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Baltasar Kormákur
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The Titanic is a small but very well-organised and exciting international festival, which is part of why I accepted the invitation to become chairman of the jury, Kormákur said, adding that he had been invited to several festivals that were being held at the same time.
"Firstly, I accepted the invitation because I had never been in Hungary and was very much interested in it, and secondly because the Titanic is an exceptionally colourful and youthful festival, plus last year, my film Bloodlines won the competition programme," Kormákus said. His new film White Wedding Night was included in the Northern Light section of this year's festival.
The director said Hungary had the potential to become the host of a large Central European film festival.
"The Icelandic film festival gradually grew to become an international event, where initially only the representatives of the international press and later an increasing number of international films were invited. In a similar way, Hungary could make its film week international, considering that the location of the country is ideal, plus the film festival of Karlovy Vary is the only defining and commonly known international festival in Central and Eastern Europe," he said.
The Hungarian film industry would also benefit from a large international festival because more foreigners would get a chance to see Hungarian films and this would greatly increase co-productions and other opportunities, he added. Titanic is a small but important festival and whoever wins it will have better chances at larger festivals, Kormákur said.
"Nearly all the screenings were sold-out which shows that people were very much interested in the films presented at this festival, and this is most important," he added.
Kormákur is currently working on post-production for his latest film, Inhale, which was shot in the US. Inhale is a thriller about trade in human organs, starring Rosanna Arquette, Sam Shepard, Dermot Mulroney, Diane Kruger and Vincent Perez. He said his future plans include a historic film about the Vikings.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
