03/02/2009

The Hungarian Motion Picture Public Foundation (MMK) celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2008 and is hoping 2009 will be at least as successful as the year before it despite the global economic downturn.

The MMK is a unique body in Europe that reunites film funding, promotion, training and facilities for the film industry. It is supported by the Hungarian state as well as various organisations that regroup film professionals.

At a press conference held during the 40th Hungarian Film Week, currently underway, General Secretary Erzsébet Tóth quickly ran through the numbers for 2008, in which 1560 applications were received for a total of HUF 12b (€40m). 870 applications for aid were granted.

New applications and the budget for 2009 both have a cutoff date at the end of this month, and Tóth expressed hope that funding for 2009 would at least be on par with that of 2008.

A 2-year agreement for co-production opportunities for Hungarian TV channels will also be launched this spring and is worth HUF 250m (€840,000). Hungarian Eurimages representative Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács was also present at the conference and underlined the importance of Eurimages for the Hungarian film industry, which last year received six times as much as it invested through Eurimages.

“The ties between European producers created through Eurimages need to be reinforced,” he added, also noting that new co-production agreements with Ireland and Germany are in the pipeline. “It is not necessarily only about money,” said Kézdi-Kovács, “but also about the creation and transmission of knowledge and know-how.”