HUNGARY: Hungary set to become a mini-Hollywood, as producers are offered financial incentives and new studios

In the heart of Budapest by the Chain Bridge the new episode of the award-winning Canadian tv series 'The Collector' is being shot. The episode takes place in Budapest and stars Joely Collins (daughter of Phil Collins) and Chris Kramer. The series is just one of the rapidly growing numbers of foreign film productions that have come into Hungary over the past year. Hungary has had several foreign productions since the fall of communism; including Evita, where Budapest became Buenos Aires, and Spy Game starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt which also had some of its scenes shot there. But in the past year foreign productions have virtually poured into the country due to a recently passed film law and a special financing system. The new law, based on the Irish model, offers unprecedented tax breaks to foreign movie-makers who shoot films on Hungarian soil, a 16 percent return on all expenditures incurred in Hungary and further savings if a Hungarian company is a co-producer in the project. Budapest has never been so attractive to film makers as a result. In the past year more than 12 foreign movies were shot in Hungary, including Steven Spielberg's 'Munich', and Twentieth Century Fox's 'Eragon'. The executive producer of 'The Collector', Larry Sugar, says it's not just the financial incentives which decided the location of the series. "The obvious reason that we came was because of the financial benefit, and it allowed us to shoot an additional episode above what we would have been able to shoot in Canada. But we chose Budapest even though there are one or two countries, well, there are several countries we could have gone to that would have been less expensive because of the diversification of the geography here, how beautiful this city is and because we're happy with the crew. We worked here last year, sometimes there's difficulty in communications but the end results were fantastic," Sugar said. The Concorde Film Trust is a domestic film-financing fund which acts as an intermediary between filmmakers and corporations. Director Mihaly Boris says Hungary is in a particularly favourable position in Central Europe as no other country in the region has introduced similar laws. "The Hungarian system is unique in the region at present, there is no similar solution in any of the neighbouring countries. Apart from it being a financial assistance for the productions which is attractive in itself, I think it is also an important part that a country declares that it consciously supports the film industry and the foreign films coming into the country, and that in itself is able to attract foreign film productions into the country," he said. Adding to the attractive conditions created by the law is the prospect of a new film studio opening within a few months at the village of Pomaz near Budapest. Stern Film Studio and Media Center will be one of the largest and most modern in central Europe. Its opening will be crucial as at present the only available studios are the run-down, outdated once state-owned, studio complex. "Productions are looking at Hungary as a place that now has a film studio," said Amy Szabados, Canadian entrepreneur and co-owner of the studio. "Until now they couldn't come to Hungary and shoot their film from beginning to end because there wasn't the studio facilities to serve the production. Now films can come here and shoot from beginning to end and not have the worry of having to move their production from one country to the next," she said Another huge film studio is planned at Etyek, near Budapest. It will be made up of six studios, including one covering 6,070 square metres, which the investors say would be twice as big as the largest in the world, operated by Pinewood in London. But the project has been delayed and no construction has yet started. The news laws and studios are sending a strong message that Hungary is open for business. Leading Hungarian producer, Laszlo Sipos, who lobbied hard for years for the film law, is convinced that Budapest has a good chance to regain its world position in the world of movie-making. "Budapest has very serious chances of becoming a film centre in Central Europe, like Prague used to be. But I think we have better chances because only the big American films went into Prague whereas films are coming here from all over Europe, from England to Germany, to Budapest, so there is a good chance that Hungary will soon become a mini-Hollywood in eastern Europe," he said.

ITN Source | November 23, 2005

Tags:. .declares. .chain. .domestic. .spy. .prospect