All articles by Blanka Elekes Szentagotai
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News
Big budget Eragon cranks up in Hungary
Stefan Fangmeier'sbig budget fantasy picture Eragon has just started shooting in Hungary,at a built set near Budakeszi, just outside of Budapest. The film will shootin nine different locations in Hungary until October 29, as well as a week oflocation work in Slovakia. The film is based onthe best-selling novel of ...
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Hungarian distributors unveil Cannes acquisitions
Two of Hungary'spremiere arthouse distributors acquired high profile titles at this year'sCannes Film Festival.Best Hollywoodbought rights to Wim Wenders' Don't Come Knocking and to Jim Jarmusch's BrokenFlowers. Both films are to hit the Hungarian cinemas this autumn.Meanwhile, BudapestFilm has acquired a long list of titles including Michael Haneke's Hiddenand Lars ...
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Hungary's IMA launches Polarlight sales arm
Hungarian distribution and production companyInternational Media Agency Entertainment (IMA) has launched a new sales arm,Polarlight. IMA Budapest will continue the distribution ofdocumentary and television titles, while Polarlight will handle the company'sco-production activitites as well as the sales of feature films. Polarlight's current slate includes Hungarian titles suchas Karlovy Vary award-winner ...
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Transylvania Festival to open with Oldboy
The fourthedition of the Transylvania International Film Festival will kick off on May 27in Cluj, Romania with the gala screening of Korean title Oldboy.The festival willclose on June 5 with Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar's AcademyAward winner The Sea Inside. TheRomanian-born, German actress Alexandra Maria Lara, the British producer KeithGriffiths, Belgrade ...
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Copying Beethoven tunes up in Hungary
Director AgnieszkaHolland's Copying Beethoven is shooting this month in Hungary - thelatest in a string of productions attracted to the country because of its lowcosts and film tax breaks.Copying Beethoven tells the story of the last few months inthe life of composer Ludwig van Beethoven and stars Ed Harris as ...
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Fateless attracts the crowds at Hungarian Film Week
The 36th edition of the Hungarian Film Week (February 2-8)saw a major admissions increase this year according to the organisers.Admissions were nearly forty-eight thousand, a five thousandincrease on last year.Renowned cinematographer Lajos Koltai's directorial debut,Berlinale contender Fateless was theFilm Week's most popular title with over 3,000 admissions, while anotherBerlinale participant ...
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Dealer wins Hungarian critics' prize
Benedek Fliegauf's Dealerwas named the best Hungarian film at this week's Hungarian Film Critic'sawards.The critics gave a specialprize to Szabolcs Hajdu's Tamara while Ferenc Torok was named bestdirector for his second feature Eastern Sugar. Both films receivedfurther honours: Eastern Sugar received the best soundtrack award forBalazs Zsager while Istvan Szaladjak ...
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HUNGARY 18 January
Despite five new and verydifferent films on offer last weekend for Hungarian cinema-goers, NationalTreasure was able to top the admissions chart for the second week and willeasily reach 100,000 admissions.Jude Law-starrer Alfiefailed to impress local audiences registering a mere 10,000 admissions with ascreen average of less than 1,000 admissions. Both ...
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Hungarian film week to open with Dallas Pashamente
The 36th edition of theHungarian Film Week will kick off on February 2 with the screening of directorRobert Pejo's Berlinale Forum contender Dallas Pashamente. The Film Week's competitionprogram will feature twenty-one Hungarian productions, ten of which havealready been released theatrically in the country. The remaining eleven will bepremieres. The program ...
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ROMANIA 17 December
Despite a much laterrelease than in most international territories, Shark Tale proved anearly Christmas success in Romania when it opened with 12,500 admissions lastweek on just five prints.Shark Tale opened a line of animation releases at theRomanian cinemas and will be followed by Pinocchio 3000 on December 17and Polar Express ...
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Vajna, Eszterhas team for Olympic bloodbath
Prolific producerAndy Vajna and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas are developing an as-yet untitleddrama about the historic encounter between the Hungarian and Soviet water poloteams at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.The olympicsemifinal is considered to have been one of the bloodiest ever sport eventswhere the players' blood coloured the water red. The Hungarian ...
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HUNGARY 10 December
The Incredibles saw off the challenge from seven newreleases at the Hungarian box office last weekend. The film managed to stay atthe top of the chart and is now standing at nearly 70,000 admissions. IstvanSzabo's Being Julia has also maintained its strong performance and hasalready passed the 55,000 admissions mark.The ...
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ROMANIA 10 December
Despite challengesfrom Dodgeball and Exorcist: The Beginning, Cellular hasmaintained its top position at the Romanian box office despite a forty-twopercent loss in its second weekend admissions.Meanwhile Dodgeballgrabbed the second position of the chart with nearly three and a half thousandadmissions on six prints but it was outdone by Exorcist: The ...
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Concorde launches Hungary's first film fund
Leveraging theopportunity created by the recently introduced Hungarian Film Law, Hungarianbanking outfit Concorde Securities has established the country's firstfilm financing fund, the Concorde Film Trust.The Law, passed inspring 2004, created tax benefits for companies backing films made in Hungary.Companies may reduce their corporate income tax by 100% of the amount ...
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HUNGARY 1 December
While worldwidesuccess The Incredibles easily grabbed the top spot at the Hungarian boxoffice with nearly 30,000 admissions on an impressive thirty-seven prints, lastweek's real success story belonged to the French title Les Gaous, thefeature debut of director Igor Sekulic.The comedy wasreleased on fourteen prints by distributor Best Hollywood and has ...
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Reflections shine at Bucharest festival
Young Swedishdirector Stina Bergman's Reflections of the Sun won the DaKINO Trophy(including a purse of $5000) at the first edition of the BucharestInternational Film Festival (BiFest).The Romaniancapital's first international film festival , launched under the presidency ofLucian Georgescu and Dan Chisu, also played host to the 14th edition of theDaKINO ...
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HUNGARY 24 November
Veteran Hungarian director Istvan Szabo's Being Julia was the talk of the town inHungary last week when it managed over 16,000 admissions on twenty-threeprints, an incredibly strong performance for a costume drama.Last week's other new releases couldn't quite match thislevel of interest, Robert De Niro produced his biggest flop yet ...
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HUNGARY 10 November
With yet anotherseven new releases hitting the cinemas last week in Hungary, a decentperformance is becoming more and more of a challenge for any production.While the newlyreleased thriller Forgotten was ableto grab the box office second spot with nearly 20,000 admissions on twentyprints and comedy Dodgeball alsoperformed decently with over ...
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HUNGARY 28 October
Despite five new films hitting the screens in Hungary lastThursday, not one of them could capture the admissions' top spot, a positionsecured by the Bruce Willis comedy TheWhole Ten Yards in its second week of release.Collateral faredbest of the newcomers coming in second place but with less than 19,000admissions on ...
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ROMANIA 22 October
Anacondas proved to be real favorites in Romania when released last weekend alongwith four further new titles but Romanian comedy Italian Chicks (Italiencele) was the talk of the town.Napoleon Helmis'film about the adventures in Italy of two Romanian girls played by MaraNicolescu and Ana Ularu debuted in fifth place for ...