Castle builders
Documentary with the support of the National Film Institute
After analyzing millions of Instagram posts, The Thinking Traveller travel agency came to the conclusion that the Buda Castle is the 8th most posted and photographed palace in Europe, and with this ranking, it was also ahead of the Palace of Versailles. In our film, we present the history of the Buda Castle, which is popular with tourists, from the 1100s to the present day. From the constructions of King Béla II and King Sigismund, to the Renaissance palace of King Matthias and the 150 years of Turkish occupation to the construction of Maria Theresa, we can then present the large-scale architectural program of Franz Joseph I. The palace at the turn of the century was destroyed and transformed by World War II and the communist state. Hundreds of professionals are now working on its reconstruction.
Director: Szonja Szabó
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
D.O.P.: Máté Dobray, Csaba Polgár
3D photo animation and graphic design: Artúr Andrási, Liza Szabó
Editor: Péter Mórocz
Actors: Júlia Ladányi, Miklós Vecsei H.
Year of production: 2025
Olympic dream in Transylvania
Documentary made with the support of the National Film Institute
Hive – Transylvanian Documentary Film Review 2024 – Best Documentary II. Prize
Hungarian Movie Festival 2023 – Best Short Documentary Award Nomine
Few people know this today, but in the second half of the 1930s, Hungary, as a founding member of the International Olympic Committee, had good reason to hope that it would soon be able to host the Olympic Games.
With the Second Vienna Award on August 30, 1940, nearly 50% of the territories ceded to Romania after World War I were returned to Hungary. The returned territories offered numerous opportunities for winter sports, and it was at this moment that the Hungarian state embraced the plan to develop a European-standard winter sports center where the Winter Olympics could also be held. Borsafüred in the Radnai Mountains was designated as the location for the “Hungarian National Winter Sports Center.” The ski center in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where Germany successfully hosted the Winter Olympics in 1936, served as a model for the design. The Hungarian sports leadership had big dreams for Olympic facilities, and when designing “Hungarian Garmisch,” they planned for all sports facilities to be larger and more modern than those built by the Germans. And most of these facilities were actually built.
In our film, we present the idea of the unrealized Winter Olympics in Transylvania, the plans, and with it, Borsafüred, along with the facilities that still stand today. We would like the former Olympic dream not to disappear without a trace, but to live on, at least in this film.
Director: Nóra Szarka
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: Csaba Polgár
3D photo animation and graphic design: Artúr Andrási, Liza Szabó
Editor: Péter Mórocz
Year of production: 2022
JANKOVICS – The history of the Jankovics family
Documentary made with the support of the National Film Institute
Hungarian Movie Festival 2022 – Best Short Documentary Award
No such film has ever made about Marcell Jankovics – the renowned film director, cultural historian and honoured “Artist of the Nation” – which not only covers his life but also the path of the Jankovics family. Yet the story of the Jankovics family is a parabolic tale of Hungarian history over the past 100 years.
Although in our film members of the Jankovics family are the ones who suffer by the events, many others have experienced similar humiliations over the past 100 years. These events of life – consciously or unconsciously – had an impact on Marcell Jankovics. Like the thousands of people who carry the traumas of their parents and grandparents in some way, whether they are aware of it or not.
Based on the books “20 years in Bratislava” by dr. Marcell Jankovics, and “Leak-documents” by jr. Marcell Jankovics, the script is written by Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director: Szonja Szabó
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: Máté Dobray
3D photo animation and graphic design: Artúr Andrási, Liza Szabó
Editor: Péter Mórocz
Cast of reconstructed scenes: Tünde Boldizsár, Eszter Földes, Bálint Adorjáni, Nimród Balázs-Magyar, Péter Bárnai, Zoltán Berzsenyi, Álmos Előd, Bálint Merán, Ákos Solymosi, Zsolt Végh
Year of production: 2021
Liberator
Documentary made with the support of the National Film Institute
Hungarian Movie Festival 2023 – Best Long Documentary Award
A journey from the shadows of the prison bars towards the monk’s cell with a Roma boy, Attila, a former drug addict and crook. Our film focuses on the inner and outer journey of Attila, his spiritual alteration and growth, which can throw up questions in everybody, bringing the viewer closer to herself. Attila’s life story raises questions of vital importance, while the future holds many uncertainties.
Director: Gergely Hajnal
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: András Petrik
Cast: Attila Lólé, monks of the Benedictine abbeys of Pannonhalma and Bakonybél, and many others
Year of production: 2021
Greti’s World
Short film supported by MTVA Media Mecenatura
Gréti is a twelve years old girl, who’s entering a new stage of her life when she starts her studies in high school. On an average school day, she makes a video for her friend, recording the boys of her new class playing football, when one of them, Csabi clumsily falls. Maja, a dominant girl in their class notices Gréti filming. Gréti shows the video to Maja, and later sends it to her. Maja shares the video about Csabi in a group chat, and it becomes a meme within the group. The kids start a challenge, and Csabi quickly becomes the target of the group.
