Breakthrough New Film Law

Beside providing more state funding for filmmakers, various new benefits are being introduced to attract domestic and foreign investors to the industry.

In the wake the negoatiations of the past year, finally, a consensus materialized in the Hungarian film industry. As a result, the draft of the law was presented to the government in July. The legislation enjoyed the political backing from all sides: Parliement  passed it with a unanimous vote.

One of the key elements of the law is boosting the amount of state support for the film industry. In 2004, this sum is altogether Ft 6.5 billion, Ft 1.5 billion more than in the year before. In 2005, the amount will grow to Ft 8 billion, and by 2006, it will rise to Ft 10 billion.

The state support will be distributed by the 26 professional organizations and the Hungarian Motion Picture Public Foundation, established by the government in 1998. This model is also exemplary for the modern state: politics is not going to interfere with the use the public funds, yet it will strictly monitor their legitimate use.

The law will also establish the Motion Picture Coordination Council, which will coordinate film funding tenders and set up an annual schedule for tendering. The National Film Office will organize the film industry and provide services such as setting up a company registry, ranking art movies, representing the Hungarian film industry abroad, and issuing coproduction certificates. The National Film Archive will ensure the safekeeping of Hungary’s national film assets, and operate as a state institution.

With the introduction of investment and tax benefits, the law can attract more domestic and foerign capital to the Hungarian film industry. The law will provide a roughly 20% tax benefit to those who invest into the local film industry. This will hopefully create a legal and economic background for Hungary to compete successfully with Prague and Bucharest for foreign commissions.

The film law will not only provide adavantages for the film industry. Viewers and the country itself will also benefit from it: hopefully, we’ll se more Hungarian films at the cinemas.

The film law is regarded as an exemplary legislation outside the film industry as well: it establishes a structure in which a branch of art can articulate itself. In Europe, there’s no system in place where authors have such a difinitive role in regulating their own field.

Although a consensus has been born within the industry concerning the law, no one dares to make predictions yet about the future of the Hungarian film industry. The industry itself is waiting to see the the execution of the film law’s regulations, the new structure of the Hungarian Motion Picture Public Foundation taking shape, and the establishment of the National Film Office. There are many factors at play here, and we can only expect progress if everything will operate smoothly in practice, too. That will require a transparent structure and distribution system. The law is merely a framework that allows self-regulation, but its execution is the task of filmmakers.