Carvalho

Hungary 27-11-2007

Prominent Brazilian cinematographer Walter Carvalho is set to shoot Budapestas his directorial debut, with principal photography in both the Hungarian capital and his homeland.

As Hungary's premiere comedian, Robert Koltai, storms the local box office with his latest film Train Keeps a Rollin', an accompanying publicity event is having unforeseen ramifications.

After 15 weeks of shooting at Hungary's Stern Studios in Pomaz (www.sternstudios.com), Nutcrakcer - The Untold Story has completed both principal and second-unit photography.

Julie Delphy's long-gestating historical drama The Countess is on shaky ground again after the Hungarian co-producer, Tivoli Films International (www.tivolifilms.com), backed out when its American producers slashed the budget in half

Hungary's National Radio and Television Commission, or ORTT, has ordered Magyar Televizio to pay an 800,000 forint (€3,190) fine for "implied advertising," a violation of the 1995 media law.

The €1.5 million German-Serbian-Hungarian production Mamarosh has set a shooting date of March 2008 after Eurimages (www.coe.int/eurimages), a Film Fund of the Council of Europe, agreed to extend the validity of its €280,000 grant.

Hungary's public broadcaster, Magyar Televizio (mtv, www.mtv.hu), has filed suit with the country's Supreme Court against Music Television, seeking exclusive use of the MTV brand after the latter debuted its Hungarian-language music channel on Oct. 1

Foreign sales from Hungary's bountiful postwar film catalogue have been stuck in a bureaucratic limbo since 2004, and a Sept. 30 deadline that was expected to clarify the situation has gone unheeded.

The Greek-Spanish-Hungarian co-production El Greco held its ceremonial premiere in Athens this week with Queen Sofia of Spain in attendance.

The state-owned Pannónia Film Kft., once the leading force in a booming Hungarian animation sector, is facing an uncertain future due to inaction on the part of its owner, the country's privatization agency.

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