Written and directed by: Virág Szabó
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: Gábor Ezra Tausz
Animation and graphic design: Artúr Andrási, István Bejó
Sound: Márk Puszta
Editor: Csilla Zsély
Cast: Emma Bercovici, Luca Varga, András Máté Nagy, Lolita Vogl
Year of production: 2020
Deer
Short film
ASIANA Short Film Festival Soeul 2021 – OFFICIAL SELECTION
Zagreb Film Festival 2021 – OFFICIAL SELECTION
Anna and Péter head to a medical conference to a countryside hotel, where Péter is going to give a presentation. They plan to spend the weekend in the hotel after the official programme. Just before they would arrive, as they are passing by a forest road, from their car Anna spots a man slapping a girl. She is shocked by the sudden act of violence, while Peter claims he has not seen anything as he was busy with driving. Eventually they turn around to check what has happened.
Written and directed by: István Hevesi
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Co-producer: László Józsa, Rajčić Rea, Judit Romwalter
Director of photography: Gábor Ezra Tausz
Sound: Márk Puszta
Cast: Barna Bokor, Andrea Varga, David Yengibarian, Sára Törley-Havas
Year of production: 2020
Train Schedule
Short film supported by MTVA Media Mecenatura
Hungarian Movie Festival 2021 – Best Male Actor Nominee
International Short Film Festival San Reno 2020 – OFFICIAL SELECTION
The grandfather has suffered a stroke and his left side is paralyzed. They make a decision with his son Dezső, and his daughter-in-law Bea, that they take advantage of this unfortunate illness. The family bribes the doctor not to report the case and they take Grandpa to the railway track where he could ‘accidentally’ be hit. He is not able to use his left hand and leg anyway, why not have it cut? The insurance money could make all their dreams come true like a separate house, a car, buying an upholstery workshop. Dezső and his family have had enough of living on the edge. Their fate must hold more than that for them. Grandpa could make such a sacrifice for the family. Or should he not?
Written and directed by: Ervin Sallai
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Director of photography: Gábor Bárány, Arthur Kulcsár, Endre Shwindl
Sound: Roland Heidrich, Ottó Oláh
Editor: Gábor Bárány
Cast: János Bán, Bálint Bán, Nóra Trokán
Year of production: 2019
The Hungarian Olympiad
Documentary film supported by MTVA Media Mecenatura
Silver Javelin Award – Best Sports Documentary
Only a few know, that the idea of the modern time Olympic Games is not connected with the French baron, Coubertin but the Hungarian Lajos Vermes. The ancient greek Olympic Games were not revived by the French Pierre de Coubertin first, but a landowner in Palics (former Hungarian Kingdom, now belongs to Serbia) called Lajos Vermes. He organized the games in Palics between 1880 and 1914, which were referred to as the Hungarian Olympiad in the Hercules Sport Paper in 1885. The Palics games have lived for 34 years with international participants as a special alternative to the International Olympic Games which started in 1896.
Director: Ákos Zámborszki
Year of production: 2018
Crusaders of the Past and Present
Documentary film supported by MTVA Media Mecenatura
From the moment Muhammad found the religion Islam, it has been in a constant battle with “The Rest of the World”, and as such with Christianity too. Muslims always considered Christians one of “the people of the book”. During their expansion, Christians, if they paid tax, were not enemies to them. However, there is an endless conflict between the people of the
two religions.
The religion, originated in Arabia, started its expansion right after its birth and eventually reached the Iberian Peninsula. Christians fought for Jerusalem for decades; then due to the rise of the Turks, the Christian-Muslim war moved to European territories. It resulted in a long, heroic war for us, Hungarians, too in which we literally saved Europe from the Islamic conquest.
In the 21 st century, a new Islamic conquest started: fundamentalist terrorism hidden in illegal migration. It is a question, whether there will be enough of “crusaders” to stop the present day “jihad” which would completely reshape Europe’s image and culture. Our film is in search of that while it shows the tension of the last half millennium from the point of view of Muslims and Christians. We made special emphasis on the late crusade of the Hungarian King András II.
Director: Ferenc Varsányi
Year of Production: 2017
Tomato Soup with Alphabet Pasta
Animation series (13 ep)
While “Tomato Soup with Alphabet Pasta” is primarily an animated series for children, it is also multigenerational. Believe it or not, in school cafeterias today, children still eat the same foods their parents ate. The basis for the cartoons is the Kompánia Troupe’s musical adaptations of the poems of János Lackfi. It’s not our goal to make the children like the food, but to joke with them about it, play with them, and maybe help them sneak a second serving.
