11/11/2010

A financing pillar for Hungarian film production and distribution, the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (MMKA) is going through a difficult time and the Hungarian government is reportedly even considering abolishing it altogether.

Since Zoltán Kőrösi’s appointment as head this spring and the discovery of serious deficits, the MMKA has been the focus of discussions, a debate which has already led to a severe slowdown in Hungarian production. The freeze in MMKA funding decided this summer has blocked several projects in pre-production, including Weekend by up-and-coming director Aron Matyassy, whose shoot has been postponed until next summer.

According to Kőrösi, the MMKA’s financing of 25-30 films per year in recent years was way beyond the public institution’s economic capacity.

For the moment, the 2011 budget forecasts have credited the MMKA with a drastically reduced sum of €3.2m. Public funding for the film industry would decrease overall from €19.8m to €15.1m. The precise details of funding allocation are still under consideration in a political context where the Culture Ministry has disappeared since the last elections, replaced by the larger Ministry of National Resources.

(Translated from French)