Chairman of the Hungarian Film Week board, director Attila Janisch and Chief Secretary of the Association of Film Professionals, director György Szomjas brief the press about the 38th Hungarian Film Week at Mammut cinema. Photo by Péter Kollányi (MTI)
The jury will also include Dutch film distributor and festival organiser Ellis Driessen, the American editor of Screen International Mike Goodridge, Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi and Hungarian producer András Muhi, said director Attila Janisch, who chairs the festival board.
The jury for documentary films will be chaired by writer and painter Gábor Karátson. Its members will include director Ádám Csillag and cinematographer Sándor Csukás.
The jury for experimental and short films will be chaired by director Péter Tímár, Its members will include film scholar Gábor Gelencsér and director László Hartai.
The jury in the nature and educational films category will be chaired by film scholar András Réz, and its members will be director Szabolcs Mosonyi and director-cinematographer József Rák.
A National Student Jury, including representatives of film and media departments from 12 Hungarian colleges and universities, will also present awards. This year the jury will present a new award for the promising newcomer of the year.
For the first time, two main prizes will be awarded at the Budapest Film Week, Janisch said, one for the best auteur film and the other for the best film of its genre.
A total of 315 entries have been submitted for this year's festival. In the competition will be 17 feature films, 39 documentaries, 30 experimental and short films and 9 nature and educational films.
This year's festival will pay special tribute to the late Hungarian film director Zoltán Fábri, as well as several other past great directors.
Erzsébet Tóth, who heads the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (MMK), said that the 38th Hungarian Film Week has a total budget of HUF 155 million, of which HUF 120 million is being provided by the foundation and HUF 35 million is coming from sponsors. Last year's festival budget was HUF 145 million.
The state paid for under half of the production costs of films being shown at the festival. MMK paid for about a quarter of their costs. Some of the films being shown received funding three or four years ago and have only now been completed.
Tóth noted that legislation introduced a few years ago which gives investors in film productions a special tax break has benefited the industry. About ten Hungarian films have been made without any state support as a result, she said.
The festival will be held at three venues: the House of Future, the Palace Mammut Cinema and the Uránia Cinema. The opening ceremony will be held at the Budapest Congress Centre on January 30th. The Life Achievement Award, the Master of the Hungarian Motion Picture Award and the Jolán Árvai Award will be presented at the event, to be followed by a screening of director Pál Sándor's new film "Noah's Ark."
