18/11/2005

The projectors are being racked up in three Hungarian theatres, Muvész, Puskin and Szindbá run by Budapest Film and honoured with the 2005 prize for best programming awarded yesterday by the network Europa Cinemas at its annual conference. Registering 450 000 admissions yearly, the three Magyar cinemas headed by Ferenc Port project annually 54% of non-local European films. Also, they are taking part in the French cinema festival, in a week dedicated to Spanish film and film days honouring the 7th art from Poland. Plenty to keep cinephiles in the Hungarian capital happy, and they have enjoyed an embarrassment of riches on the two screens of Szindbád since it was inaugurated in 1920, making it one of the oldest cinemas in Budapest, and in the three Puskin theatres (founded in 1927) each named after a great European film (Metropolis, Amarcord and Körhinta) and the five screens at Muvész, the largest Arthouse and Experimental Budapest complex. The company Budapest Film, who also handle distribution and which is partly controlled by the municipality, decided at the end of August to put up for sale two of its profitable multiplexes in the centre of town to concentrate on Arthouse and Experimental.

The prize attributed by Europa Cinemas network is also a chance to look at the figures for exhibition in Hungary, whose 313 cinemas and 531 screens (one screen per 19 000 inhabitants) accumulated 13,5 million admissions in 2004. The market share for the 26 Magyars films distributed last year was 10,3% against 78,6% for American production, the biggest international success of 2004 being Shrek 2 (756 500 spectators and 2,47 million euros worth of receipts) and Hungarian Vagabond (Magyar vándor) the biggest local success (456 000 admissions. 1,83 million euros worth of receipts).

(Translated from French)