life in a fun way that is full of twists. We see that marriage, kids, profession, and society can all go awry in an instant. We see all of it through lies, deceit, and, guilt. The story forces us to confront ourselves in a painfully face-to-face kind of way. I think that it’s extraordinary making a regular movie, so to speak: the movie wants to be “cinema” in the truest sense of the term, and nothing else. This isn’t so much a large production comedy (a commercial film), and neither is it the type of avant-garde film (indie) that attracts small audiences. It’s instead a third category, and the kind that I enjoy most: CINEMA! The premier is planned for autumn 2015.” – András Kern

DIRECTOR: András Kern DOP: Elemér Ragályi MAIN CAST: András Kern, Enikő Eszenyi PRODuCED BY: Dénes Szekeres FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu

The ﬁlm was made with the support of the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by Tivoli Film

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Mom and Other Loonies in the Family (Anyám és más futóbolondok a családból) This is a zany tale about a family in the 20th century. Mother lived to be 94 years and moved 27 times during her life. Moving was her only means of dealing with trouble and danger. In fact, it was history that kept chasing her all over the country and throughout the horrible 20th century. This is a heart-warming and heartbreaking span of a hundred years and four generations of “fools”. “Those who had read the script immediately started telling me stories about their own families, because we’re full of these untold stories. And there are no boring family sagas in East Central Europe – stories of people who did not make history but instead endured it, having been born in a place where it was unavoidable. I just wanted to tell their story before it fades from our collective memory. It’s a cheerful film: a beautiful love story of two extraordinary people moving on together, shoulder to shoulder, joyfully oblivious to the crazy world around them; a playful calendar about the beauty and ugliness during the span of a hundred years. This is about a bunch of lovable and eccentric characters, the likes of which no longer exist. And finally, it’s a glance into a world that vanished with the passing of Mother. The premiere of the film is planned for October 2015.” – Ibolya Fekete DIRECTOR: Ibolya Fekete DOP: Francisco Gózon, Nyika Jancsó MAIN CAST: Eszter Ónodi, Tibor Gáspár, Danuta Szaflarska, Juli Básti PRODuCED BY: Gábor Garami CO-PRODuCED BY: Niko Film (Germany), KaBoAl Pictures (Bulgaria), TV2 ASSOCIATE PRODuCER: Gábor Dettre FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu

The ﬁlm was made with the support of the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by Cinema-Film.

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

That Trip We Took With Dad (Neulich die Reise mit Vater) This is a moving story that takes place in the very turbulent year of 1968. With the “Prague Spring” setting the stage for the film, a German family – two unequal brothers and their father – from Arad, Romania begin their journey towards the GDR. The older brother hopes that if his father can get the surgery he needs, the unity of their broken family will be restored once again. But after they cross the East German border, their way back is blocked by Soviet tanks moving into the CSSR. Suddenly the family finds itself stranded in West Germany and our protagonists are confronted by a universal question: is personal happiness more important than familial ties? “When my father was 18, he went on his first trip through Eastern Europe with his parents: it was supposed to be a nice summer vacation. Due to the political incidents of the summer of '68, he found himself – together with 50 other Romanian families – in an East German military camp. After finally receiving a transit visa to travel back through West Germany and Austria – an unimaginable act during the Cold War – they realized that the next days could change their entire future. Having just a few hours to question their lives, all three experienced the toughest moment they had ever faced as a family. Should they stay in the West or should they return home?. I grew up with this story, having heard it many times on special occasions like Christmas and birthdays. Or simply during our Sunday breakfast. And I grew up with a father who struggled during his entire life with a decision he took when he was 18. Today, I find it very easy to say: How could he? How could all 51 families return home after having tasted freedom? But nothing is ever that simple. The cinema release is planned for autumn 2015 and the premiere for summer 2015.“ – Anca Miruna Lăzărescu

DIRECTOR: Anca Miruna Lăzărescu DOP: Christian Stangassinger MAIN CAST: Alex Margineanu, Razvan Enciu, Ovidiu Schumacher, Susanne Bormann PRODuCED BY: David Lindner Leporda and Verona Meier CO-PRODuCED BY: Catalin Mitulescu, Andrea Taschler, Daniel Mitulescu, Nándor Lovas, Fredrik Zander, Jessica Ask INTERNATIONAL SALES: david@filmallee.com The film was made with the support of the Centrul National al Cinematografiei romania, Eurimages, FFF bayern, the Hungarian National Film Fund, Federal government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (bKM), and german Federal Film board (FFa), Film i Väst, Creative europe - Media balkan Film Fund development award and was produced by Filmallee and co-produced by strada Film (romania), Mirage Film studio (Hungary), Chimney (sweden) and (bayerischer rundfunk) (diE Film) (razor Film). HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

New Films from Hungary From shorts to features, flip through the latest titles in every genre to see what is new in Hungary!

Feature Film

Afterlife (Utóélet)

Car Park (Parkoló)

95 min, 2014

93 min, 2014

Director: Virág Zomborácz Cast: Marci Kristóf, László Gálffi, Eszter Csákányi, Zsolt Anger Producer: Ferenc Pusztai Production Company: KMH Film

Director: Bence Miklauzic Cast: Ferenc Lengyel, Tibor Szervét, Kálmán Somody, Lia Pokorny, Zoltán Rajkai, Simon Miklauzic, Attila Egyed, Kristóf Horváth, Roland Rába Producer: Iván Angelusz, Péter Reich Production Company: Katapult Film, RTL Klub

FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu Mózes is an insecure young man who lives at home with his family. He has a complicated relationship with his authoritative father. One day, Mózes’ father dies unexpectedly, but his ghost soon begins to appear to Mózes. This is a playful film about mourning, selfrealization, and trying to strike the perfect balance between life and death. Virág Zomborácz was born in Budapest in 1985 and studied screenwriting at the university of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest. She graduated in 2009 and has since created a number of successful shorts films that have screened at many international festivals. Afterlife is her feature film debut. The script won the MEDIA Talent Prize in Cannes in 2011 and the film had its world premiere in Karlovy Vary in 2014. awards: 2014 – Valladolid International Film Festival: Best Film Award, Meeting Point 2015 – Bergamo Film Meeting, Main Prize 2015 – Vilnius International Film Festival: Best Actor

FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu The story takes place on an empty plot of land surrounded by apartment buildings in the very heart of Budapest. This is the car park where Legionnaire is king. For him, this small plot of land is the centre of the world. This is also where a family of blackbirds live, and he has become very fond of them. But a dark shadow spreads across Legionnaire’s perfect little world when a cat appears on the scene and sets its feline sights on one of the adult birds. And then, as things weren’t bad enough, Imre pulls up in his 1968 Ford Mustang. People can park where they please, except for one particular spot: an area sheltered by a roof. Imre, however, is determined to secure this parking space at any cost. Legionnaire now has a two-fold battle on his hands. The first is with the cat who gradually exterminates the pigeon family, and the second is with Imre – a man unaccustomed to getting no for an answer. We soon see that their war is no longer about where a man can park his car, but rather a desperate struggle between two very lonely figures who are forced to face the lie they are living and the scars they carry from their past, each learning to let go of the very things they once thought constituted the meaning of their lives. Bence Miklauzic was born in Budapest in 1970. He studied history and Hungarian language and literature at ELTE university in Budapest from 1990-95, and continued his studies at the Hungarian Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest from 1995–2000. In 2002 Bence made Sleepwalkers, his first feature film. It was presented at many leading international film festivals.

