The premiere of Hungarian Wedding was a tremendous success in New York

The much-anticipated U.S. premiere of Hungarian Wedding took place on Tuesday to a packed house in New York.

Hungarian wedding: from 22 January in the Hungarian cinemas

The screening was held in the cinema hall of the Museum of the Moving Image, where director Csaba Káel and producer-cinematographer Lajos Tamás represented the film’s creators.

After the screening, Csaba Káel told MTI that the initial American feedback highlighted how the film introduced much of the U.S. audience to Hungarian culture. “They understood that there’s a remarkable tradition here, the last faint traces of which we might just have captured,” said the director, who is also the CEO of the National Film Institute.

He added that the inspiration for the film came from a visit he made as a student in 1980 to Transylvania, where he experienced a traditional wedding.

250th anniversary of the United States

In a speech before the screening, Csaba Káel reflected on the shared roots of American and Hungarian film history, pointing out that the Cluj (Kolozsvár) film studio was where pioneering Hollywood filmmakers Michael Curtiz (Kertész Mihály) and Alexander Korda (Korda Sándor) made their very first films. Hungarian Wedding is set in 1980 in Kalotaszeg, near Cluj.

Balázs Hankó, Minister for Culture and Innovation, sent a video message drawing attention to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026, emphasising the desire to showcase the contributions Hungarians have made to North American history.

The premiere was attended by Gino Pesi, an American actor-director and Pennsylvania’s film commissioner, who called for stronger collaboration between the U.S. and Hungarian film industries, as well as Ambassador Szabolcs Takács. The event was organised by the Liszt Institute in New York with support from the National Cultural Fund.

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