20-08-2024

Hungary Celebrates 20 Years of Cash Rebate System

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    BUDAPEST: Hungary celebrates the 20th anniversary of its pioneering cash rebate system, offering a 30% cash back on production costs. Simple and efficient, the system is offered with no cap, which has attracted a great number of international productions to the country emerging as the largest production hub in Europe.

    As Csaba Káel, Government Commissioner for the Development of the Hungarian Film Industry, pointed out at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, foreign film productions spent nearly one billion dollars in Hungary in 2023, which is four times more than the amount spent in 2018. 

    In 2024 so far, such large productions have chosen Hungary as Vienna Games, directed by Hannu Salonen and produced by Satel Film for Disney+, Orphan, directed by László Jeles Nemes and produced by Pioneer Pictures, Agat Films & Cie, Pallas Film, Good Chaos, Silent Friend, directed by Ildikó Enyedi and produced by Arte France Cinéma, Galatée Films, Inforg-M&M Film Kft., and Hulu’s Amanda: A Coming of Age Horror Story (having  KJ Steinberg as showrunner, and produced by Knox Robinson Productions and 20th Century Fox Television).

    In response to this growth, new studio spaces are being developed. NFI Studios is currently expanding, adding four new sound stages totaling 12,000 square metres by the end of 2024.