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

Feature Film

Free Entry

Free Fall (Szabadesés)

70 min, 2014

89 min, 2014

Director: Yvonne Kerékgyártó Cast: Luca Pusztai, Ágnes Barta Producer: Judit Kastner Production Company: DDK Production

Director: György Pálﬁ Cast: Piroska Molnár, Réka Tenki, Zsolt Trill, Zsolt Nagy Producer: Ferenc Pusztai Production Company: KMH Film, Popﬁlm, Scipode, Jeonju Digital Project Coproduction: Scipode, Jeonju Digital Project

SALES: judit@anormalsession.hu FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@ﬁlmunio.hu, kati.vajda@ﬁlmunio.hu

SALES, FESTIVALS: sales@kmhfilm.com Free Entry is an independent feature debut that was shot over the course of three years at the biggest music festival in Central Europe: Sziget Festival. The film is an adventurous, summer youth drama revolving around the wild yet precarious relationship between Betty and ‘V’. As the two 16-year-old girls navigate the uncertain road to independence and adulthood, they each begin to realize the importance of their friendship. Yvonne Kerékgyártó was born in 1989. She studied dramaturgy and scriptwriting at the university of Theater and Film Art, in Hungary and at HFF in Potsdam, Babelsberg. She directed the short films Dresscode and Pinkwater, which were selected to Tokyo Short Shorts IFF in 2012. In 2013 she finished MFI ‘Scripts 2 Film’ workshop with the feature length drama script My Six Families. Free Entry is her first feature film. The rough-cut was selected for Berlinale Editing Studio program in 2013 where it was developed with Molly Marlene Stensgaard. awards: BEST FILM prize at Cinema City IFF 2014 in the category of Fresh Danube Films SXSW Film Festival – Gamechanger Award 2015

“What tea do you want? We’ve got some mint tea,” an old woman mutters to her apathetic husband, with whom she shares her cluttered home. Soon after she goes up to the roof of her apartment block and surveys the evening skyline over smog-veiled Budapest. Then, she jumps. We catch a fleeting glimpse of the other flats in the building as the woman plunges past the windows. We’ll see each flat again, one after another; but this time, long enough to discover the “diagnosis” that shapes the building’s inhabitants – all of whom are typical models of modern society. György Pálfi, born in 1974, is a leading Hungarian director with many festival awards to his credit. He attracted international attention with his feature debut Hukkle (2002), winning a European Film Award as Discovery of the Year. His next film, the visually opulent parable Taxidermia (2006), premiered in the un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2012 he created the highly distinctive cinephilic collage Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen (Final Cut: Hölgyeim és Uraim), which premiered in the Cannes Classics section. Free Fall is his second film to be screened in competition at Karlovy Vary, his first being I’m Not Your Friend (Nem Vagyok a Barátod) in 2009. awards: 2014 – Cottbus Film Festival: Award for Outstanding Actress to Piroska Molnár 2014 – Karlovy Vary International Film Festival: Special Jury Prize, Best Director Award, Europa Cinemas Label

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

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Feature Film

For Some Inexplicable Reason (VAN valami furcsa és megmagyarázhatatlan)

Liza, the Fox-Fairy (Liza, a rókatündér) 108 min, 2014

96 min, 2014 (graduation film) Director: Gábor Reisz Cast: Áron Ferenczik, Katalin Takács, Zsolt Kovács Producer: Júlia Berkes, Miklós Bosnyák, Viktória Petrányi Production Company: Proton Cinema, University of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest SALES, FESTIVALS: info@alphaviolet.com Áron is a 29-year-old weirdo. He suffers from modern complexes, has a fresh university degree, and struggles to come to terms with a recent break up. His parents support him financially while he looks for work, still agonizing over his lost love. Áron’s life is always interrupted by something, making it seems like he’s not the main character in his own story. For Some Inexplicable Reason is an unconventional coming-of-age story about the unbearable insignificance of being young that simultaneously provides a detailed glimpse into the city that Áron calls home: Budapest. Gábor Reisz was born on January 19th, 1980, in Buda pest, Hungary. He started his studies at the Hungarian university of P.E in 1999 and went on to Eötvös Lóránd university on Film Theory and Film History in 2003. He won a position at the university of Theatre and Film in Budapest as a film and television director in 2006. He made several short movies in school as writer and director: The Reason of Denial, Honestly in 2006, 8 (omnibus film) in 2007, Nothing and Good in 2007, Changing Room in 2008, Somebody’s Something in 2009, On a Lower Level in 2011, and Peter (omnibus film) in 2013. For Some Inexplicable Reason is his debut feature film.

Director: Károly Ujj Mészáros Cast: Mónika Balsai Producer: István Major Production Company: Filmteam Ltd. FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu Fox-fairies are evil demons from Japanese folklore that rob men of their lives. Liza, a 30-year-old nurse, is in search of love, but each of her ill-fated admirers die on their first date. Liza has taken care of Marta, widow of the former Japanese ambassador, for the last 12 years. Liza’s only companion is her imaginary friend, Tomy Tani, the ghost of a Japanese pop singer from the 1950s. On her birthday, Liza goes to a Mekk Burger’s to find romance. Marta dies while Liza is away. Jealous relatives call the police and try to pin the murder on Liza, hoping to inherit Marta’s apartment. Sergeant Zoltan is put on the case. This is a peculiar and poignant comedy set in a fictionalized 1970s Hungary with a capitalist system. Liza, The Fox-Fairy is a sarcastic fairy tale for grownups. Born in 1968, Károly ujj Mészáros made 10 short features over the last 9 years. His projects have won 12 prizes in more than 30 national and international short film festivals. Károly has also shot more than 150 commercials over the last 12 years and in 2011 produced a theatre play. He has a university degree in economics. Liza, The Fox-Fairy is his debut feature.

awards: 2014 – Torino Film Festival: Special Jury Award, Audience Award, Student Jury Best Screenplay Award, TorinoSette Readers Jury People Choice Award 2015 – Soﬁa International Film Festival: Best Director

awards: 2015 – Oporto International Film Festival: Grand Prix, Best Special Effects 2015 – Imagine Film Festival Amsterdam: Silver Méliés Award 2015 – Brussels International Fantasy Film Festival: Orbit Award

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

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Feature Film

Mirage (Délibáb)

No man’s land (Senki szigete)

110 min, Drama, 2014

93 min, Drama, 2014

Director: Szabolcs Hajdu Cast: Isaach De Bankolé, Razvan Vasilescu, Orsolya Török-Illyés, Dragos Bucur, Tamás Polgár Producer: Andrea Taschler, Gábor Kovács, Coproducer: Mátyás Prikler, Ági Pataki, Jim Stark, Judit Romwalter, Mónika Mécs, Ernő Mesterházy, András Poós Production Company: Mirage Film Stúdió, Filmpartners, MPhilms / SK

Director: Ferenc Török Cast: Juli Jakab, Tamás Mohai, Eszter Bánfalvy, Judit Schell, Szabolcs Thuróczy, András Stohl Producer: Pál Sándor Production Company: Focus-Fox Studio, Film Street

FESTIVALS: mirage@miragefilm.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu An African football player named Francis is fleeing from the police after fixing a match. He seeks refuge on a ranch located deep in the vast Hungarian plain known as the “Puszta.” Francis soon realizes that a local crime boss runs the ranch and that the workers on the ranch are little more than slaves. His presence on the ranch begins a chain of events that culminates in violent rebellion by the workers against their criminal overlords. A reluctant hero, Francis finds himself playing in the most important match of his life, with his freedom and his very life at stake. Drawing from the traditions of Hungarian cinema as well as the Hollywood Westerns, Mirage is a story about modern-day Hungary, racism, equality, power, and freedom. Szabolcs Hajdu was born in Debrecen, Hungary in 1972. He studied at the university of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest. Sticky Matters, his first feature film, was awarded Best First Film at Hungarian Film Week and Jury’s Special Prize at the Kiev MOLODIST Film Festival in 2003. His feature, Tamara, won First Prize at the AVANCA Film Festival in 2005. His autobiographical movie White Palms premiered in Cannes Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in 2006. His television feature Off Hollywood was presented at the Edinburgh IFF in 2008. Bibliothéque Pascal, his 5th feature film, won the main prize at the Hungarian Film Week and the Berlinale Forum in 2010 hosted the international premiere.

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu Vera is a cab driver who has been saving up for years to buy a house on No Man’s Island in the Pacific Ocean to escape the world in which she lives. Zoli has what it takes to become a professional basketball player, but runs like a coward from his own talent and the potential it holds. Mia - a runaway bride - later joins Vera and Zoli and their three lives clash and intermingle as they journey towards the unexpected together. The film is a modern fairy tale about young people in search of true happiness. Through Mia’s ethereal purity, they each learn to love themselves and find a way to realise their dreams. Ferenc Török was born in 1971 and was a recipient of the Béla Balázs and Pro Cultura urbis Awards. He is also a member of the European Film Academy. Ferenc graduated from the Budapest university of Theatre and Film as a film director. His films have been in the biggest film festivals and have received several awards.

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Feature Film

Paw (Mancs)

Swing

92 min, 2014

117 min, 2014

Director: Róbert Adrián Pejó Cast: Zsolt Trill, Tamás Keresztes, László Szacsvay Producer: László Kántor Coproducer: András Poós Production Company: Új Budapest Filmstudio in co-production with TV2

Director: Csaba Fazekas Cast: Eszter Ónodi, Eszter Csákányi, Franciska Törőcsik, Mari Törőcsik, János Kulka, Béla Mészáros, Imre Csuja, Dávid Szatory, Tibor Gáspár, Mari Nagy Producer: István Bodzsár, Judit Romwalter Coproducer: TV2, SPARKS Kft. Production Company: Unio Film

FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu A sweet, humorous tale about a German shepherd dog that travels around the world and saves lives, rewarded with nothing more than a pat on the head from his loving handler. Mancs is orphaned at birth and suffers a long and grueling journey before he eventually finds sanctuary with a caring family and becomes a canine hero. Róbert Adrián Pejó was born in Romania but grew up in and studied in Austria. He moved to New York in 1996 and, in 2010 returned to Budapest. He works in Europe and the uSA.

