The First Quarter of the Film Office

The Motion Picture Coordination Council held its first session

In its press release the National Film Office announced that it held the first session of the Motion Picture Coordination Council in 2005 together with the Culture Ministry on April 7.

The aim of the organization created by the Film Law is primarily to provide an institutional background for the coordination and communication between those participating in the state financing of Hungarian films. It makes strategic decisions, provides recommendations, members can put their principles into practice through mutual agreements.

Four sectors were present at the sessions: the ministries, the supporters disposing of public funds, public service and commercial TV stations and the representatives of the film industry. The list of participants at this first session is as follows:
 
Ministries:

András Bozóki, National Cultural Heritage Ministry, minister
Márta Schneider, National Cultural Heritage Ministry, deputy state secretary

Balázs Zachar, National Cultural Heritage Ministry, Audiovisual Department, department head,
Edit Rauh Hornung, Ministry of Youth, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunity, deputy state secretary Anikó Orbán, Ministry of Education, deputy state secretariat for public education, referent

Dóra Galló, Ministry of IT and Telecommunications
Katalin Monostori, Environment Ministry deputy cabinet head

Supporters disposing of or coordinating public funds:

Ferenc Grunwalsky, Hungarian Motion Picture Public Foundation
Gábor Hanák, Hungarian Historic Film Foundation
György Kovács, ORTT
László Harsányi, National Cultural Program
Miklós Taba, National Film Office
Enikő Kiss, MediaDesk
 
TV stations:

György Baló, MTV, director of cultural programs
István Juhász, chief production manager, Duna TV
Ágnes Sós, MTM-SBS Televízió RT (TV 2)
Zoltán Szarvasi, RTL Klub

Representatives of the industry:

György Szomjas, Association of Hungarian Film Artists,  Film Industry Roundtable
Ferenc Port, Association of Hungarian Film Artists,  Film Industry Roundtable
Dénes Szekeres, Association of Hungarian Film Artists,  Film Industry Roundtable

The first session primarily dealt with the coordination of applications, that is, the more efficient use  of state funds, which can be achieved through coordination between the sectors listed above.

According to schedule, the Council first accepted the working plan, which was followed by the members’ discussion of the possibilities of coordinating the applications and the more efficient participation of commercial Tv stations in film production.

The National Film Office,  which was launched in the early summer of 2004, organizes the professional work between the quarterly sessions, prepares the accepted working plan based on the minutes, send it to the members and publishes it on its website. Moreover, it initiates additional expert discussions and prepares decisions for the sessions.

Judit Sós, the international referent of the Film Office, who is also responsible for press relations, told filmhu that the Council already had a meeting, the professionals present did meet, but this was the first official session required by the law. The most important achievement is that they have agreed to organize additional professional meetings in between the sessions, so next time they can discuss more important and real problems with the help of experts.

They intend to handle copyrights problems (MTV, for example, has a Ft 800 million debt in copyright), and to set up a tariff system that is acceptable for everyone.

The other issue is the problem of the finalization guarantee,  which would ensure the completion of running film projects.  In addition to the coordiantion of the application schedules, participants will discuss the possible creation of a joint fund, which would resemble the joint TV film tender of the MMK and the ORTT. Judit Sós said that the supporters distributing public funds intend to coordiante their tenders with each other and with EU tenders as well, in order to make film financing more efficient.

The participants of the first session have agreed to delegate experts to th next session, which will allow making real decisions in the issues listed above. Sós of the Film Office said that in addition to the cordial atmosphere of the session, every participant reproached the commercial TV stations for failing to meet the requirement of the Media Law on supporting Hungarian film.  The representatives of the commercial TV stations supported each other in an attempt to deny the accusations.

The detailed minutes of the session will be available at the wesite of the Film Office.

Tax certificates, coproductions

In the first quarter of 2005 the Film Office provided tax certificates worth Ft 78,760,000 for 15 different productions: feature films, 5 documentaries and 2 short films.

Two European coproductions were shot on location in Hungary in the first quarter: Joy Division was produced by Magyar Filmkapcsolat KFT., Velvet Side of Hell by Eurofilm Kft. Hungary was a coproduction partner in both projects.

The film currently being shot that have been registered by the National Film Office and are under financial supervision in order to receive indirect state support in the form of a 20% are the following:
 
- Copying Beethoven,  a coproduction with Hungarian participants, produced by Eurofilm. It isdirected by the daring and outspoken Agnieszka Holland (A titkok kertje 1993, Teljes napfogyatkozás 1995), who used to work with Andrzej Wajda and had written scripts for him, and has worked as an assistant to Zanussi. The lead roles of the film are played by Joe Anderson, Ed Harris and Diane Kruger.

- The Day of Wrath with Christopher Lambert and Blanca Marsillach is produced by Laurinfilm, the coproducers are: IMS 5 of Great Britain and Taznia Media S.L of Spain. Hungarian actresses Dorka Gryllus and Szonja Oroszlán will play smaller roles in the film.

- Taxidermia, the latest feature film by György Pálfi is currently being shot in Austria as a Hungarian coproduction with British and Austrian partners.

- Az érsek látogatása, a Hungarian-Romanian-Italian coproduction directed by Zoltán Kamondi is being relaized with the support of Eurimages. It is currently being shot in Transylvania.

- The remake of Egy szoknya, egy nadrág, a Hungarian movie classic is produced by Európa 2000 Kft.

- DYN Rt. has already produced 30 episodes of the TV series Sztárvár, and will probably get commission for an additional 120 episodes. 

Art cinemas, age ratings
The decree of the classification of art cinemas has entered into force. The art cinemas  registred with the Film Office may have access to normative state support. There are altogether about 40 cinemas concerned, two-thirds of them operate in the countryside, the rest in Budapest.

The Film Office recommends distributors to download the age rating pictograms from the website of the office.