15/04/2005

For the second successive year, there will be an Hungarian Pavilion within the International Village at the Cannes Film Festival. Guided by Magyar Filmunió, the organisation in charge of promoting Hungarian films abroad, this initiative brings together representatives from the National Film Office and Media Desk Hungary, as well as the international sales company Mokép – Hungarofilm Division which distributes most of the films in the Hungarian ‘new wave’.

This presence at the heart of the world’s largest film festival symbolises the return to creative power of the Hungarian Film industry, which is increasingly attracting the attention of the public, critics and international buyers alike. So much so that one representative of the selection committee of the Director’s Fortnight travelled in February to Budapest for the latest Hungarian Film Week, where the winner Roland Vranik with Black Brush (Fekete Kefe) is hoping to get selected for the Critic’s Week at Cannes this year. Elesewhere, Dealer de Benedek Fliegauf continues to gather in his rich harvest of prizes worldwide and last Sunday the European Cinema Festival in Lecce, Italy, crowned Eszter Bagaméri best actress for her performance in Guarded Secrets by Zsuzsa Böszörményi, a role which has already won her awards in 2004 at the Hungarian Film Week and the Cairo Film festival. Among the directors on the rise are Kornél Mundruczó and Nimrod Antal. They are operating in an economic environment made easier by the introduction in December 2003 of the Motion Picture Act, a law which allows producers to claw back 20% of production monies spent in Hungary, helping to attract coproduction partners.

(Translated from French)