It’s looking to be a banner year for the Hungarian film industry at this year’s Venice Film Festival, with two of the country’s most celebrated directors — Oscar-winning “Son of Saul” filmmaker László Nemes and Berlin Golden Bear winner Ildikó Enyedi (“On Body and Soul”) — vying for the Golden Lion with their latest films.
Both movies are multi-country co-productions, utilizing a combination of tax incentives, soft money from national funding bodies and private equity to secure their budgets — a financing structure that has become both necessary and increasingly challenging in the current economic climate for independent filmmaking in Europe.
However, the films also highlight a concerted effort by Hungary’s National Film Institute (NFI) to make the local industry more adaptable to the needs of today’s filmmakers. Hungarian film commissioner Csaba Káel describes the Lido premieres as “a testament to the strategy we launched five years ago,” when the NFI was dramatically restructured, introducing a system that offered both greater funding and flexibility than its predecessor.
“Co-productions are essential to the vitality of the Hungarian film industry, and I am proud that NFI Hungary has supported nearly 40 co-productions to date — including our first ever partnerships with Vietnam, Morocco, Bhutan and Mongolia — broadening our traditional collaborations beyond Central and Western Europe,” Káel says.
How those collaborations take shape — and what each partner brings to the table — is a crucial part of the conversation from day one, according to veteran producer Ildikó Kemény, of Budapest-based Pioneer Stillking Films, whose credits include “Orphan” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Golden Lion winner “Poor Things.”
Kemény says she and her partners on “Orphan” were determined not to create a muddled “Euro-pudding” in which “different co-producers come on board with different demands for their funding.”
“We were always destined to shoot in Hungary, in the Hungarian language,” she says, noting the film was largely shot at locations around Budapest, as well as at the NFI Studios backlot, the newly constructed outdoor set built as part of the facility’s recent expansion. “It was very important that those who we ended up choosing as our co-producers, they actually signed up for the same film.”
Her European partners proved to be crucial at the financing stage — Hungary ponied up 70 percent of the film’s budget, with the U.K., France and Germany each chipping in 10 percent — while also offering key creative support.
U.K. co-producer Good Chaos contributed post-production work through VFX shop Automatik, as well as publicity with the London-based PR firm Premier; Germany supplied ARRI camera and lights rental. France, meanwhile, offered key talent both above and below the line, including lead actor Gregory Gadebois, composer Evgueni Galperine and make-up designer Odile Fourquin.
“Orphan” will compete for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Courtesy of New Europe Film Sales
Mike Goodridge, of Good Chaos, says the multi-country collaboration underpinning the production of “Orphan” was “essential” in getting Nemes’ latest off the ground.
“You’re banking on that to get the film made,” he says. “Equity is very cautious at the moment. I think the sales landscape is really tough. I don’t think any of the films in the Venice competition this year would be there without European co-production.”
Among the other recent co-productions filmed in Hungary are “My Notes on Mars,” Hungarian director Lili Horvát’s forthcoming English-language debut, a Hungary-Austria-U.S. co-production starring Andrew Scott and Greta Lee, and the epic TV drama “Rise of the Raven,” from veteran producer Robert Lantos (“Crimes of the Future”), a Hungary-Austria-Germany co-production set for a North American premiere at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival.
That series, which is being repped internationally by Beta Film, tells the story of the real-life Hungarian army commander Janos Hunyadi, who turned back the tide of the Ottoman Empire’s seemingly unstoppable advance into Europe at the Battle of Belgrade in 1456.
In order to “safeguard the story’s authenticity and refuse to dilute its genuine Hungarian character,” Lantos tells Variety, the producer “needed partners who shared [his] conviction that the path to true universality is authenticity.”
In the end, Germany’s Beta was also joined by Austrian broadcaster ORF and Italy’s RAI, while the decision to cast actors indigenous to the countries of the historical characters they portrayed enabled the show’s creators “to reflect the cultural mosaic of the time and place and faithfully conjure their flavor and personality.”
Following its TIFF premiere, “Rise of the Raven” will stream for Canadian audiences on the CBC GEM streaming platform, while Lantos says the series, which has already aired in several territories across Europe, has “met with popular and critical success beyond my own expectations.” “In Hungary,” he adds, “it is by far the highest-rated television drama in decades and has become entrenched in the cultural conversation.”
“Rise of the Raven” has its North American premiere at Toronto.
Courtesy of Kristof Galgoczi Nemeth
Meanwhile, the Magyar industry continues to thrive as one of the top servicing destinations in the world, thanks to its competitive and efficient 30% tax incentive, highly skilled and cost-effective crews, and an abundance of soundstages.
Among the buzzy upcoming features to shoot in Hungary are Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee,” starring Amanda Seyfried, which will bow in competition at Venice; James Vanderbilt’s Toronto premiere “Nuremberg,” starring Academy Award winners Rami Malek and Russell Crowe; and “The Entertainment System Is Down,” the anticipated new movie from two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund.
Erik Hemmendorff, who co-founded Swedish outfit Plattform Produktion with Östlund in 2002, says the duo scoured Europe for a production hub that could accommodate the director’s latest, which is set on a long-haul flight whose entertainment system has malfunctioned. That meant reassembling the used 747 bought by the producers in the U.K. and constructing a full-sized interior for the plane, requiring a space that was large and versatile enough for elaborate set builds.
“In Hungary, there’s a solution for everything,” says Hemmendorff, praising the local crew’s “creative thinking.” “We were blown away by the quality of the people. And whatever we said, they didn’t flinch,” he adds. “You could feel that they have the craftsmanship. They take their work and their culture really serious. They’re still interested in great filmmaking.”