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu Swing is the story of three generations of women in an all-girl singing group. They are bound together by a passion for music...and a need for quick cash. Csaba Fazekas was born in 1973 and always wanted to work as a filmmaker. Directing seemed to be the right choice for him. After graduating from the Hungarian Film Academy, he won the prize for Best Debut at Hungarian Film Week for his first feature-length comedy Happy Birthday! He’s been working as a freelance director on TV commercials since 2004.

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

Feature Film

War of Wits (Dumapárbaj)

Argo 2

88 min, 2015

91 min, 2015

Director: Béla Paczolay Main cast: László Hadházi, Ádám Kiss, Enikő Eszenyi, Iván Kamarás, Adél Jordán Producer: Tamás Hutlassa Production Company: Café Film

Director: Attila Árpa Main cast: Lajos Kovács, Péter Scherer, Lukács Bicskey, József Kiss, Sándor Oszter, Imre Csuja, Feró Nagy Producers: Attila Árpa, Joshi Árpa Production Company: Filmhouse

FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu Tamás Kalmár is an established comedy star in his late forties with an exaggerated idea of his own importance. Recognised as the uncrowned king of stand-up comedy, he is in constant demand to perform on stage and has his very own primetime show on national TV. But the day eventually comes when he senses that his popularity is waning, and the public are beginning to prefer a newcomer to the scene by the name of Tóbiás Nagy. Rather than analysing his own talent, Tamás prefers to blame the shifting spotlight on Tóbiás, and goes all out to get the upper hand over his young rival. We get to watch, and laugh, as his ill-conceived plans fail catastrophically and send him spiralling into a complex set of circumstances that he looks unlikely to ever escape. His relationship with his wife, and with his oldest friend who, at the same time is his and his archrival’s manager, Vigéc, goes from bad to worse. His panic to retain fame and fortune see him accept one ridiculous gig after another, as he pushes his loved ones further and further away.

FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu Hungarian small time crook, Tibi Balog gets out of prison after 10 years, but he didn’t change a bit. When a Japanese crime syndicate hires him to acquire a Hungarian invention – the world’s first floppy disc – Tibi puts his band of retarded thugs back together and the action starts. As expected, Tibi completely screws up the job and becomes the target of Japanese Assassins, a very angry gypsy family and the entire Slovakian Army. Gags and action and no political correctness at all. The Hungarian heat is on. Born in 1971 in Munich, Germany, Attila Árpa is a producer-director-screenwriter and also an actor. In 2004 his debut feature Argo quickly became a box office as well as a cult hit in Hungary. Argo 2, the long-awaited sequel is his second feature. Árpa is now developing his 3rd movie, Till Death, a thriller with KMH Film, based on his own novel.

Born in 1961, Béla Paczolay is a director. His debut feature ﬁlm was Adventurers (2008) which was well received by professionals and the audience as well. He also directed several documentaries for television and is probably the most well-known commercials director since the 1990s. War of Wits features the Hungarian audience’s favourite stand-up comedians.

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Feature Documentary

Drifter 72 min, 2014 Director: Gábor Hörcher Main Character: Richárd Steinbach Producer: Marcell Iványi, Gábor Hörcher, Marieke Bittner Production Company: Kraats Film, Weydemann Bros. SALES, FESTIVALS: marcell@kraatsfilm.com Ricsi, a young rebel, lives his life on the edge. He’s always getting into trouble, whether he’s driving cars without a license, stealing, or running from the cops. Ricsi despises what others would call a normal life. His problematic behaviour exasperates his parents, and he never lives up to the expectations of his deadbeat father. But why would Ricsi care? After all, Ricsi’s father was never around when Risci needed him the most. Drifter was shot over a period of five years and is a portrait of a young man who lives by his own rules. Gábor Hörcher was born in 1980 in Budapest, Hungary, where he earned degrees in Psychology, Law, and Film Studies. Gábor has worked as a waiter in London and as a mixer and bartender in Greece. He has also lived in the uS, France, and Cambodia, where he taught courses on Human Rights at a local university. He started working with director and producer Marcell Iványi in early 2008. Together they run Kraats Film, producing both films and theatre performances.

Happy New Year Hungary (BÚÉK – Egy közös film Magyarországról) 71 min, 2014 Directors: Júlia Halász, Mátyás Kálmán Producers: Ágnes Horváth Szabó, Bence Fliegauf, Ernő Mesterházy, Júlia Halász, Mátyás Kálmán, Mónika Mécs Production Company: Fraktal Film Co-Producer: COLLOC Productions CONTACT: buekﬁlm@gmail.com The last day of the year is the perfect opportunity to bring people together from different generations, social groups, and subcultures. Twelve professional crews and 300 participants contributed to this collaborative documentary, which offers a colorful depiction of society by following the stories of a diverse cast. Mátyás has a background in video journalism and media art. With numerous multiplatform projects in development, he was selected to the Cross Video Days pitching forum. Mátyás was a tutor at DocuArt's media project development workshop and participated in Transform@Lab 2014. He is currently working for the Hungarian Civil Liberties union as a Video Program Officer and produces his own documentaries and new media projects with COLLOC. His next project in production is Winners (Nyertesek), which is a feature documentary.

awards: 2014 – Winner of the IDFA Award for the Best First Appearance Documentary 2014 2015 – goEast Film Festival: Special Mention

Julia graduated from MOME, Media Design faculty. She spent a year in Berlin as a creative intern in the Culture Democracy e.V. (NGO). Besides her work as a video journalist and reporter, she has been involved in several short ﬁlms, commercials, and media art projects as an author. In the past few years, she has worked on shorts and documentaries as a DOP, producer, and director. She is interested in new avenues of storytelling and the future of video art, and ﬁlmmaking. Her latest project is a feature documentary titled Addis in Motion and is already in production.

independent production

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Feature Documentary

Overdose – Run for a Dream (Overdose – Vágta egy álomért)

Stream of Love (Szerelempatak) 70 min, 2013

98 min, 2014 Director: Gábor Ferenczi Producer: István Major, Gül Togay, Hanka Kastelicová Production Company: Filmteam, HBO Europe

Director: Ágnes Sós Producer: Ágnes Sós, Julianna Ugrin Production Company: Szerelempatak Produkciós Kft. CONTACT: c.art@t-online.hu

FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu INTERNATIONAL SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu In a country suffering through both a financial and identity crisis, a racehorse plays the role of an unlikely hero. Overdose – Run for a Dream tells the story of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and follows several intriguing characters and their relationships over a 4-year period. It’s more than a story about a horse. It’s a story about the hope and passion of a whole nation. After graduating from the Technical university of Budapest in 1974, Gábor Ferenczi acquired a degree in film and television directing from the Academy of Drama and Film university of Budapest in 1984 under the supervision of Zoltán Fábri. He has worked as an independent director, scriptwriter, consultant, and actor, and managed the Béla Balázs Studio between 1984 and 1988. He has made numerous documentaries, features, television programs, and commercials, and has also lectured at several universities in Budapest. Gábor was awarded the Balázs Béla Prize.

Stream of Love is a documentary about an elderly peasant widower who wants to try his luck and remarry. As he visits many women in the village, the deep and dramatic secrets of love, body-and-soul, and joie de vivre come to life. The ﬁlm is full of humor and charm. But amid all the levity, the beauty and struggle of a bygone culture plays out in a way that is both touching and tragic. Stream of Love premiered at the main competition of IDFA in 2013. Ágnes Sós was born in Budapest. As a director and producer, she has made 30 short and long documentaries over the last 20 years. She has won several festival awards both in Hungary and abroad. Her feature documentary Invisible Strings: The Talented Pusker Sisters was screened at 2012 Zagreb Dox. awards: 2014 – 25th Trieste FF-Alpe Adria Cinema Award for Best Documentary, Espansioni Award 2014 – Zagreb Dox 2014 – Special Mention 2014 – Mediawave International Film Festival:– Best Documentary Film

awards: 2014 – Vukovar Film Festival: Best Documentary

supported by Hungarian National Film Fund

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Feature Documentary

Balaton Method

Tititá (A zene felemel)

85 min, 2015

90 min, 2015

Director: Bálint Szimler Starring: Hungarian musicians Producer: Gábor Osváth, Gábor Kovács, Árpád Szirmai Production Company: Boddah, Filmpartners, VisionTeam

Directors: Tamás Almási Dop: Attila Kékesi Main cast: Antal Kuru, Ferenc Snétberger Produced by: Tamás Almási and Julianna Ugrin Production company: Filmdimenzió Kft. and A Zene Felemel Kft.

