Fourteen short films to be produced with a total funding of HUF 75.5 million

The Media Council will support the production of fourteen short films with a total of HUF 75.5 million in the first round of the 2018 Zoltán Huszárik tender of the Hungarian Media Patronage programme. Anikó Steinmetz will shoot a film adaptation of a story from the childhood of Aladár Eötvös. Ernő Zoltán Balog is making a film on the martyrdom of Ferenc Kucsera, while Gábor Szentiványi will relate the story of a trapped soldier. In the film of Dániel Kocsis, an agent of the one-party state finds himself in an awkward situation in the ‘80s. Ervin Sallai is shooting a film on a peculiar case of insurance fraud, based on a true story. Csaba Laskai’s surrealistic work deals with creative, artistic processes, whilst the heroine of András Dér’s upcoming film finds happiness in another age, as a model of Rubens. Two films deal with family-related issues: Gergely Fonyó’s film deals with the relationship between a boy and his alcoholic mother, whilst the work of Ákos Saufert depicts 60 hours of the life of a father working at night and a mother working during the day. Viktor Pacsorasz’s film will tell the story of an eccentric woman who steps on a mine in a Croatian border village and must make a tough decision for her survival. Significant encounters served as inspiration for three directors. Ákos K. Kovács’s short film relates the encounter of two lonely young women at the maternity ward of a hospital in Vojvodina in the early ‘90s, at the height of trafficking in infants in Yugoslavia. Péter Valcz’s film shows how the malfunctioning elevator of a sixteen-storey office building makes a young woman and a middle-aged man fight for being the first to walk through the doors of a prestigious advertising company. Anna Gyimesi is shooting a film on how the peculiar encounter of a man and a woman gives a fleeting hope for breaking out of a tricky situation. In a more light-hearted film directed by Dániel Márton, ten-year-old Brúnó establishes a league of superheroes from his friends in order to find Juci’s missing scooter.

Festival support

The Media Council will provide support in the total amount of HUF 1.5 million for the Primanima World Festival of First Animations taking place in Budaörs from 24 to 27 October 2018. Over five hundred works are submitted every year for the competition of student, graduation and first films, and the entrants regularly include students of the leading animation schools of the world from Japan to France, all the way to the United States of America. The board offered HUF 500 thousand for each category of the awards named after three outstanding Hungarian animated film artists, i.e. the George Pal Award for the most promising Hungarian talent, the Gyula Macskássy Award for the most popular Hungarian film and the Tibor Csermák Award for the most popular Hungarian children’s animation based on the votes of the child-age audience.

Radio decisions

The Media Council reviewed the bids received for four tenders for local radio media service opportunities of a commercial nature: two in Nyíregyháza, one in Sopron and one in Zalaegerszeg. After performing the formal examination, it registered all the entrants for the two Nyíregyháza frequency tenders as well as the Sopron tender: LB Rádió Kft., Regionális Rádió Kft. and Sunshine Rádió Kft. for the tender for the Nyíregyháza 99.4 MHz frequency; Center-Rádió Kft., Regionális Rádió Kft. and Sunshine Rádió Kft. for the Nyíregyháza 103.9 MHz frequency; as well as Pannon-Sopron Kft. and Regionális Rádió Kft. for the Sopron 94.1 MHz frequency. In the tendering procedure for the Zalaegerszeg 88.9 MHz frequency, the board registered the bids of Egerszeg Media Kft. and LB Rádió Kft.

At the service provider’s request, the board renewed the media service licence of GONG Rádió Kft. until 13 December 2023 for the Kecskemét 96.5 MHz, Nagykőrös 93.6 MHz, Gyömrő 97.2 MHz and Csongrád 87.6 MHz frequencies.

Inspection of data collection on the fulfilment of programme quota obligations

NMHH reviewed the fulfilment of the data provision obligation of media service providers for the period from January to May 2018. Pursuant to the media act, a specified range of media service providers are obliged to provide data on a monthly basis to the Media Council on the ratio of European and Hungarian works aired. In the case of media service providers who failed to fulfill their duties on time, it applied the legal sanctions stipulated by the media act: it issued warnings and in some cases fines ranging from ten thousand to hundreds of thousands of forints. The full list will be included in the Media Council’s resolutions and minutes.