BUDAPEST: The first feature of Hungarian director Dénes Nagy, Natural light / Természetes fény has been invited to the Main Competition of the 71st Berlin International Film Festival, which opens on 1 March 2021. The film is a Hungarian/Latvian/French/German coproduction. This is the first time two Hungarian films will compete for the Golden Bear.
BUDAPEST: The year 2020 started as a good one. The National Film Institute – Hungary (NFI) was established in January 2020 as the successor of the Hungarian National Film Fund, and Barnabás Tóth's historical drama Those Who Remained / Akik maradtak, produced by Inforg-M&M Film, got on the short list in the Academy Awards' International Feature Film category. The film didn't make it into the nominations' list and with the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic the Hungarian film industry faced serious challenges.
BUDAPEST: The Golden Bear winner and Oscar nominated director Ildikó Enyedi returns to the Berlin International Film Festival as a jury member, and she will also present the Balaton Brigade series project at the Co-Pro Series pitch forum. The Berlinale Co-Production Market, established seven years ago, runs 2 - 5 March 2021. This is the first time that a Hungarian series has been invited to participate.
BUDAPEST: The 7th edition of the Budapest International Documentary Festival runs 1 to 10 March 2021, screening 30 documentaries in competition. The event will be held online, because Hungarian film theatres are closed and not expected to reopen until the beginning of March.
BUDAPEST: The National Film Institute – Hungary supported the pre-production of The Orphan / Az árva, the third feature film by László Nemes, with 66.5 m Ft / 186,250 EUR.
BUDAPEST: The National Film Institute – Hungary has announced over 1 m EUR in production grants for five feature films, a pre-production grant for one feature film, and development grants for three feature films.
BUDAPEST: Hungarian director Dániel Tiszeker is filming Christmas Flame / Nagykarácsony, a classical love story between a cynical firefighter Arnold and a disorganised director of a school performance. The shooting began on 29 December 2020.
BUDAPEST: Hungarian domestic box office fell by 62% in 2020. The total gross of Hungarian films was 838 million HUF / 2.3 million in EUR in 2019, but fell to 320.1 million HUF / 888,126 EUR in 2020. The admissions dropped from 595,587 to 224,763. The number of domestic premieres also decreased, from 26 to 16.
BUDAPEST: Dóra Szűcs's second film, Budapest, Where the Love Starts / Budapest, ahol a szerelem kezdődik finished shooting in Hungary, before moving to Vietnam to continue filming. „This is the first feature film coproduced by Hungary and Vietnam. Moreover, it's the first coproduction between an EU member country and Vietnam,” producer Lea György of Solve Art told FNE.
BUDAPEST: The National Film Institute – Hungary supported the production of one feature film in its December 2020 round. Scirocco / Sirokkó is Moroccan/Hungarian/Italian coproduction and tells the story of a 43-year-old man who signs up for a mission to rescue a mysterious wrecked ship on the shores of the Atlantic Sahara.