SALES, FESTIVALS: gabor@boddah.hu Director Bálint Szimler and cinematographer Marcell Rév (White God) previously worked together on the Kodály Method project. The project consisted of a collection of special music videos that featured music recorded live, and all videos were shot in one continuous take. Balaton Method is the continuation and conclusion of their earlier project. Seventeen Hungarian bands and hundreds of musicians collaborated with Szimler and Rév to make a special music documentary with the iconic Lake Balaton serving as the background. This is the first movie in Hungary to be financed partially by crowdfunding. The filmmakers gathered 10,000 euros on Indiegogo.com in 2014. The film debuted to rave reviews in Hungary and is currently ‘touring’ the country throughout the summer with the support of the Hungarian National Film Fund. Bálint Szimler was born in 1987. He enrolled in the university of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest in 2007. His third year project, Here I Am, was selected as the “Best Short Film” during Hungarian Film Week. It was also selected into Cannes Cinéfondation and was later nominated at the European Film Awards. Along with DOP Marcell Rév, Bálint is the author behind the Kodály Method videos and the film Balaton Method. He is currently writing his first feature fiction.

independent production

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

SALES: julianna.ugrin@eclipsefilm.hu FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu Anti is a 17-year-old Roma boy who lives in a Roma slum deep in the Hungarian countryside. Anti’s passion is playing the guitar. That passion earns him and sixty other Roma youth the opportunity to attend the Snétberger Music Talent Center. A path to a better life unfolds right in front of Anti. Does he have the ability to change what feels like a predestined life and make the most of a golden opportunity? The film is a full-length documentary about struggle and hope, and also introduces the excellent work done by the Snétberger Music Talent Center. Tamás Almási is one of the most well known and most successful Hungarian documentary film directors. He graduated from the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest as a film director in 1979. He directs but also occasionally photographs his own films. So far he has made more than forty full-length documentaries and several feature films, many of which have been screened at highly prestigious festivals in Europe and overseas and have won numerous awards.

supported by the Creative Europe - MEdia program, and the Hungarian National Film Fund

Feature Documentary

Tales of Teleki Square (Terleki téri mesék)

The Lost European (Az elveszett európai)

87 min, 2015

61 min, 2015

Director: Barbara Spitzer Producer: György Durst, Gábor Mayer,0 Nico Di Biase Production Company: Jakab Glaser Memorial Foundation

Director: József Sipos Producer: Krisztina Détár Production Company: Filmnet

SALES: Info@telekiter.com FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu The last Jewish praying house - or “Shtiebel” - in Teleki Square in downtown Budapest has miraculously survived the last 100 years. Despite its historical significance for Budapest’s Jewish community, Teleki Square is not in the traditional Jewish Quarter, and in fact is in a different district altogether. The newest generation of the Teleki community begins a journey that reveals the hidden story behind their local praying house. The young members of the Teleki Jewish community interview their elders and soon realize that they are the last living members of a once thriving and now lost community. The former market place at Teleki Square was the biggest in Hungary and was home to a surprisingly vibrant kosher infrastructure, dozens of praying houses, cafes, schools, and numerous restaurants that catered to the daily needs of the tens of thousands of Jews living around the market. The aging interviewees look back fondly on the once flourishing and colorful community in Budapest’s 8th district, which was home to the second biggest Jewish population in the city. At that time, Jewish culture was so prevalent in Teleki Square that the term “Teleki Square Jew” was a well-known and often used expression among members of the Jewish community in Budapest.

SALES: pcnfilm@pcnfilm.hu FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu Even 70 years on, it is vital that the memory of the Holocaust and Raoul Wallenberg be kept alive. This film sets out to draw a coherent picture of Raoul Wallenberg in the years preceding the war, not too long before his acts of outstanding heroism. The Lost European begins with the introduction of a child growing up in a prestigious Swedish family. After being orphaned, and now a young man, the protagonist unexpectedly finds himself working with a Hungarian Jew. His fate goes on to become triumphantly and tragically entangled with the fate of eastern European Jewry. József Sipos is a feature film director and producer. He enriches his work by blending human values with artistic vision. His mission, as he says, is simply to make good films and present them to audiences. His most recent feature length films were Eszter’s Inheritance (2008) and The Adventure (2011). He also developed several television features, including Mindszenty (2010) and The Secret Number (2010)

French documentary ﬁlmmaker Barbara Spitzer got in touch with the Teleki Tér Synagogue - the last Shtiebel in Budapest – while doing ﬁeldwork research about her family's roots in Hungary. She was so captivated by the history and culture of the Shtiebel that she's followed the life of the community with her camera for over a decade. independent production

.independent production

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Short Documentary

In the Language of Cowbells – Straw Coffin (Kolompok nyelvén – Gyékénykoporsó)

TV Drama

The Ambassador to Bern (A berni követ) 76 min, 2014

26 min, 2015 Director: Dezső Zsigmond Producer: Miklós Szederkényi Production Company: KinoFilm Studio

Director: Attila Szász Cast: János Kulka, Tamás Szabó Kimmel, József Kádas, Rozi Lovas, Rémusz Szikszai, Laszlo I. Kish Producer: Tamás Lajos, Tamás Mink Production Company: Film Positive

SALES: dunataj@gmail.com FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@ﬁlmunio.hu, kati.vajda@ﬁlmunio.hu

SALES, FESTIVALS: info@ﬁlmpositive.hu

The fields of eastern Hungary were once grazed by large herds of cows. As these large herds disappeared from small villages, the chime of cowbells slowly turned into the ring of funeral bells. Bálint Balla, one of the last of the local cow farmers, bids a final farewell to his herd and proceeds to make a coffin for himself out of rushes and willow branches. This short documentary uses a rich array of images, music, and sound to depict a world that has now completely vanished from view. Dezső Zsigmond was born in 1956 and currently lives in Budapest. He has been a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts since 2006. He directed several feature and documentary films that often dealt with rural Hungarian life and Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries. He made several films in Transylvania (mostly in the Ghymes region) and the Szatmár region of eastern Hungary. His films are known for a type of magic realism that merges fiction and reality.

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

A fictional account of the 1958 attack against the Hungarian embassy in Bern. Based on the true story about the aftermath of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Hungarian writer-director Attila Szász graduated from the university of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest and worked as a film critic, editor (at Vox – Hungary's biggest movie magazine), and commercial director before deciding to direct films full time. In 2004 he wrote and directed his first short, Now You See Me, Now You Don't, which was screened at over 100 film festivals, winning 20 awards along the way. award: 2014 – Montreal World Film Festival – Bronze Zenith Award 2015 – Tiburon International Film Festival: Fellini Award 2015 – Detective Fest, Moscow: Best Film

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

TV Drama

Black Chronicle (Fekete krónika)

Freedom Flight (Szabadság különjárat)

2x26 min, TV mini-series, 2014

56 min, 2014

Director: Róbert Pajer Cast: Károly Mécs, Dénes Száraz, Kincső Pethő Producer: Jenő Hábermann Production Company: FilmArt Studio

Director: Peter Fazakas Cast: Réka Tenki, Kálmán Varju, Tamás Lengyel Producer: Tamás Lajos, Tamás Mink Production Company: Film Positive

SALES, FESTIVALS: info@ﬁlmart.hu

SALES, FESTIVALS: info@ﬁlmpositive.hu

A collection of short stories that recount several eerie and mysterious crimes committed many centuries ago.

In July, 1956 three young Hungarians attempt to hijack a domestic ﬂight to escape to the free West. The most dangerous journey of their lives holds unexpected turns.

Róbert Pajer studied directing at the university of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, graduating in 1986. His credits include 5 features, several television dramas, and a TV series that he has worked on continuously over the course of his 26-year career.

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

Born in 1967, Peter Fazakas studied English History and Culture at ELTE university in Budapest. He later went on to study Audio-Visual Communication at Moholy-Nagy university of Arts and Design, also in Budapest. Prior to his career in film, he did copywriting in the advertising industry and acted in the Studio “K” theatre group. Since 1997 he has directed projects in nearly every genre, including commercials, music videos, shorts, documentaries, and feature films. Though his debut feature Para in 2008 did not have great success in cinemas, the TV-movie Freedom Flight has been aired in Hungary regularly since its premiere in 2012. He has since directed numerous episodes for a variety of series on HBO and Hungarian television. Peter is currently involved in several projects in both TV and film.