Director: Bálint Benkovits, Balázs Sarkadi Nagy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Based on a children’s poems: János Lackfi
Co-production partner: Derengo Animation
Year of Production: 2016-2017
Wellness
Short film
International Film Festival Sarajevo – Talent Campus
International Film Festival Sarajevo 2016 – Official Competition
Uppsala Short Film Festival 2017 – Official Competition
Wellness tells the story of the relationship of two pensioner lady, Teri and Ilona. They have been friends since decades and they’re spending their vacation together in a wellness hotel paid by Ilona’s son. Despite the seemingly ideal situation, they cannot really enjoy themselves: the air conditioning in their room goes wrong and later one of Ilona’s former colleague turns up as well.
The film follows a day of their stay, when the ladies try to get the most out of the vacation. With their constant activity they try to suppress their own anxiety and during the day some unspoken secrets come to light as well. By the end of the day their friendship, based on habits and mutual concealment, reaches to a point that makes both of them reconsider what they know about each other and themselves.
Director: Virág Szabó
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Screenwriter: Virág Szabó
Based on the short story of: Krisztina Tóth
Director of photography: Gábor Tausz
Sound design: Máté Péterffy
Editing: Csilla Zsély
Cast: Ibolya Csonka, Márta Egri, Zsolt Kovács
Year of Production: 2016
Weekend
thriller
HSC Golden Eye 2015 – Márk Győri – Award for Best Cinematographer
Weekend is about a weekend turning into tragedy in Transylvania. Three confident and successful hotshots from Budapest, István the building contractor, (Tamás Lengyel), Márta, his lawyer (Dorka Gryllus) and László, her husband (Kornél Simon) take off for a hunting trip to celebrate a victorious trial – that ended with exemption on the first degree, arriving to a small remote village surrounded by mountains.
Instead of relaxation they experience a dark weekend, full of secrets. Little by little the truth comes to light: not everybody are what they seem to be, they all lie, are manipulative and selfish, using the others to achieve their own goals.
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó, Ferenc Pusztai
Screenwriters: Áron Mátyássy, Péter Gál, Csaba Tóth
Dramaturge: Éva Zabezsinszkij
Cameraman: Márk Győri
Editing: Márton Gothár
Production designer: János Szabolcs
Sound: Gábor Balázs, Tamás Dévényi
Cast: Dorka Gryllus, Kornél Simon, Tamás Lengyel, Teréz Vass, Attila Árpa
Co-production partner: KMH Film
Year of production: 2014-2015
Wish to be a Red Indian
Experimental short film
Hungarian Media Council – Zoltán Huszárik Award
23. Alter-Native Film Festival, Tirgu Mures, Romania – The Ministry of Culture’s Award
The Wish to be a Red Indian is the story of Franz Kafka’s last love and last friendship. Kafka met the last love of his life, Dora Diamant, a girl of Polish origin and twenty years younger than him when he was forty and less than a year before he died. They moved in together in Berlin. It was just a few years before when he met his last friend, the young medic Róbert Klopstock from Dombóvár in the High Tatras. Kafka, as Klaus Mann describes pathetically “breathed his last in his arms”. Dora Diamant and Róbert Klopstock lived through and were sticking with him through his last weeks, took care of him until his last moment in a sanatorium near Vienna. This is the place where Kafka calls on Klopstock: “Kill me, or else you are a murderer!”
The film retraces their story of love and friendship with particular visual techniques and with narration of Kafka’s thoughts expressed in private conversations excluded from public. His interesting reasoning also come to life. In a film without actors the images are the “visual tracking”, a process of dialectical play between image and narrative, the reminiscences told by Dora Diamant and Róbert Klopstock alternately.
Director: Tibor Szemző
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Screenwriters: András Forgách, Tibor Szemző
Cameraman: Tibor Szemző
Composer: Tibor Szemző
Editing: Andreas Schlichthuber
Cast: Barbara Massey, Andor Lukáts
Year of Production: 2014
Curse 3.
TV series of 10 episodes
HSC Golden Eye 2013 – Márk Győri – Award for Best Cinematographer
The series The Curse tells the story of a middle-class family’s weekend in the countryside. The occasion is the funeral of the father, who died suddenly and whose ashes are to be scattered in Lake Balaton, in accordance with his last will and testament. As more and more unexpected details about the father’s private life come to light, the family members are forced to confront the hidden problems that led to their superficial but tension-filled relationships.
