Young Hungarians at the Croisette

The Hungarian delegation at Cannes

Kordnél Mundruczó has been the second Hungarian in twenty years to compete for the Palm d’Or in the full-length features category Canes. Dániel Erdélyi’s short film 411-Z is being weighed against eight other shorts for the Golden Palm in its own category. Géza M. Tóth is presenting his work at Critics’ Week, while Balázs  Simonyi is going in for the off programme at Critics’ Week. Dalma Hidasi is participating at the event entitled ‘Producer on the Move’ while Benedek Fliegauf’s new film script has been entered for the Atelier.

COMPETING FOR THE GOLDEN PALM: KORNÉL MUNDRUCZÓ

Kornél Mundruczó (33) made his explosive entry into the film world with his short film Day After Day (2001) and his full length feature Szép napok (Pleasant Days) (2002). Pleasant Days won a Silver Leopard at Locarno. Mundruczó is a regular at Cannes: he first competed with a short film Joan of Arc of the Night Bus, then he was invited  to the Festival’s ‘Résidence’ programme catering for young talents. Little Apocryphal No. 2 was invited in 2004 by the ‘Cinéfondation’ section which presents exam films by young directors. The world premiere of Johanna  took place as part of the official programme entitled ’ Un certain regard.’

Mundruczó’s latest film Delta was co-directed by his permanent creative partner Viktória Petrányi. The script was written Mundruczó and Yvette Bíró, with Mátyás Erdély in charge of cinematography. The female protagonist is played by Orsi Tóth who has acted in every film by the director since Pleasant Days. The male star is world famous violinist from Subotica Félix Lajkó in his first ever movie appearance. Delta was co-produced by Proton Cinema,  Filmpartners and  Essential Filmproduktion, Germany, with Viktória Petrányi, Ági Pataki, Gábor Kovács and Susanne Marian as producers. Sponsorship came from MMK, NKA and TV2. The film’s world wide distributor is Paris-based Coproduction Office. Delta had its world premier at the 39th Hungarian Film Festival where it won the main prize ’Golden Reel’ , the prize for best film music and the Gene Moskowitz Prize awarded by foreign critics.

Kornél Mundruczó

411-Z, a short by Dániel Erdélyi, was invited to compete in the short film category at the 61st Film Festival at Cannes. This seven minute piece was produced at Katapult Film with Iván Angelusz and György Durst (Duna Műhely) as producers and Gergely Pohárnok as director of cinematography. The young Hungarian director is head of Katapult Film, a company comprising young film-makers who graduated from film college as members of the legendary ‘Simó class.’ Besides film-making, they also offers training in script writing via Katapult European Script. Erdélyi’s third short was shot on raw material left over from Overnight. It focuses on a river barge where not everything happens in accordance with sailing regulations. 411-Z is competing at Cannes for the Golden Palm for the best short film.

Dániel Erdélyi

The 47th Critics’ Week at Cannes has invited Oscar nominee Géza M. Tóth’s latest animation film Ergo to be among the competing movies. Critics’ Week was the first so-called ’parallel programme’ in the history of Category A film festivals. The aim of this forum, created by French film critics, was to provide a scene where young talents of the film world may be identified simultaneously with the ‘red carpet’ part of Cannes events. They present no more than seven shorts and seven features in the ‘first full length’ category.

Ergo is ‘about the music inside us, … about the monotony of freedom and the freedom of monotony’ says M. Tóth, nominated for an Oscar for Maestro (2005), in the synopsis to his latest work. This will be the first time Ergo is shown to an international audience. Using 3D technique, this new film was made in Kedd Animaton Studio with M. Tóth as producer, script writer and director all in one. Kedd Studio are producers of animation TV-series, commercials as well as individual animation movies. Géza M. Tóth’s films were played to high acclaim at the world’s most prestigious film festivals. Meastro was shown at almost a hundred international festivals winning over fifty different trophies between 2005 and 2007. The director graduated at Moholy-Nagy Art College and presently teaches as guest lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London, as well as in Tallin, Estonia, Ahmedabad, India and the Film Academy of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The director will personally attend the premier between 15th – 23rd May.

