Hungarian Director Ágnes Kocsis?s first feature film ?Fresh Air? has been invited to the 45th Semaine International de la Critique, a festival featuring directors? first and second films, which also runs parallel with the Cannes Film Festival. Kocsis has also been invited to participate in this year?s Cannes Film Festival: her film ?The Virus? will compete in the Cinéfondation selection, which awards prizes to the three best film-school entries.
György Pálfi?s second feature film ?Taxidermia? has been included in the Cannes Film Festival?s Un Certain Regard lineup. The Un Certain Regard Prize awards one of the films presented in the selection with a grant to aid its distribution in France.
The last time four Hungarian films were shown in Cannes was 1987, when Károly Makk, Gyula Maár, Gyula Gazdag és Gyula Nagy all showed films.
Every year, the Directors? Fortnight, created in 1969 by the SRF (French Directors Guild), under the direction of Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, programmes a selection of 20 feature and short films from around the world during the Cannes Film Festival.
From its inception, the aim of the Directors? Fortnight has been to showcase filmmakers for audiences and critics alike. This not only involves highlighting new talent in world cinema and the directors of tomorrow, but also supporting filmmakers who are still little-known in the West or whose work has not been shown in the major international festivals.
Szabolcs Hajdu is among the most talented Hungarian directors of his generation. His first effort, ?Sticky Matters?, was awarded the prize for best first film at the 2001 Hungarian Film Festival, where, in 2006, ?White Palms? won the prize for best director, best cinematographer (András Nagy), best producer (Iván Angelusz, Gábor Kovács, Ágnes Pataki and Péter Reich), and best editing (Péter Politzer), as well as the Gene Moskowitz foreign critics? prize. The film also won the audience prize, decided by an internet vote.
The film was a joint production of Katapult Films and Filmpartners.
Iván Angelusz, the producer of ?White Palms? will be the Hungarian delegate to the European Film Promotion ?Producers on the Move? programme in Cannes, which aims to introduce talented young producers to the industry.
Hungarian directors who have been invited to show their films at the Directors? Fortnight in recent years include Kornél Mundruczó, Péter Forgács and Béla Tarr.
