Grand opening night of the 2nd Budapest International Film Festival at Corvin Cinema – photos, video
The Corvin Cinema, one of Budapest’s most storied theatres, was buzzing with anticipation on the evening of 25 October as the second Budapest International Film Festival (BIFF) opened its doors. And Daily News Hungary was there, not about to miss one of the capital’s standout cultural events.
If one scene captured the growing confidence of this year’s Budapest International Film Festival (BIFF), it was the crowded foyer of the Corvin Cinema on Saturday night. Glasses of wine clinked as filmmakers, critics, and curious big screen enthusiasts traded takes on a bold new season of cinema.
Budapest International Film Festival expands its scope
Following last year’s polished debut, the festival has doubled its runtime and broadened its ambitions. “We wanted to tell a bigger story,” said festival director Krisztián Horváth in his opening remarks, standing before a packed auditorium. “A film festival should have a soul, and ours is growing.” It was a brief, modestly delivered speech, but one that hinted at BIFF’s rising international profile.
Indeed, Budapest is fast becoming a key stop in Central Europe’s film circuit; not yet a rival to Venice or Cannes, but no longer a regional curiosity either. Over the next nine days, the Budapest International Film Festival will screen nearly forty titles, from prestigious international winners to experimental gems and a brand-new competition section, Bloom, dedicated to emerging filmmakers from around the globe.
Horváth also announced a raft of new initiatives reflecting the Budapest International Film Festival’s growing sophistication: the festival now boasts an official jury and awards, the BIFF Hub for in-depth conversations with international guests, and a BIFF Campus mentoring programme for fourteen students. Alongside a grand opening and closing party, screenings will also take place in striking alternative venues, from the converted Szépilona Tram Depot to the City Hall and the Etyek-based Korda Studios, while an exhibition of Robby Müller’s Polaroids at the Capa Centre adds a distinctive touch to this year’s expanded programme.
Opening the Budapest International Film Festival’s official programme was Two Prosecutors, the latest feature from acclaimed Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa.
Two Prosecutors: a chilling portrait of bureaucratic tyranny
Sergei Loznitsa, known for his stark documentaries (Maidan, State Funeral) and fiction like Donbass, returns with Two Prosecutors, a quiet, unsettling film set in Stalin’s Soviet Union. It tells the story of Kornyev, a young prosecutor (played with quiet intensity by Aleksandr Kuznetsov), who uncovers torture and fabricated charges within the NKVD (the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union). As he tries to seek justice, he’s pulled deeper into a system designed to crush dissent through silence and procedure.
Loznitsa’s style is as controlled as ever. The camera rarely moves, forcing us to sit with the suffocating stillness of bureaucratic power. Oleg Mutu’s cinematography is bleak and precise; every frame cold, composed, and full of dread. The absence of music only sharpens the tension.
Kuznetsov’s performance gives the film its emotional weight. Kornyev begins as an idealist, but by the time he faces the cold, calculating Vyshinsky (a chilling Anatoliy Beliy), his belief in justice is quietly unraveling. Loznitsa doesn’t dramatise the collapse; he lets it unfold in small, unbearable increments.
Two Prosecutors feels timeless in its depiction of complicity, how systems dehumanise not with chaos, but with order. It’s one of Loznitsa’s most refined films, and it leaves a deep, uneasy silence long after it ends.
Watch the trailer below:
Bold and borderless line-up
If the opening night is any indication, the Budapest International Film Festival’s second year is one to watch. The line-up is expansive and refreshingly bold, skipping across borders and styles: from Radu Jude’s sardonic Kontinental ’25 to Park Chan-wook’s brooding, philosophical No Other Choice, and a strikingly authentic new feature from Portugal’s Pedro Pinho, I Only Rest in the Storm.
There’s real energy, too, in the Bloom strand, a showcase for new and necessary voices. Standouts include Akinola Davies Jr.’s My Father’s Shadow, and We Believe You, Charlotte Deville’s quietly devastating debut already tipped as a breakthrough.
Elsewhere, the Anzix section leans experimental, with boundary-pushing fare like Eastern Anthems and a new work from minimalist filmmaker James Benning. And for those drawn to memory and return, Homeward Bound offers a thoughtfully assembled retrospective, from Terence Davies to Víctor Erice and Chantal Akerman, tracing cinema’s long-held preoccupation with home.
For more on the vibrant Hungarian festival scene, from the high drama around Sziget’s future to cinematic highlights in Venice, Lyon and Tallinn, explore our latest reports, including Budapest’s Film Week, the Lake Balaton Fish Festival, and the Global Chess Festival at the National Gallery.
A confident step forward
As the crowd spilled out of the movie theatre, the mood was charged; some quietly stunned, others deep in debate. Two Prosecutors had clearly hit a nerve, leaving critics and festival-goers alike with plenty to chew on.
For a festival still in its infancy, BIFF already feels strikingly sure of itself. Now in its second year, the Budapest International Film Festival balances a global outlook with a strong local pulse, being serious about cinema but never self-important. Under artistic director Horváth, the festival is shaping into more than just a screening schedule. The Budapest International Film Festival is becoming a cultural meeting point, one that puts Budapest firmly on the map as one of Europe’s rising film capitals.
As we previously reported, the Budapest International Film Festival will showcase 36 films across more than 50 screenings at Budapest’s Corvin Cinema from 25 October to 2 November. All films will be shown in their original language, with Hungarian or English subtitles. You can purchase tickets for BIFF screenings online or in person at the Corvin Cinema box office.
