Hungarian Film Day: celebrate Hungarian filmmaking with these movies

On 30 April, talk will be all about outstanding filmmakers, acting talent, and their lasting legacy in the country, as this is the day when we celebrate Hungarian Film Day. The event will be accompanied by screenings of classic and contemporary films. Here is a list of the movies shown with English subtitles that you can enjoy in cinemas!

Since 2018, the Hungarian Film Day falls on 30 April, the anniversary of the public premiere of the first Hungarian film, A Táncz (The Dance). The film was created by Béla Zsitkovszky and Gyula Pekár, released in 1901, and was the first staged motion picture with dramatised scenes made in the country.

The Hungarian Film Day commemorates this tremendous anniversary, while also celebrating contemporary Hungarian filmmaking talent. Alongside the National Film Institute, TV stations, streaming providers, and cinemas take part in the joint festivities, foregrounding Hungarian films across the country for several days.

“Hungarian films are parts of our lives. […] Our common goal is to widely promote the work of Hungarian filmmaking teams, our shared stories, and our heroes and to revisit our favourites, whether they are recent hits and exciting discoveries or black-and-white classics restored to a high standard. We are delighted that more and more people are joining the Hungarian Film Day every year so that it […] has quickly become a common cause and a tradition,” said Csaba Káel, Government Commissioner for the Development of the Motion Picture Industry and President of the National Film Institute in 2022.

Celebrate the Hungarian Film Day at one of the most beautiful cinemas in the country

Urania National Film Theatre offers a variety of contemporary films subtitled in English for foreign audiences on 30 April. Here is a list of some films you will not want to miss.

Kalman’s Day (2023)

It is a beautiful, sunny autumn morning in a nice, cosy house near a peaceful lake. Kálmán no longer knows what love is. His asexual wife Olga proposes to remodel the house in a new attempt to save the relationship.

Photo: Kálmán-nap / Facebook

“Nothing happens in the film, only our whole lives,” writes index.hu in a review, pointing out that the relationship between men and women and the tiny vibrations of relationships are portrayed with such mastery and deep sensitivity that through its humour and drama, the movie is often “more thrilling than a thriller”.

Pelikan Blue (2024)

A Hungarian animated documentary that brings back the feeling of the 1990s and speaks of the experiences of a whole generation of Hungarians.

The story follows three friends as they discover how to cheat the international rail system by travelling around Europe on counterfeit international train tickets. In the film, as Telex writes, “it soon becomes clear that it is not the fraud itself but the desire for freedom and curiosity that drives the three young men”.

Photo: Kék Pelikan / Facebook

Semmelweis (2023)

Semmelweis tells the story of Hungary’s most famous doctor, Ignác Semmelweis, the “saviour of mothers,” who discovered that if doctors wash their hands in a chlorine solution, mortality from childbed fever could be reduced dramatically. The film shows the doctor’s struggle in 1847 to prove his discovery to his sceptic colleagues.

Photo: FB/Semmelweis movie

Six Weeks (2022)

Zsofi, a rebellious teen, lives in a tiny flat with her sister Mesi, and their unstable mother, Bea. Zsofi discovers that she is pregnant and decides to give up her baby through open adoption to a couple. Following the birth, she is given six weeks by law to change her mind and ask for her child back. She seems to be able to control her feelings ruthlessly and continue towards the goals she set. At the same time, her maternal feelings intensify, doubts arise, and she slowly begins to question her own decisions.

Photo: Hat hét / Facebook

Explanation for Everything (2023)

“Explanation for Everything is really about us trying to live here in Hungary in 2023,” writes 24.hu.

Photo: Magyarázat mindenre / Facebook

The story is about a boy, Ábel, who is about to graduate from high school. He is hopelessly in love with a girl at his school but, to his sorrow, she is enamoured with their history teacher.

When Ábel fails his history graduation exam, he makes up a story blaming his teacher, lying to his father that he had a cockade on his jacket, which the teacher – who already had problems with Ábel’s parents being Fidesz supporters – did not like. The story reaches an up-and-coming outsider contributor to a pro-government newspaper, and Ábel’s history graduation exam turns into a national scandal.

All About the Levkoviches (2024)

The big-hearted but stubborn elderly Tamás Levkovich has not spoken to his son Ivan for years. The son moved to Israel to escape the conflict with his father, living as an Orthodox there, keeping in touch only with his mother in Budapest. When his mother dies unexpectedly, Ivan returns home with his six-year-old son to sit shiva in the family home. When the two men meet again, their different views are pitted against each other, and their conflict could make or break their family.

The film “makes you laugh and cry at the same time, taking you into a world unknown to many. If it were just a nice Sunday afternoon family dramedy, we would still like it, but All About the Levkoviches gives us much more than that and fills an important gap in Hungarian cinema,” wrote magyar.film.hu.

Photo: Lefkovicsék gyászolnak / Facebook

See the full timetable for the Hungarian Film Day at Urania HERE.

Regular tickets are HUF 2,300 (EUR 5.87), and discounted tickets (for students, pensioners, and teachers) are HUF 1,800 (EUR 4.59) each.

Read also:

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• 6 outstanding films you might not have known were shot in Hungary