It was welcome — perhaps even surprising — news for Hungarian moviegoers to discover that two home-grown productions were sitting at the top of the box office at the start of the year: “Gone Running,” Gábor Herendi’s local remake of the Czech romantic comedy “Women on the Run,” and the ’90s-set musical rom-com “How Could I Live Without You?,” directed by Dénes Orosz.
The two crowd-pleasers, which are both being repped by NFI World Sales at the European Film Market, capped a year that saw some unexpected success stories — such as Bálint Szimler’s arthouse drama “Lesson Learned” drumming up more than 100,000 admissions — alongside signs that Hungarian filmmakers are looking to buck the trends of the recent past.
Just a few years ago, the Magyar industry’s output largely echoed the nationalist turn the country has taken under right-wing prime minister Viktor Orbán, producing splashy historical epics that often underperformed at the box office.
Yet more recently, contemporary stories and genre pics have come to the fore, as evidenced by an NFI sales slate that includes the caper comedy “Tonight We Kill,” and the sports comedy “The Rebound,” featuring “Dallas” star Patrick Duffy.
This is shaping up to be a banner year for the Hungarian industry, with Academy Award winner László Nemes (“Son of Saul”) and Oscar nominee and Berlin Golden Bear winner Ildikó Enyedi (“On Body and Soul”) readying their latest features. Meanwhile, renowned filmmaker Lili Horvát (“Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time”) will begin production on her English-language debut, “My Notes on Mars,” starring Andrew Scott and Greta Lee.
Behind the scenes, however, many filmmakers voiced their frustration at the checkered support for domestic production in the country, with Viktoria Petrányi, of “The Brutalist” co-producer Proton Cinema, insisting: “We are struggling.”
The veteran producer is developing a slate that includes the latest from “Pieces of a Woman” director Kornél Mundruczó, as well as new features from emerging filmmakers Gábor Reisz (“Explanation for Everything”), Hajni Kis (“Wild Roots”) and György Kárpáti Mór (“Guerilla”). Mounting such projects in today’s Hungary, she says, involves either piecing together complex co-productions — such as Mundruczó’s sprawling, multi-country collaboration — or shooting on micro-budgets. “We are trying to support the talent we are working with,” she says. “We just need to find different ways [to finance their films].”
Hungary’s powerful National Film Institute, which has an annual budget of nearly $43 million for the support of audiovisual production, has faced criticism for what many filmmakers describe as growing politicization in its funding decisions — something they see as symptomatic of the country’s broader rightward turn under Orbán.
While the NFI stands by its track record, the Hungarian industry has undoubtedly felt the squeeze of recent shocks to global production: the coronavirus pandemic, the ensuing supply-chain crunch, spiraling inflation caused in part by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Across Europe, independent cinema has been hit especially hard. “Not only our financing can collapse easily,” says Petra Iványi, of Budapest-based Lupa Pictures, who recently wrapped production on “Hyenas,” the feature debut of Student Academy Award nominee Ádám Freund. “It’s also fragile all around.”
Iványi is producing “The Origin of the World,” the first feature from Borbála Nagy, with support from the NFI’s Incubator program. Launched in 2015, the program has financed more than two dozen debut features, including “White Plastic Sky,” from animator duo Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó, which premiered in the Berlinale’s competitive Encounters strand in 2023, and “Growing Down” (pictured, top), by Bálint Dániel Sós, set to bow this week in Berlin’s new Perspectives competition.
“Lesson Learned” was a surprise hit at the Hungarian box office.
Courtesy of Buddha
“Growing Down” producer Ádám Farkas credits the NFI for sticking by Sós’ auspicious debut, even as inflation sent production costs soaring. Still, he echoes many filmmakers who worry that there’s not adequate support in Hungary for promising directors to continue on a path toward a sustainable career. “I think it’s wonderful that so many first-time filmmakers got a chance,” he says. “And I hope that they will be able to get a second chance.”
It’s a testament to their resolve that so many Hungarian filmmakers are finding success despite the constraints. Reisz’s “Explanation for Everything,” which premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons strand, and Szimler’s “Lesson Learned,” which bowed in Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente sidebar, were both financed independently, drawing on a collaborative spirit that saw no fewer than 19 producers credited on Szimler’s narrative debut, the director tells Variety.
Szimler is among the Hungarian filmmakers who banded together last fall to launch the Budapest Intl. Film Festival, along with the Cine-Collegium Budapest: an independent fund that they hope will make up for the financial shortfalls elsewhere in the industry. The fund will raise money from production companies and private investors with an aim toward financing at least one feature film in its first year.
“There’s a moment right now in the Hungarian film industry and we’re trying to create something out of that,” says Szimler. “We’re hoping for the best for next year and the years to come.”
