Foreign guests at the Film Week
Regulars and newcomers
January. 28. 2004.
Altogether about 120 foreign guests from 26 counties are attending this year’s Film Week upon invitation by the Hungarian Film Union. Guests include the program organizers and directors of international film festivals, and representatives of the international press. This year even members of Hollywood’s Golden Globe nomination committee are going to attend the Film Week, just as the organizers of the Year of Hungarian Culture in the Netherlands and in Russia, says Éva Vezér, head of the Film Union.
Delegates of a number of documentary festivals will be attending the documentary program of the first three days, including the Marseilles and Nion festivals and Amsterdam’s IDFA. Representatives of the Krakow and Saint Petersburg shorts festivals will view the shorts program. Meanwhile, organizers of several A-list festivals also indicated that they will participate at this year’s Film Week, including members of several sections of the Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Venice and Cannes festivals. Delegates of such major film events as the London, Thessaloniki and Edinburgh film weeks will also be present, just as observers from such key Central European film competitions as the Cottbus, the Wiesenbaden and the Trieste festivals.
The Pusan Film Festival of South Korea – which regularly screens European films – will also be represented in Budapest. Courtesy of the European Film Motion, of which the Hungarian Film Union is a member, Hungarian films can appear at this forum as well, Vezér said.
This year will be the first for the Hungarian Film Week to welcome four journalists from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the body that decides who merits the Golden Globe Awards. For the past few years, Hungarian films have been appearing on the list of Golden Globe nominees, and the Film Union would like this trend to continue, Vezér said.
Beside festival representatives, TV editors, distributors and producers working with Hungarian partners will also attend the Film Week upon invitation by Hungarian distributor Mokép-Hungarofilm.
Foreign guests can view feature film screenings with simultaneous English and French translation at the Krisztina room, while shorts will be shown with simultaneous English translation. The moderator of the post-screening sessions presenting the crews will be moderated by Györgyi Albert.
During the Film Week, Culture Minister István Hiller will hold a press conference on the new film law and its effects, while the new EU media program Hungary is joining on May 1st will be presented in a roundtable discussion.
The Film Union will publish its newsletter during the Film Week presenting the Hungarian participants at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival: Dealer by Benedek Fliegauf and Ki a Macska? (Who’s the Cat?) by Péter Mészáros, Vezér said. The new Hungarian film law will be presented at a press conference at the Hungarian embassy in Berlin during the German film event.
