10/02/2005

The Hungarian New Wave has another director to add to its shooting stars. Last Tuesday (8th Feb), Black Brush, Roland Vranik's first feature film, was elected Best film at the 36th Hungarian Film Week, the showroom for Magyar productions. Produced by Filmteam, Film Partners, and Inforg Stúdió, Black Brush takes place on the roofs of Budapest ad recounts, with a sense of humour verging on the absurd, the adventures of four young carpenters disillusioned by their work. Roland Vranik ackowledged the influence of Jim Jarmusch'sDown by Law on his work. He was also the assistant-director of Béla Tarr for The Werckmeister Harmonies .

An other big winner this year is Péter Gárdos, who got an award as Best director and the Gene Moskowitz Prize (selected by the international press) for The Porcelain Doll, a film for which Sándor Csányi won an award as Best actor in a supporting role, well-deserved, needless to say, since he had been stunning in Stop Mom Therese! and in Paths of Light, Attila Mispál's first feature film (which won him a prize as best young director). Mispál's film definitely brought luck to its actors too: György Cserhalmi, main part in it, was crowned Best actor for his role in The Unburied Man). Finally, the award for the Best actress went to Dorka Gryllus in Dallas Pashamende (selected in Berlin in the 'Panorama' section), and Ildikó Tóth was crowned Best actress in a supporting role in the film See You in Space!.
Best short film was The Carousel Rite by Zoltán Gayer and Péter Molnár, and Best documentary was New Eldorado by Tibor Kocsis.
The full list of winners is available online at Magyar Filmunio.

(Translated from French)