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

TV Drama

Herofinders (Hőskeresők) 56 min, 2014

The House of the Stone Monkeys (A kőmajmok háza) 80 min, 2014

Director: Bence Miklauzic Cast: András Stohl, István Znamenák, Erika Bodnár, Frigyes Hollósi, Mike Kelly Producer: Tamás Babos, Krisztina Lipót Production Company: KinoFilm Studio

Director: Gergely Fonyó Cast: Sándor Csányi, Gabriella Gubás, Piroska Molnár, Máté Haumann, Péter Haumann, Róbert Koltai Producer: Gábor Kálomista Production Company: Megaﬁlm

SALES, FESTIVALS: kinofilm@t-online.hu SALES, FESTIVALS: megafilm@megafilm.hu In search of your father, you must face the past and uncover long-forgotten secrets. Bence Miklauzic was born in Budapest in 1970. He studied history and Hungarian language and literature at ELTE university in Budapest from 1990-95, and continued his studies at the university of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest from 1995–2000. In 2002 Bence made Sleepwalkers, his first feature film. It was presented at many leading international film festivals.

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

A teenager named Kornél lives with his mother. He suffers from asthma, so he’s often unable to play with the other children. During the summer holiday, an odd little girl shows up and tells Kornél extraordinary stories about the building’s former tenants and its mysterious past. Gergely Fonyó is one of Hungary's most sought-after directors, having directed the most commercially successful films over the last few years. His feature Made In Hungaria was a favorite of audiences and critics alike. It was invited to 30+ international film festivals, including the Variety Critics Choice – Top 10 Directors in 2009. Gergely Fonyó’s recent credits include The House of the Stone Monkeys, the prime time crime series Hacktion Reloaded, and HBO Europe’s first landmark original series, Társas Játék (When Shall We Kiss).

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

TV Drama

Two Against Paris (Ketten Párizs ellen)

Bureau (Hivatal) 52 min, 2015

3x50 min, 2015, mini serie 2015 Director: Gábor Zsigmond Papp Main Cast: Péter Sándor, Zsombor Barna, Ildikó Pécsi etc. Producer: Gábor Zsigmond Papp Production Company: Bologna Film

Director: Viktor Oszkár Nagy Main cast: Anna Fignár, Batka Zoltán, Kaya Turan, Kaya Elif, Kaya Asiye, Kaya Asmin Producer: Sára László, Marcell Gerő Production Company: Campﬁlm

SALES, FESTIVALS: pappgzs@gmail.com

SALES, FESTIVALS: office@campﬁlm.eu

This mini series is based on the novel of Gábor Vaszary, which was published in 1938. It's about the adventures of two Hungarian boys, Laci and Pali, in Paris in the 1930s. Naturally there are pretty French girls who the boys become smitten with. Laci and Pali have several problems stemming from a lack of money, the Hungarian immigrants they meet, and their Aunt Bertie who is sent after them by their parents.

BUREAU follows everyday events inside a ﬁctional immigration office. There we meet Anna, a new member of the staff. As we follow Anna’s daily routine, we ﬁnd ourselves faced with sometimes humorous, sometimes thought-provoking, and often touching stories, and we begin to understand the pressure that this office has on those behind the desks.

Since earning his degree at the university of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest in 1996, Gábor has concentrated on documentary ﬁlmmaking. Some of his work – The Life of an Agent (2004), Spy in a One Horse Town (2009) My Soviet Pen Pal (2011) – took part in festivals around the world, from Amsterdam to Mar del Plata.

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

Viktor Oszkár Nagy graduated as a film director from the university of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest in 2007. After making several documentary films that dealt with issues related to immigration and refugees (3 Weddings, Caught Between Two Worlds, Superior Orders), Bureau is Viktor’s first fiction film.

The ﬁlm is supported by the European union`s European integration Fund.

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

TV Documentary

My Mother’s Letters to Comrade Stalin (Anyám levelei Sztálin elvtársnak) 53 min, 2015 Director: Márta Mészáros Main Cast: Márta Mészáros, Pamirbek Kazybajev, Róza Ajtmatova Producer: Attila Csáky Production Company: Cameofilm Stúdió SALES: info@cameofilm.hu FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu

Márta Mészáros has portrayed the fate of her father László Mészáro – a sculptor executed during the Stalinist purges – in several of her films. This time she tracks the fate of her mother, Vilma Kovács, who followed her husband to faraway Kyrgyzstan, where she was left all alone with her children when her husband was arrested. Her surviving letters are not just historical documents about a horrific regime, but they’re also a testimony to the struggle of a courageous woman and her lifelong devotion to her spouse. We get a firsthand glimpse into the apathy of Soviet authorities (who did little to help Vilma) and witness just how worthless an individual's life was in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Stalinist terror destroyed Vilma twice: first while she struggled in vain to find her husband, and then again when she died during the Second World War, after which all memory of her life was erased. Returning to the scene where the events took place, Márta fails to find any trace of her mother. In fact, the eerie absence of her mother’s existence is what creates the dramatic tension in this documentary. But Márta manages to track down one witness: the sister of the world-famous Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov. It is soon revealed that the two women have shared an astoundingly similar fate. The internationally acclaimed Cannes, Berlin, and Venice awardwinning Hungarian film director Márta Mészáros was born in 1931. She started her career working in documentary film. She won the Golden Bear for Adoption in 1975 and received the Grand Prix of the jury in Cannes in 1984 for Diary for my Children.

Rape is entrenched in the culture of war, with perhaps no better example than the Soviet occupation of Hungary in 1945. Extensive research into records from STD clinics shows that hundreds of thousands of Hungarian women were raped during this period. The severity of the situation is also highlighted by the fact that abortion was made legal shortly after the Soviet occupation. This is a ﬁlm about the sins of the past about victims and war criminals, forgiveness and forgetting.

Silenced Shame (Elhallgatott gyalázat) 52 min, 2014 Director: Fruzsina Skrabski Producer: Zoltán Janovics Production Company: Omega-Kreatív LP SALES, FESTIVALS: skrabski.fruzsina@gmail.com

Fruzsina Skrabski was born in 1975. She got her PhD degree at the university of Pécs, Faculty of Humanities. Her research was about cross-cultural communication. She began her career working for Hungarian newspapers as an employee of Internal and Foreign Affairs. Her ﬁrst ﬁlm with Tamás Novák, titled Crime Unpunished, was about Béla Biszku – the communist Minister of Interior Affairs after the 1956 revolution. In 2012 she co-directed a TV documentary series with Tamás Novák, titled Ring and Run Away. awards: 2014 Trieste A Film for Peace Festival: Special Mention supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi are adored by millions around the world. However, few people know that the “Messi” of the 1950s was a Hungarian by the name of László Kubala. Kubala’s fame was the reason that Camp Nou was constructed, which still stands as the largest football stadium in Europe. Following the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, Kubala was joined at Barça by two stars from Hungary’s “Golden Team”: Kocsis and Czibor. These three Hungarians went on to win the hearts of fans throughout Catalonia and the Spanish-speaking world. But behind their success, each suffered their share of professional challenges and personal tragedy.

Barça’s Untold Legends – More Than a Story (Magyarok a Barçáért) 85 min, 2014 Director: Tibor Kocsis Main Cast: Sándor Kocsis, Zoltán Czibor, László Kubala Producer: Tibor Kocsis Production Company: Flora Film International SALES, FESTIVALS: florafilm@florafilm.hu

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Tibor Kocsis was born in 1962 and is an established producer, director, and cinematographer. He got his directing and cinematography degree at the Hungarian Academy of Drama and Film and TV in 1993. Tibor is the founder, owner, and managing director of Flora Film International which is well known for producing acclaimed documentaries. awards: International Baku FICTS Sport Film Festival: Special Prize of Jury

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

TV Documentary This documentary offers a glimpse into the state security operations of the Kádár-regime from a completely new point of view. It marks the first time that a former liaison officer has spoken openly about the regime, and specifically about spying on the Catholic Church. With clever filmmaking and never-before-heard dialogue, director Ágota Varga paints a more authentic picture of the objectives of the state security forces at that time, and in the process uncovers details about the regime’s control, subterfuge, and recruitment of informants. The protagonist is a former police officer known as “The Spymaster”, who recruited and kept contact with innumerable secret agents. His main specialty was the "fight against the reactionary church.” Ágota Varga is a director, cinematographer and producer. Following her studies in journalism, Ágota worked as a program editor and later as a chief editor for television. Since 1990 she has made documentaries and investigative films. Winner of the Béla Balázs Award, the uNESCO, and Tolerance Prizes, in addition to several Hungarian and international film festival and critic awards, Ágota Varga has nearly 100 documentaries credited to her name. Some of her most accomplished work includes: The Light of Our Eyes and Porajmos – The Gypsy Holocaust.