Géza M. Tóth

INVITATION Á NISI MASA: BALÁZS SIMONYI

Simonyi’s short Tangerine is to be shown at one of the parallel events of Critics’ Week showing altogether eight films made under the auspices of Nisi Masa Films – an organization comprising talented young European film makers. Simonyi’s ten minute movie was made in Turkey based on Orhan Pamuk’s story Snow and is to be shown at the event Invitation à Nisi Masa, as part of Critics’ Week. This short is about a journalist investigating in a small Turkish town and trying to write an article about the local community when he notices that he is being trailed by a secret agent. The eight films to be shown at Cannes include another work with a Hungarian interest – a film made at the Budapest Workshop of Nisi Masa in co-operation by Italian, Bulgarian and Spanish film makers Francesca Cirilli, Natalia Ivanova and Alejandro Pedregal (A Rainy Tale). Simonyi is not attending the festival, as the film is not competing officially – the advantage of which is that it is available on the internet.

ATELIER: BENEDEK FLIEGAUF

This is the fourth time that the program of the Cannes Film Festival includes the co-production forum Atelier. This is one of three initiatives by Cinéfondation to aid talented young film-makers: film students are given a chance to show their work to a jury of film makers who award three prizes, each year 12 film makers enjoy sponsorship by Cinefondation Residence du Festival which aims to assist with issues of production and script-writing, and the Aterlier also offers one-on-one meetings where pairs comprising a director and a producer are given a chance to find co-financing parties to fund their films. In 2008, fifteen films were given a chance, including an outline for a love story by Benedek Fliegauf entitled Womb.

To be shot in English, Womb is already complete in its author’s head, complete with script and cast list. The budget of the love story by this Balázs Béla award winning director was earlier estimated by producer András Muhi to be around €1.5M. Georges Goldernstern, head of Atelier, explained that 60% of the film outlines presented at this forum go into production, therefore it is important that around half of the entrants should be first film directors. Womb is Benedek Fliegauf’s forth movie.

Womb

PRODUCER ON THE MOVE: DALMA HIDASI

European Film Promotion (EFP) is organizing the international forum ’Producer on the Move’ to be held between 17th and 20th May in Cannes. This three day professional forum by film producers is being attended this year by Dalma Hidasi, head of Extreme Films. This convention of 22 young film makers aims to direct the attention of the film making profession to the promising young directors of Europe at Cannes, the most important international event of the profession.

Dalma Hidasi graduated from Budapest University of Economics in 1993 and then got a degree as a producer at the College of Theatre and Film. Establishing Extreme Film in 1996 in co-operation with Tamás Keményffy, she participated in the production of a number of international commercials, video clips and short films that were shot in Hungary. In 1999 she spent a few weeks learning more abut the ins and outs of the profession at the London office of Warner Brothers. Besides commercials she has produced aware winning shorts such as Alvó/Sleeper (István Szotyori), Szerencsés ember/Lucky Man (Tamás Keményffy) and Most látszom, most nem látszom/Now you see me, now you don’t (Attila Szász). Presently she is working on the preparations of full length features Hurok (Loop) by István Madarász and Zoe (Attila Szász) as well as the post-production work on rural comedy Mázli/Fluke. Fluke was Tamás Keményffy’s first full length feature, a Hungarian-French-German co-production to have its first showing at Cannes and going on the Hungarian cinema screens in October.

Hungarian producers have been able to participate in ‘Producers on the Move’ since 2001 when the Hungarian Film Union became a member of this organization. Earlier delegates include Iván Angelusz, András Muhi, Viktória Petrányi and Ferenc Pusztai.

Dalma Hidasi interview