Film financing survives

STILL NO DUTIESFilm sponsorship will remain exempt from duties. The amount spent on making films in Hungary is expected to rise from 22.3 billion forints last year to over 25 billion forints this year.

Based on Figyelő, filmhu has also reported that the part of the government's proposed tax package modifying regulations on duties might damage the financing of Hungarian filmmaking and local councils' companies. The ministry said that the stamp act exempts, among other things, gifts for the benefit of Hungarian arts and culture, and the exemption, that also applies to film sponsorship, will remain in effect.

A related item is a statement by Miklós Taba, director of the National Film Office, saying that the amount spent on making films in Hungary is expected to rise from 22.3 billion forints last year to over 25 billion forints this year.

By the middle of November the film office had already registered more than twice as many productions than during the whole of last year. The makers have spent 19.91 billion forints on the 233 works (feature films, documentaries, and made-for-television films) registered so far. 2006 could also be an outstanding year for Hungarian filmmaking: the film office has registered 210 productions, costing almost 10 billion forints. (In comparison only five billion forints were spent on Hungarian films last year.)

State financed productions on the theme of 1956 have significantly contributed to this growth, as did re-emerging TV plays embraced by the National Radio and Television Comission. The film office had issued tax exemption certificates worth 2.62 billion forints by  20 November. (Production companies need bills to prove the amounts spent in Hungary, and they can claim exemption after 20 percent.) The total sum of tax exemption certificates, along with the amount spent on filmmaking, is expected to exceed last year's 2.82 billion.

In the last two years the financial benefits have made Hungary an attractive filming location for foreign crews, but the lack of studios offering adequate service is an obstacle in the way of dynamic growth. If Stern Studios in Pomáz, completed at the end of the summer could work at full capacity next year, and Korda Studios in Etyek, currently under construction, could receive productions next autumn, then Hungarian filmmaking could produce outstanding growth similar to 2005, says Taba. That year the amount spent on filmmaking grew by almost 15 billion forints.

The Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary can distribute 6.45 billion forints on film sponsorship. 6.2 billion forints are provided by the government; 2.85 billion forints have been spent on undertakings from last year, but this year 3.1 billion forints worth of undertakings beyond the year can be made as part of next year's budget.