16-01-2011

FESTIVALS: Hungarian Film Week Considers April Date

By FNE Staff

    BUDAPEST: The 2011 Hungarian Film Week (www.hungarianfilmweek.com) is planned for April in a new scaled down, low-budget version of the event. The HFW has traditionally held at the end of January, before the Berlinale.

    The 2011 edition of the event had been cancelled when funding was cut by the Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation (www.mmka.hu) which lost most of its government support in 2011. The MMK traditionally supported HFW with 100-120 million HUF (370-450,000 EUR) annually through the event's organisers, the Association of Hungarian Filmmakers.

    MMK has announced a low budget edition of HFW will be held in April of this year and has received support of 70 million HUF (250,000 EUR) from the Ministry of National Resources (www.nefmi.gov.hu) for the event. Much of the Hungarian film industry is on the verge of bankruptcy according to Hungarian film professionals, with most of the companies waiting for the MMK to fulfill its contracts from 2010.