Hungarian film industry attracts record-high spending in 2019

The Alienist: Angel of Darkness

Hungary’s film industry attracted a record-breaking 164.4 billion forints (EUR 465m) direct spending last year, 50 percent up from the previous year, the National Film Institute (NFI) said on Wednesday.

The annual volume of film productions in Hungary exceeded 100 billion forints for the fourth time in a row, it added.

International productions accounted for 94 percent of the total spending last year. Of the 319 productions registered in the year, 228 were Hungarian, eight were co-productions and 83 were international productions, it said.

The biggest production, with a spend of 14 billion forints, was TNT’s The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, the second season of the Emmy-winning show, starring Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans and Daniel Bruhl. Showtime’s action-series sci-fi Halo, planned to premiere next year, had a budget exceeding 12 billion forints. Netflix’s series Shadow and Bones had a 7 billion forint budget and the biographical feature Harry Haft (Baltimore Pictures, Bron Media Corp) was also 7 billion forints.

NFI board chairman Csaba Káel, who is also government commission for developing Hungary’s motion picture industry, said that Hungary continued to be the most popular filming location on the continent, with experienced professionals and world-class studios.

“During the state of emergency caused by the epidemic we were continually working towards enabling the restart of the film industry, with full capacity and without delay,” he said, noting that the sector employs some 20,000 people including domestic and international productions.

A primary aim is to maintain the competitiveness of Hungary’s film industry, Káel said. The expansion of a studio complex in Fót is a development of special significance, he said, adding that the project has entered the planning phase as part of the government’s economic protection action plan, he added.

Hungary offers a 30 percent tax rebate for film and TV productions, based on expenditures in the country, but the rebate can reach 37.5 percent through the addition of qualifying non-Hungarian costs.