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.