The NFI (National Film Institute Hungary) and its international sales team (led by Klaudia Androsovits) will be springing into action today at the Marché du Film of the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where a conference entitled “Hungary: Challenges of a Fast-growing Film Industry” will be held on 17 May at 11.30am on the Riviera's main stage.

Semmelweis by Lajos Koltai (nominated in 2001 for an Oscar for Best Cinematography for Malèna and in competition at Berlin in 2005 as a director with Fateless [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film]) was released at the end of last year and included in the Cannes line-up by NFI World Sales. The film has boosted attendance in Hungarian cinemas, remaining in the top three for nine weeks and earning over €2 million at the box office, a success that no Hungarian film had achieved for five years. A biopic about a Hungarian doctor, known throughout the world as the "saviour of mothers" for introducing antiseptic procedures to Vienna's maternity wards in the 19th century, Semmelweis is, in the filmmaker's own words, "an example to us all: a man who has always, in all circumstances, followed his own path with a death-defying courage that cannot be diverted by hatred or violence. I wanted to show viewers that it is possible: perseverance, detachment, courage and love of life."

In this Cannes line-up of NFI World Sales, four other features currently in post-production seem to distinguish themselves from the rest: Growing Down by Bálint Dániel Sós, I Accidentally Wrote a Book by Nóra Lakos, I Never See You by Bernadette Mayer (article) and Tonight We Kill by Péter Fazakas. In terms of documentaries to come, Beyond Rock Bottom by Ádám Miklós, Bölöni, Story of a Legend by Attila Szábó, Kurtág by Dénes Nagy and My Father’s Daughter by Lea Podhradská particularly stand out.

Finally, amongst the many completed films that NFI World Sales will negotiate deals for at the Marché du Film, we could mention the animated documentary Pelikan Blue [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Laszló Csaki
scheda film] by Laszlo Csaki (discovered at Tallinn Black Nights and screening next month in the ‘Contrechamp’ competition at the Annecy Festival), All About The Levkoviches from Ádám Breier, Csaba Martin’s crime-comedy in English Bonus Trip, the historical blockbuster Now or Never! by Balázs Lóth and Mastergame by Barnabás Tóth (a loose adaptation Stefan Zweig's The Chess Player, centred on a couple of young rebels escaping from the Russian tanks in Budapest in 1956).