27/04/2006

There were smiles all round for Hungarian film professionals after yesterday’s announcement of the Critics’ Week selection, as Fresh Air (production and sales by KMH Film), the debut feature by Agnes Kocsis, was chosen in the line-up.

Along with Taxidermia [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by György Pálfi, selected in Un Certain Regard, the presence of Hungarian cinema at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28) looks very promising. There are also still hopes that Szabolcs Hajdu’s White Palms will find a place in the other sidebar section, the Director’s Fortnight.

This is good news for domestic cinema, which has seen a fall-off in attendance in the past month due to the domination of the US films hogging the top ten spots at the box office.

With the release of only three European titles, The Consequences of Love by Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino (distributed by Budapest Film), Mary [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Abel Ferrara (Best Hollywood) and The Death of Mr Lazarescu by Romania’s Cristi Puiu (SzimplaFilm), it has been a rather timid start to spring for European film in Hungary.

However, several European titles are now starting to make their way to Hungarian screens. Budapest Film is releasing Hidden by Michael Haneke (see interview with director and his producer Focus [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Margaret Menegoz
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile]), Mokép has high hopes for Dominik Moll’s Lemming [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Forum Hungary is releasing the German feature The White Masai [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Hermine Huntgeburth. The last of today’s releases is French minority co-production Silent Hill [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Christophe Gans, distributed by Best Hollywood. These four European productions will have to compete with three US releases.

(Translated from French)