How did you get into the world of culture and film?

Ever since I was a child I have been looking out for film events and festivals. It’s also partly thanks to my mother being an employee at Hungarofilm at the time, where she worked on the overseas marketing of Hungarian films. When I was in high school I seriously thought about going into the film industry. I spent a lot of time going to the cinema and to film clubs. I ended up studying English philology and teaching, but film remained the centre of my attention. In 2004 I started working at the MEDIA Desk Hungary information office, which was launched at the same time as when Hungary became part of the European Union. During my 10 years there I was able to really get to know Hungarian and European cinema.

Since 2014 Creative Europe has been working as part of the same organisation under MEDIA and the Creative Europe Programme. Based on your several years of experience, how beneficial is it that they were brought under the same umbrella?

At the beginning it seemed a little unusual that two previously completely independent EU programmes be brought together, but with time we got used to the idea. Once we became familiar with the Culture subprogramme’s calls for proposal and domestic representatives, I had no doubt about the foundations of the collaboration. Although the application process is exactly the same at both the MEDIA and Culture subprogrammes, the calls themselves are entirely different.

When the Creative Europe Programme was launched Member States had to find a solution to bring the subprogrammes together. The Hungarian National Film Fund founded a company to coordinate everything, which is responsible for both subprogrammes. Almost half of the Member States are still run by two separate institutions, MEDIA and Culture. Compared to that I think our job is a bit easier.

The main task of the Creative Europe Desk is to assist by providing information about the program. What else do you deal with?

Our job is to publicise the supported projects as much and as widespread as possible. Especially those in which Hungarian organisations are involved, of course.

We also place great importance on publicising international professional film training programmes. We were very pleased to see that, according to 2016 data, no less than 69 young Hungarian cinephiles participated in the workshops supported by MEDIA. That’s the ninth-highest number of participants in all of Europe, which is not at all bad for such a small country.

Occasionally we ourselves organise professional training over one or two days. For example with the European Documentary Network we jointly organised the international seminar “Making International Documentaries” in 2015. On its second day the participants who had applied with a project received professional advice from the invited experts. Lastly, in October 2017, we invited one of the most prestigious production training organisers, the German Erich Pommer Institut, to Budapest. Together we organised a seminar called “Co-producing in Europe”. Kornél Mundruczó’s film, ‘Jupiter’s Moon’, which came into being thanks to the Hungarian-German co-production and to MEDIA support, was used as a case study for demonstrating the seminar’s main topic in a practical way.

Do the different local offices work together in any way? If so, what kind of initiatives does the Hungarian office take part in?

Yes, there is collaboration of this kind between the Creative Europe Desks. The latest international one took place in Ljubljana in December 2017. Our joint initiative, the CEE Animation Workshop, came about in order to bring together independent animation producers from 18 eastern European countries. The panels that addressed east-central European co-production conditions were an important part of the Ljubljana reunion. More than 30 film experts took part in the event. These experts made a collective statement in which they addressed cinema funds and TV channels, asking them to offer more support to the animation industry.

How satisfied are you with the results of the Hungarian candidates?

I think we can be proud of them. Competition is tough and the amount of money that can be won is limited. Hungarians have to compete against French, German and Italian projects, which doesn’t make their position any easier. And yet they have still managed to get good results in the past four years. In the framework of the MEDIA subprogramme, since the Creative Europe’s launch in 2014 a total of 5.7 million euros in support has been allocated to the Hungarian film industry. Thanks to this amount we are closer to the standards of the east-central European region.

What is your greatest achievement?

It would be very hard to pinpoint just one thing, but it is true that we are particularly proud that MEDIA has had a lot to do with the international distribution of the most successful Hungarian films of the past few years. The Oscar-winning ‘Son of Saul’ was screened at cinemas in 24 European countries, with 550 000 euros of distribution support from MEDIA; Ildikó Enyedi’s successful ‘On Body and Soul’ was also shown in 30 European countries, with a total of 624 000 euros in support; and last year’s Cannes competition film, ‘Jupiter’s Moon’, also did a fine job, being shown in 27 countries, with 476 500 euros worth of support. Just as important is that the pre-production of the last two films was also supported by Creative Europe. And László Nemes’s new film ‘Sunset’ was also successful in the development scheme.

What are the Hungarian Desk’s plans for the near future?

At the moment we’re working on the preparation of a joint MEDIA/Culture showcase event. We plan to present the most successful projects and candidates of the Culture Europe programme of the last four years. And in connection with this we have started drafting a comprehensive publication in which, alongside reviews of the projects, there’ll be interviews with the candidates.

On top of that we also plan to attend cultural and film-related events and festivals that are similar to our usual Europe Day exhibitions. We have also been in contact with several local offices of the Europe Direct network, where we will give informative presentations in summer.