Cameras roll in Hungary
The Hungarian film industry is starting to find its feet again, with the introduction of a new film fund and high-profile projects going into production. Geoffrey Macnab reports
“Hungary is alive and well. The past is behind us, the future is ahead of us with very stable fi nancing and pictures greenlit,” declares Vajna, the big- name Hollywood producer of the latest Terminator instalments and the early Rambo fi lms, who has spent the last year re-organising the Hungarian fi lm sector. He jokes that he will be on the Croisette, “shaking hands and kissing babies” as he launches a charm offensive on behalf of the Magyars and their movies, but his point is serious: a once-broken system has now been mended. When Vajna was appointed Hungarian fi lm
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commissioner in early 2011, the local fi lm sector was in a parlous state. The public body, the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (MMKA) had collapsed with enormous debts. Production had all but ground to a standstill. Now, with new projects in development, production and post, the sector is reviving. The fi rst movie to be backed by the new
Hungarian Film Fund since Vajna took over, Janos Szasz’s The Notebook, has now fi nished principal photography. Based on Agota Kristof’s novel about brothers who grow up during the Second World War and commit cruel acts in order to survive, the fi lm received $842,000 (HUF180m) from the fund. Meanwhile, three other projects — Liza, The Fox Fairy by Karoly Ujj Meszaros, Zero by Gyula Nemes and Hier by Balint Kenyeres — have been greenlit, and there are nearly 40 pictures in development, including seven fi rst features, one feature-length animation and two theatrical documentaries.
INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS IN HUNGARY The Borgias
Hungary’s tax incentive offers a 20% rebate on Hungarian and non-Hungarian spend, or 25% on Hungarian spend qualifying expenditure and 10% on international qualifying expenditure. Hungary is a member of Eurimages and of the MEDIA programme and has bilateral treaties with Canada, France, Germany and Italy. In spite of the uncertainty
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
surrounding the industry in the wake of Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary’s (MMKA) collapse, international productions continued to settle in Hungary last year, among them the second season of Neil Jordan’s Showtime series The Borgias, Working Title’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and
■ 16 Screen International at Cannes May 19, 2012
Plan B’s zombie fi lm World War Z. Many of these productions have set up shop at Korda Studios, which opened in 2004 and were described by Guillermo del Toro, who shot Hellboy II: The Golden Army there, as “perfectly calibrated”. Meanwhile the fi fth Die Hard instalment, A Good Day To Die Hard, recently started shooting at the new Raleigh Studios complex just west of Budapest.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
he message from the Hungarian Film Fund under commissioner Andy Vajna is clear: Hungary is back in business.
Peter Bergendy’s The Exam
‘We are going to be at every major market with these
movies’ Andy Vajna, government commissioner for the renewal of the Hungarian film industry
Aron Gauder is remaking The District in 3D
A new way of funding The new system Vajna has set up for production funding works on a continuous basis with no set deadlines, benefi ting both the fi lm-makers and the fund. “We don’t have to look at 500 scripts at once; we’re looking at between fi ve and seven a week. We can pay more attention and the fi lm-makers can comfortably fi nish their work and hand it in when they’re ready, rather than when the date expires,” says Vajna. “Every day is an application day. We receive about
one application each day,” adds Agnes Havas, general manager at the Hungarian Film Fund. A fi ve-member board — made up of Vajna,
Havas, producer Peter Miskolczi, screenwriter Reka Divinyi, and professor and Hungarian fi lm expert Andras Balint Kovacs — decides which projects will be supported, with no decision taking
The Notebook actor Ulrich Matthes (left) and director Janos Szasz on set
more than 60 days to be processed. Applicants all receive readers’ reports. “All fi ve of us are experienced and successful
representatives of the Hungarian fi lm industry,” Havas says. The fund’s emphasis is on full-length features, animation and documentaries made with cinema release in mind, because documentaries for TV and shorts are supported by the broadcasters. Script development is limited to $35,000
(HUF7.5m) and is based on synopses and treatments. Basic production support is limited to $695,000 (HUF150m) though this can be extended by up to 90% of a Hungarian project’s budget and 50% of an international production’s budget, in exchange for the fund receiving co-producer status and a share of box-offi ce revenues. Vajna successfully negotiated with the Hungarian
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