The Spymaster (A tartótiszt) 64 min, 2014 Director: Ágota Varga Producer: Ágota Varga Production Company: FILMIRa Ltd. SALES: agotamira@gmail.com FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@ﬁlmunio.hu, kati.vajda@ﬁlmunio.hu

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

Educational Documentary The Timehopper is a nature reality about the changes experienced by the habitats and wildlife in the Carpathian Basin in and after the Ice Age, which spans some 20,000 years. Livius Varga, a professional musician, amateur naturalist, and fanatic tablet user, is not an introverted man by any means. To activate his brand new TIME-HOP application that he loaded onto his tablet, Livius has to leave civilization behind and withdraw into nature.

The Timehopper (Az időgyűrű ura)

Zsolt Marcell Tóth started his career as a contributor for the Hungarian National Public Service Television. In 1998 he founded his own production company and started producing content for television. His most recent company is Természetﬁlm/Filmjungle, which produces educational TV documentaries about nature.

3x28 min, 2015 Director: Zsolt Marcell Tóth Producer: Zsolt Marcell Tóth , Attila Dávid Molnár Production Company: T.ZS.M. Produkció and Természetﬁlm.hu SALES, FESTIVALS: tzsm@termeszetﬁlm.hu

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

This mini series portrays the lifestyle of cargo ship sailors on the Danube. It also depicts the Danube throughout the seasons, from its source down to the delta. The mighty river some 2,580 kilometers long - is one of the longest commercial routes in Europe, but not many people know about the nomadic lifestyle of cargo ship sailors.

2x52 min, Documentary, 2014

Gergő Somogyvári (born in 1978) studied cinematography at the univesity of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest after ﬁnishing his studies in journalism and photography. In collaboration with producer György Durst, Gergő directed four documentaries and took part in various documentary ﬁlms as a cinematographer. Tile Mail, a documentary made in cooperation with Judit Feszt, earned him the Best Documentary Director and Cinematographer Award at Hungarian Film Week in 2009.

Director: Gergő Somogyvári Producer: Ágnes Pataki Production company: Partnersﬁlm Kft. SALES, FESTIVALS: gergo.somogyvari@gmail.com

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

Trans Danube 1-2 (Trans Duna 1-2)

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Educational Documentary Famous Hungarian alternative musician Livius Varga has a problem with time. Fed up with the crazy rhythm of Hungary’s capital city, he decides to move underground. As a professional psychologist, he’s eager to know what happens to his sense of time after spending days in complete darkness. He also hopes that his expedition to subterranean Budapest will help him better understand the city’s history. Livius documents his journey with a small handycam, but we also follow his daily routine through infrared security cameras. In the ﬁrst episode, he explores the Labyrinth of Kőbánya – a 30 km long system of tunnels under the Tenth District of Budapest.

Budapest Underground 26 min, 2014 Director: Balázs Lerner Cast: Lívius Varga Producer: Zsolt Marcell Tóth Production Company: Filmjungle SALES, FESTIVALS: info@termeszetﬁlm.hu

Balázs Lerner studied cultural and visual anthropology. He authored several books on Africa and world religions. As an enthusiastic caver and cave diver, he regularly visits and explores the network of caves beneath Budapest. He currently works as a scientiﬁc editor for a Hungarian documentary TV channel.

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme thing lurks in the shadows. In the ballast of ships, in the cargo of planes, and in transportation containers of every variety, invasive stowaways make their way to distant lands. When they ﬁnally escape into their foreign habitat, they are left to their own devices – adapting to a new environment and new climate and confronting new rivals and new challenges. But why does this matter to people?

Silent Invaders (Csendes gyarmatosítók) 26 min, 2013 Director: Szabolcs Mosonyi Narrator: Ákos Kőszegi Producer: Erika Bagladi Production Company: Nat Film SALES, FESTIVALS: natﬁlm@mailbox.hu The migration of species is not a new phenomenon. However, it appears that the scale of migratory distances has expanded as a result of the ever-increasing necessity of international trade. At ports, airports, and railway stations alike, some-

Szabolcs Mosonyi is a director and cinematographer. He was born in Budapest in 1970 and went on to receive his university degree as a teacher of biology and geography in 1994. His interest in nature and knowledge sharing was evident during his time as an amateur nature photographer, and later as a producer of nature films. He and his wife, Erika Bagladi, started to concentrate more seriously on documentary filmmaking in 2000. Szabolcs Mosonyi’s work is shown by a number of foreign and domestic TV channels and movie theaters, and many of his projects have gone on to win dozens of awards at festivals around the world. awards: Csodakút 2013: Main Prize Agrofilm 2013: 2nd Prize Bar 2013: Special Prize

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme amongst all that modernity – an enormous, cone-shaped alluvial deposit, which is home to tiny villages, forests, and river outlets. In that fertile region, bordering the Danube and its branches, can be found Szigetköz.

Szigetköz – The Inland Delta of the Danube (Vad Szigetköz) 52 min, 2014 Director: Szabolcs Mosonyi Narrator: Gyula Szersény Producer: Erika Bagladi Production company: Nat Film SALES, FESTIVALS: natﬁlm@mailbox.hu The pace of life has sped up in western Hungary, where windmills, motorways, big cities, and industrialized zones are scattered across the countryside. Yet, something is hiding

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Szabolcs Mosonyi is a director and cinematographer. He was born in Budapest in 1970 and went on to receive his university degree as a teacher of biology and geography in 1994. His interest in nature and knowledge sharing was evident during his time as an amateur nature photographer, and later as a producer of nature films. He and his wife, Erika Bagladi, started to concentrate more seriously on documentary filmmaking in 2000. Szabolcs Mosonyi’s work is shown by a number of foreign and domestic TV channels and movie theaters, and many of his projects have gone on to win dozens of awards at festivals around the world. awards: Vaasa 2014: 3rd Prize Envirofilm 2014: Special Prize Aranyszem 2014: Category Prize Baikalkinofest 2014: Category prize; Best Cinema., Special Prize Sondrio 2014: Category Prize Ekotopfilm 2014: Category Prize BEFF 2014: Special Prize

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

Short Film

Skinner (Sintér)

Richie (Ricsi)

12 min, 2014

15 min, 2014

Director: Gábor Fabricius Cast: Tibor Szőke, Andrea Petrik, Roland Rába Producer: Ferenc Pusztai Production Company: KMH Film SALES: sales@kmhfilm.com FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu

Director: Gábor Hörcher Cast: Richárd Steinbach, Brigitta Kovács, Péter Fonyadt Producer: László Hartai, Gábor Rajna, Gábor Sipos Production Company: ELTE SALES, FESTIVALS: info@kraatsﬁlm.com

To avoid eviction from your home in Budapest – a city mired by economic depression – people often resort to evicting others. Tibi, a hardcore bouncer with a conscience, soon ﬁnds that he must turn against his own to save himself. Gábor Fabricius was born in Budapest and attended the Moholy-Nagy university and London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Skinner is his debut short ﬁlm.

Richie's friends have organised a farewell party the night before Richie needs to go away. Meanwhile, his mother is busy packing for the trip instead of him. Gábor Hörcher was born in 1980 in Budapest, Hungary. He attended the university of Psychology, Law and the university of Film Studies, and has worked as a waiter in London and as a mixer and bartender in Greece. He has lived in the uS, France, and Cambodia, where he taught courses on Human Rights at a local university. He started working with director and producer, Marcell Iványi in early 2008. They run KraatsFilm together where they produce ﬁlms and theatre performances.

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

Seventies (Hetvenes)

Letter to God (Levél Istenhez)

29 min, 2014

30 min, 2014

Director: Linda Dombrovszky Cast: Kálmán Németh, Al Ghaoui Hesna, Producer: István Koller Production Company: KKTV Media SALES: dombrovszky@gmail.com FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@ﬁlmunio.hu, kati.vajda@ﬁlmunio.hu

Director: Tamás Yvan Topolánszky Cast: Krisztián Kovács, Lídia Danis, József Tóth, János Kulka Producer: Claudia Sümeghy Production Company: HALLUCI-NATION SALES, FESTIVALS: info@halluci-nation.com

At an unknown time in the near future, a Central-Eastern European country – fearing overpopulation as a result of an aging population – passes a gruesome law that requires everyone approaching the age of 70 be put to sleep in a humane fashion.

Ali is a young farmer who lives in abject poverty with his wife and children on a farm far from the village. The driest summer of his life endangers everything he has built for his family. He prays to God everyday with his childlike prayers. As his bitterness grows, he asks for rain like the world has never seen. Ali gets his wish, but God works in mysterious ways…

Linda Dombrovszky graduated as film and television director at university of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest. She studied on scholarship at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. Director of several award-winning short films and documentaries, she is currently working on her first feature script based on the story of Seventies.

