Film commissioner: Hungarian film, cinema festival to move to Veszprem-Balaton region

Kael said the Magyar Mozgokep Szemle would take place in Veszprem, Balatonfured and Balatonalmadi in June, “the pandemic situation hopefully allowing”, supporting the creation of Hungary’s “new creative region”.

“Veszprem earlier hosted a legendary TV festival, and we’ll continue that tradition with open-air screenings, conventions and exciting film programmes,” he added.

Commenting on Hungary’s filmmaking industry, Kael said foreign productions had pulled out of the country in the spring amid alarm over the pandemic, but domestic productions soon restarted, and a good number of foreign productions came back in summer, too, after the situation improved and thanks to government measures.

Ties with Hollywood are “active”, he said, adding that Hungary plans to have a high-profile presence at the American Film Market in the autumn.

He said work had started on eight new international co-productions last year.

Noting the importance of film distribution, he said the government had supported local cinemas with 300 million forints (EUR 836,000) in emergency funding.