Public funds in the Hungarian film industry – reviewing contracts of the National Film Fund

Following our article series discussing the matters of the Motion Picture Public Foundation (Magyar Mozgókép Közalapítvány, MMKA) of Hungary, previously responsible for the state financing of films, the successor organization Hungarian National Film Fund (Magyar Nemzeti Filmalap, MNF), headed by government commissioner Andy Vajna, has been criticized for not supplying sufficient funds for filmmaking – thus it appears that films are not being subsidized since the MMKA has stopped providing funds. Therefore, Atlatszo.hu requested the list of contracts from the MNF of budgets exceeding 10 million forints, as well as the contracts of production, consulting and professional expertise (published here, Google Document).

The MNF document reveals that since its foundation the organization has entered into contracts of appr. 13 billion forints (ca. 43.67 million euros) of state funds, out of which 7.125 billion forints have been allocated for supporting professional activities and operating costs, and 5.97 for the consolidation of the MMKA. The documents show that so far 3.4 billion forints have been spent to cover bank loans of MMKA, and only 750 million forints have been allocated for film production costs (of those exceeding 10 million forints). According to the online grants register much more money was awarded to different productions. We reviewed the contracts for consulting and expertise as well – they reveal that the MNF signed contracts with different companies and law firms for auditing, tax advisory, information services and legal consulting.

Read the full article in Hungarian here.

Translation by Szabina Kerényi