Born in Männedorf, Switzerland in 1987, Tamás is the founder and owner of Halluci-Nation Ltd. He currently studies Media Design at MOME – Moholy-Nagy university of Arts and Design. Tamás has a passion for classic Hollywood and all its contrivances.

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Short Film

The Border (Határ)

Provincia

24 min, 2015

21 min, 2014

Director: Mátyás Szabó Cast: Márton Patkós, Imre Csuja, Franciska Farkas Producer: Miklós Bosnyák, István Major Production Company: University of Theater and Film Arts and Filmteam SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu

Director: György Mór Kárpáti Cast: Ákos Orosz, Hermina Fátyol, Producers: Miklós Bosnyák, Nándor Lovas Production Company: SZFE, Mirage Film Studio SALES: mirage@miragefilm.hu FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu

A prisoner by the name of Maydan has the fortunate chance to escape from his guard. But, still chained to a handcar, he is forced to follow the rails. He has no way of knowing who is friend and who is enemy, or whether the girl he meets will help him to evade the law.

supported by Hungarian National Film Fund

György Mór Kárpáti (1984) is a Budapest-based film director and writer. He studied at the Directors’ Department of the university of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. His short films have been selected for major international film festivals: Provincia premiered at the Cinéfondation Selection Cannes 2014, while Forest competed at the Berlinale Shorts 2011. supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

End of Puberty (A kamaszkor vége)

The Execution (Kivégzés)

13 min, 2015

14 min, 2014

Director: Fanni Szilágyi Cast: Liza Kárpáti, Zita Szenteczki, Renátó Olasz Producer: Miklós Bosnyák Production Company: University of Theatre and Film Arts SALES, FESTIVALS: danieldeak@daazo.com

Director: Petra Szőcs Cast: Katalin Moldován, Zalán Ilyés, Tamás Fosztó, András Dancsuly, Liliana Derevici Producers: Iván Angelusz, Ágnes Csere Co-producers: Róbert Lakatos, Gábor Rajna, Gábor Sipos Production Company: Merkel Film Kft., Katapult Film SALES: office@katapultfilm.hu FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu

Mátyás Szabó was born in 1987 in Budapest, Hungary. After high school he studied Slavic culture and aesthetics at the university Pázmány Péter. In 2011 he started studying at the university of Theatre and Film Arts of Budapest.

On a beautiful summer day, teenage twins meet a boy who acquaints them with sexuality, jealousy, and a real anger that drives them apart. This moment marks the end of puberty. Born in 1986, Fanni Szilágyi graduated as a photographer from the university of Kaposvár. She began at the university of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest as a cinematographer and is now preparing her graduation ﬁlm, which is also an adaptation of a story by the young contemporary author Mán Vámhegyi Reka. Fanni has directed several shorts, ﬁlmed several video clips, and also had numerous exhibitions as a photographer.

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

Otto works as a deliveryman for a food store in Budapest. When his van breaks down during a countryside delivery, he ﬁnds himself on an archaeological excavation site. Otto spends the day on the excavation.

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

It’s 1990 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Three children reenact Ceausescu’s execution. Who will be the victim? Petra Szőcs was born in Cluj-Napoca, Romania but now lives in Budapest. She earned a degree in Screenwriting at the university of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest. Her shorts have played at Trieste Film Festival and the Transylvanian International Film Festival

Cannes short Film Competition 2014 supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

Short Film

Concrete Noise (Betonzaj)

Agape (Agapé)

30 min, 2014

22 min, 2014

Director: István Kovács Cast: Dóra Sztarenki, Tünde Szalontay, László Mátray Producers: Miklós Bosnyák, Gábor Osváth Production Company: University of Theatre and Film Arts, Filmfabriq SALES, FESTIVALS: info@ﬁlmfabriq.hu

Director: Ottó Bánovits Cast: Andor Lukács, Katalin Lázár, Péter Haumann Producer: Réka Feketem, Nándor Lovas Production Company: Mirage Film Studio SALES, FESTIVALS: zsuzska@mirageﬁlm.hu

Dia is a young female kickboxer who lives in the suburbs of Budapest with her mom and younger brother. Her dream is to compete in Germany where she can earn good money. All she has to do is win her upcoming championship. Born in 1985 in then-Yugoslavia as a Hungarian minority, István Kovács spent most his youth in the Southern Hungarian town of Szeged. He enrolled in the university of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest in 2011, where he recently got his BA in Directing in the class of János Szász and Attila Janisch.

An old couple is living on a desolate farm in the middle of nowhere. When his wife dies, the old man has a dream: he meets a man who calls himself the crossmaker. Otto is a Hungarian/Swedish ﬁlmmaker. He completed his BA Film studies at the university of the Arts London, and he later received his MA studies in directing from the prestigious Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. He is currently in pre-production for his latest short ﬁlm: DonkeyXote.

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

Heart Blocker (Szívradír)

Sty (Ól)

17 min, 2014

11 min, 2014

Director: Sándor Csukás, Kata Oláh Cast: Gergely Bánki, Zsóﬁa Szamosi Producer: Kata Oláh, Gyula Németh Production Company: TV COM Kft. SALES, FESTIVALS: makaborcss@gmail.com

Director: Árpád Hermán Cast: Péter Végh, Iván Dengyel Producer: Oskó-Szabó Csaba Production Company: World Wings Production SALES, FESTIVALS: arpad.herman@gmail.com

The life of the man living with Mum gets upset by a phone call from the hospital. A weary nurse helps him to navigate in the maze of administration.

Endre tries to earn money as a butcher. One morning an old farmer asks him to slaughter his pig, and this changes his life forever.

Sándor Csukás is a distinguished cinematographer with a career that spans decades, throughout which he has worked primarily as a director of photography. He has collaborated with several directors and has taken an active role in the development of a variety of documentaries and short and long feature films. He directed Birthday in 2010, which immediately generated international interest and was his first film in such a role. Heart Blocker is his second film and is based on a personal experience.

Árpád Herman graduated at the Moholy-Nagy university of Art and Design in 2011. During his studies, he worked on TV series as a compositor and in advertising as an animator. After university he started working as a freelance director. Since 2013 he’s worked at ODD animation studio as a writer and director.

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Short Animation

Short Film

Romanian Sunrise

Tale (Mese)

11 min, 2013

74 min, 2015

Director: Ábel Visky Cast: Gusztáv Molnár, Ion Sapdaru Producer: Juli Berkes, Eszter Gyárfás, Miklós Bosnyák Production Company: University of Theatre and Film Arts, Proton Cinema, Filmteam SALES, FESTIVALS: berkesjuli@protoncinema.hu

Director: Attila Bertóti Producer: József Fülöp Production Company: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design FESTIVALS: fabics@mome.hu SALES: klaudia.androsovits@ﬁlmalap.hu

Dániel, a 30 years-old Hungarian man, is searching for his father on the Romanian seashore. Although he hasn’t seen him since his early childhood, he has a very special request for him.

This is an animated short about Vanya, Lenochka, the king, the queen, the robber, the guards, the horse, the blacksmith, and the ﬁre chief and his wife – all based on a short story by Daniil Kharms.

Ábel Visky was born in Romania in 1987. Since September 2011 he’s been studying ﬁlm directing at university of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. During his studies Ábel’s made several festival winning short movies, including Zsolt and Kriszta, Dummy, and Playfellows. Romanian Sunrise is his graduation ﬁlm.

Attila Bertóti graduated as a ﬁlm director from the Visual Arts and Media faculty at the Sapientia Hungarian university of Transylvania in 2009. Between 2010 and 2014 Attila attended the Animation MA program at the Moholy-Nagy university of Art and Design in Budapest.

supported by Hungarian National Film Fund

Call to the Corpse (Tetemre hívás)

The Hoppies (Hoppi mesék)

10 min, 2014

7 min, Animated Short Series, 13 episodes by 2016

Director: Isti Madarász Main cast: Benő Fehér Balázs, Franciska Törőcsik, Producer: Tamás Lajos, Tamás Mink Production Company: Szupermodern Studió Kft. SALES, FESTIVALS: info@szupermodern.hu

Director: Ferenc Rófusz, Andrea Miskédi Producer: Ferenc Rófusz, Tamás Salusinszky Production company: The Hoppies Ltd. SALES, FESTIVALS: tamas.salusinszky@thehoppies.com

Call to the Corpse is a motion picture adaptation of János Arany’s 1877 ballad that goes by the same title. In the original work, a father mourns the death of his young son Benő Bárczi and tries to ﬁnd his son’s murderers by “calling to the corpse” his enemies, acquaintances, friends, relatives, and ﬁnally the town’s whole population. He genuinely believes that his son’s wound would bleed if the killer were to stand next to his son’s body, thus revealing the identity of the killer.

