Hungarian success in Cannes

Hungary was represented in all significant categories at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival: feature films, short films, projects and producers were present in the Croisette.

The Hungarian participation is evaluated by MMK secretary-general Erzsébet Tóth and HungariCom managing director Zsuzsa Kálomista.

Hungarian participation proved to be successful in Cannes: Kornél Mundruczó’s Delta, first prize winner at the Hungarian Film Week, was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize given out by international film critics, and the ScipTeast’s prize named after Kieslowski was given to Benedek Fliegauf for his feature film project entitled Womb. 

Dániel Erdélyi’s seven-minute film entitled 411-Z was in competition in the short film section, whereas Géza M- Tóth’s Ergo was invited into the International Critics’ Week short film selection. Balázs Simonyi’s Pamuk adaptation, which was shot in Turkey, was screened as a special programme of the Critics’ Week. The Hungarian participant of ’Producers on the Move’ organized each year by the European Film Promotion was Extreme Film managing director Dalma Hidasi.

The Ministry of Education and Culture contributed 38 million HUF to the Hungarian  participation. The press described the Hungarian reception held on 20th May in superlatives. ”The premiere of Delta was a big hit, I sat behind the actors and when the audience started to hail the film with applause we all began to shed tears.” said MMK secretary-general Erzsébet Tóth to filmhu. After the screening a reception took place on the ship of German-French TV channel ARTE broadcasting mainly art films where the partners let us know how satisfied they are with the film. The Hungarian reception started at 9 p.m. in Villa de Mai: ”It was very successful, we sent 8-900 invitation cards and 700 guests turned up, mainly foreigners.”   

The reception was opened by the Hungarian Minister of Education and Culture István Hiller, then Félix Lajkó gave a rousing concert, who couldn’t help accompanying the DJ following the concert.”Fortunately, the weather was beautiful, and everybody had a really good time: the joy of the staff infected us all. You must have seen the video where I am dancing right beside the program director of ARTE.”

Hungarofilm Division working within Mokép used to sale Hungarian films. Managing director of Megafilm and HungariCom Gábor Kálomista realized in time Hungarian films must be present in the international market, too. Last year HungariCom took part in Marché du Film for the first time. Their latest catalogue included 32 Hungarian titles, 8 of which are completely new, to be distributed in international markets. 

This year HungariCom proved to be more successful in Cannes than last year: the promotion and presence of Hungarian films to be distributed was more efficient. The first presence last year was, of course, part of a process, which has produced its results by now – said Zsuzsa Kálomista managing director of HungariCom to filmhu.

International distributors paid attention mostly to Hungarian animated films. Gábor Csupó’s new movie entitled Immigrants (it does not have a Hungarian title yet) was made in American-Hungarian coproduction and as at the moment it is an English speaking film, stars like Eric McCormack, Carl Lumbly or Christina Pickles provided the voice for the characters. Probably Gábor Csupó’s name also sounded familiar to the distributors. What will be the fate of the film will turn out when the U.S. distributor is found but the film has already a Russian distributor, and even some former Soviet States and Eastern Europe show interest. 

Cat City 2 and Egon and Dönci also did well, the former’s TV copyrights were sold in the Far East, and the latter will be shown in India. Regarding Cat City 2 it is also worth mentioning that many distributors were keenly interested in the animation film, they even remembered the first episode and many inquired for the distribution rights of the Hungarian classics.
 
Péter Bacsó’s Almost Virgin was also a big hit, since it was already known that the film had been selected into the competition programme of Moscow International Film Festival. The film was sold to Turkey where Hungarian productions are probably very popular, as Egon and Dönci and Cat City 2 were also sold. Erik Novák’s Nosedive will be shown in Taiwan.

Zsuzsa Kálomista added that as certain practices changed, later more films may be sold. It is very common that distributors show interest, but they do not buy the rights on the spot, only six moths or one year later. It is very important to note: the success of Immigrants may influnce the popularity of the rest of the films in Western Europe.

The international distributor of Fipresci Prize winner in-competition Hungarian film Delta is The Coproduction Office. As Cineuropa reported Delta will be shown in France (via Le Pacte), Spain (via Silenzio), the Benelux (via Lumiere and Filmuseum), Switzerland (via Look Know!), Greece (via Seven Films), Bulgaria (via Art Fest), India, Korea and Mexico.