The Hoppies is a non-violent series for children aged 2 through 7. Each episode is about a different holiday from around the world. The Hoppies are cute little creatures living in Hoppiland and they have a huge calendar that shows each international holiday happening on that day. Hoppiland is a multicultural town where you can ﬁnd Hoppies of all different nationalities. Our stories about birthdays, Christmas, carnivals, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Halloween start here.

Isti Madarász was born in 1976 in Miskolc. His official directorial debut was in February 2007 during the Hungarian Film Week, where he premiered his time travelling short film Sooner or Later. The film was a favorite during Hungarian Film Week. The film won several awards and was selected to more than 20 festivals around the world. Isti is currently working on his debut feature film, a Mobius strip-like thriller called Loop, which will be in theaters at the end of 2015.

Ferenc Rofusz is an internationally recognized artist who has been distinguished with numerous international awards for his accomplishments in the ﬁeld of animation. He is also the recipient of the 1981 Oscar for writing, directing and producing the animated short ﬁlm The Fly.

supported by the Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Short Animation A grandmother is often the heart of a family. Women learn a lot from their grandmothers, who have a lasting effect on their grandchildren’s lives – as much, if not more than, their parents. But there was also a time when these elderly women were young. They were children, teenagers, and then brides, and their former indiscretions are hidden over time – becoming even part of a family myth. This ﬁlm is about my three grandmothers...

My Three Grandmas (Három nagymamám volt) 16 min, 2014 Director: Katalin Glaser Producer: Zsolt Iván Varga Production Company: BPAnim Holding Kft. SALES, FESTIVALS: varga.ivan@bpanim.com

Katalin Glaser was born in 1983 in Budapest. In 2003 she completed her studies at the Animation Faculty and the Faculty of Visual Environmental Culture and Teaching at the Moholy-Nagy university of Art and Design in Budapest. She has participated in several group exhibitions over the last 14 years, and in 2009 she had her ﬁrst individual exhibition. supported by the Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

The ﬁlm begins in a big, technically developed Scandinavian city. Men no longer show any interest towards women. Instead, their only love interest is technology. Women, of course, are very upset about this and they continuously attempt more and more desperate things to get the attention of men – without any success. There is, however, a way out of this situation: a travel agency called Limbo Limbo Travel, which organizes women-only adventures to far-away lands where neglected ladies can feel attractive again.

Limbo Limbo Travel 15 min, 2014 Director: Zsuzsanna Kreif, Borbála Zétényi Producer: József Fülöp Coproducer: Christian Pfohl Production Company: MOME ANIM Coproducer: Lardux Film (Paris) SALES, FESTIVALS: fabics@mome.hu

Limbo Limbo Travel is the culmination of 4 years of work. The film started as a thesis project at MOME and it was finished as a French-Hungarian co-production. Bori also worked as a layout and background artist in the first episode of the animated TV-series Candide. Zsuzsanna also took part in the pilot episode of Candide as an art director, and later co-directed the first episode of Candide with Olivér Hegyi.

supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

This ﬁlm is deﬁned by an unconventional narrative. It presents a subjective world through 47 scenes, conveying the irrational coherence of our surroundings through small moments that are interlaced with emotion and associations. The surreal situations are based on interactions between human and nature. Differences between humans and animals diminish. Everyone plays their role and leaves a mark. Every small movement affects another, ultimately building an unpredictable and irrational system.

Symphony No. 42 10 min, 2014 Director: Réka Bucsi Producer: József Fülöp Production Company: MOME ANIM SALES: klaudia.androsovits@filmalap.hu FESTIVALS: marta.benyei@filmunio.hu, kati.vajda@filmunio.hu

Réka Bucsi is a Hungarian independent animation filmmaker and illustrator, born in 1988 in Filderstadt, Germany. From 2008 to 2013 she attended MOME in the Animation Department. Her thesis film Symphony No. 42 was selected for the Berlinale Shorts and Sundance Film Festival, and was shortlisted for the 87th Academy Awards. Réka is currently working on her new short film at the Residency Program of Open Workshop in Viborg, Denmark. She is represented as a director by Passion Pictures Paris. supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Short Animation In a story about generosity, we follow the adventures of Coyote (the wolf-man), Iktome (the spider-man), and Iya (the rock). Together they take us into the spectacular and magical world of Native American folklore.

Coyote and the Rock (Kojot és a szikla)

Áron Gauder, director of the feature length animation ﬁlm The District, is an award winning director, having previously won the Grand Prix at Annecy Film Festival. His most recent work is the Coyote and the Rock – a Native American tale that has already won two awards in the uS and was selected for several more festivals.

10 min, 2015 Director: Áron Gauder Producer: Réka Temple Narrator: Hans Peterson Voiceover Cast: Andrew Heﬂer, Zoltán Huba, Hans Peterson Production Company: Cinemon Entertainment SALES, FESTIVALS: johanna@cinemon-entertainment.com

supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

A young man takes a bus, and then begins a surreal journey… The young man uses different means of public transportation to cut his way through the urban sprawl towards the unknown. During the voyage, he digs deeper and deeper into his suppressed frustrations. The bizarre, monotonous, and repetitive activities of the people around him make him even more frustrated.

Frustration (Frusztráció) 23 min, 2014 Director: Milán Kopasz Producer: József Fülöp Production Company: MOME ANIM SALES: klaudia.androsovits@ﬁlmalap.hu FESTIVALS: fabics@mone.hu

Milán earned his BA degree at MOME Animation in 2012. In the same year he won the George Pal Prize at the Primanima International Animation Festival. In 2013 he won the Best Applied Animation prize at the Kecskeméti Animation Film Festival. In 2014 he participated at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival as a member of the Hungarian delegation, and he also made a spot film for the event. He is currently working on his MA thesis project at MOME. supported by the Hungarian National Film Fund Sina is a lonely traveler with infinite knowledge. He is searching the universe in a quest to find the source of life in the hope that after finding it, he himself would be able to create life. He finds Koré, the betrayed and dying mother of Earth, and as it turns out, together they have the ability to create life. But Sina starts to envy the girl's creative power, and this envy sends their young world on a path to destruction. Sina has to fight his own nature to earn the girl's forgiveness so they can create a common world.

Sina and Kore - Genezis (Sina és Koré - Teremtés) 27 min, 2015 Director: Emil Goodman Producers: Miklós Kázmér, Zoltán Hídvégi Production Company: Umbrella Kreatív Kft. Co-Producer: Dániel Kresméry Exec-Producer: Péter Csornay SALES, FESTIVALS: genoveva.petrovits@daazo.com

HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE

Known for his unique combination of live action and various forms of animation, Emil Goodman has directed some of the freshest music videos and shorts in Hungary over the last few years. In 2011 he premiered the trailer for his ﬁrst feature ﬁlm project, Henry Waltz. Emil graduated from Moholy-Nagy university of Art and Design. supported by Media Council Film and Media Funding scheme

Meet us in Cannes! Village international, HuNgariaN paViliON, No. 136. Tel.: +33-(0)4-92-59-02-13 Ágnes Havas (CEO, Hungarian National Film Fund) havas.agnes@filmalap.hu +36-20-934-11-80 Csaba bereczki (Eurimages representative, international director) csaba.bereczki@filmalap.hu +33-679–397–113 Márta bényei (Festival manager) marta.benyei@filmunio.hu +36–30-936-32-59 Csaba papp (public relations) csaba.papp@filmunio.hu +36–30–936–31–49

HNFF WOrld salEs, riviera C15 Klaudia androsovits klaudia.androsovits@ﬁlmalap.hu +36–30–936–33–89

Hungarian Film Magazine

published by Hungarian National Film Fund (HNNF)

Editors-in-Chief: Dániel Deák, Gábor Osváth project Coordinator: Genovéva Petrovits Editors: Zsuzsanna Deák, Janka Pozsonyi, Diana Nagy Contributors: Anita Libor, Genovéva Petrovits art director: Tünde Kálmán Gábor Andor Tooth photographer: Gábor Valuska proofreaders: Nicholas Maffe, Anna Gát

Hungarian Film Magazine is published by Hungarian National Film Fund. Published in Hungary May 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is forbidden save with the written permission of the publishers. On the cover: géza röhrig from Son of Saul

www.issuu.com/hungarianfilm www.filmfund.hu facebook.com/MagyarNemzetiFilmalap www.filmunio.eu HUNGARIAN FILM MAGAZINE