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Screenwriters: Péter Gál, Edit Zakál, Zsuzsanna Szászi
DOP: Márk Győri
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Márton Gothár, Szilvia Papp, Péter Politzer
Cast: Ildikó Bánsági, Gábor Hevér, Zsófia Szamosi, Kata Pálfi, Alexandra Németh, Tibor Gáspár, Bálint Adorjáni, Edit Balázsovits, Eszter Földes, József Kádas, Benett Vilmányi, Bence Tasnádi, Tamás Rétfalvi, Niké Kurta, Gergely Kovács
Co-production partner: MEC Hungary
Year of Production: 2013
The Brass Band Runs Amok
Feature and Tv family film
In the school of Kukucs town an experimental class started with the lead of teacher Riminyák. He is a strict pedagogue who follows the Prussian education principles, able to assign everyone on the class list to a recitation twice during one single class. And this is just one of his many small weaknesses! No wonder that under the leadership of the resourceful Szinyák the kids highjack the school bus and the whole class invades the forest. They move in to the empty Russian barrack and shortly after they discover having someone to accompany them: Igor, the Russian soldier who somehow remained here. Igor takes over the command and trains the youngsters very toughly. The kids soon realize that life was perhaps easier with teacher Riminyák. They start negotiating with the parents and the school through the local TV news, setting up the condition of Riminyák’s dismissal.
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó, István Koller
Screenwriters: István Csukás, Áron Mátyássy
DOP: Máté Herbai
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Márton Gothár
Cast: Zoltán Schneider, Zalán Makranczi, Gábor Hevér, Frigyes Hollósi, Béla Fesztbaum, Simon Szemző, Tamás Sipos, Bence Rajcsányi, Kada Haála, Máté Szmeskó, Virág Koller, Andrea Roszik, Debóra Rónaszéki, Richárd Balogh, Achilles Horváth, Pál Kocsis, András Balogh
Co-production partner: MEC Hungary
Year of Production: 2012-2014
Curse 2.
Tv series of 9 episodes
The series The Curse tells the story of a middle-class family’s weekend in the countryside. The occasion is the funeral of the father, who died suddenly and whose ashes are to be scattered in Lake Balaton, in accordance with his last will and testament. As more and more unexpected details about the father’s private life come to light, the family members are forced to confront the hidden problems that led to their superficial but tension-filled relationships.
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó
Screenwriters: Péter Gál, Edit Zakál, Zsuzsanna Szászi
DOP: Márk Győri
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Márton Gothár, Zoltán Kovács, Szilvia Papp
Cast: Ildikó Bánsági, Gábor Hevér, Zsófia Szamosi, Alexandra Németh, Richárd Balogh, János Bán, Benett Vilmányi, Bence Tasnádi, József Kádas, Edit Balázsovits, Annamária Fodor, Szabolcs Thuróczy
Co-production partner: Tv Com, MEC Hungar
Year of Production: 2011
P.S. – Please Sir!
Tv film
Frigyes Karinthy, the celebrated writer undergoes a brain surgery in Stockholm on the 5th of May 1936. During the operation a 16 years old young man appears in the theater in whom Karinthy seems to recognize his onetime himself. The young Frici invites the writer who is drifting between life and death into a strange world. All those childhood memories come alive that he has chronicled earlier in his novel Please Sir!. Yet, in the subjectively perceived closeness to death these nostalgic reminiscences appear now in a different refraction.
Karinthy is tottering worriedly in this inverted world while Frici falls in love, mingles into conflict with his form master, fails Hungarian class, it can be expected that he has to face military school. Finally it turns out that he is a natural born writer. One question remains open: is Karinthy’s surgery successful and could he return to the world of the living?
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Sándor Csortos Szabó, István Koller
Screenwriter: Norbert Köbli
DOP: Márk Győri
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Zoltán Kovács
Cast: Giacomello Roberto, Benett Vilmányi, Csaba Pindroch, Géza Hegedűs D., Frigyes Hollósi, Gábor Hevér, Brigitta Csepregi
Co-production partner: MEC Hungary
Year of Production: 2010
Curse
TV series of 4 episodes
41. Hungarian Film Week 2010 – The Curse – Award for Best TV Film
Erasmus EuroMedia Awards 2010 – The Curse – Seal of approval
The series The Curse tells the story of a middle-class family’s weekend in the countryside. The occasion is the funeral of the father, who died suddenly and whose ashes are to be scattered in Lake Balaton, in accordance with his last will and testament. As more and more unexpected details about the father’s private life come to light, the family members are forced to confront the hidden problems that led to their superficial but tension-filled relationships.
Director: Áron Mátyássy
Producer: Gergely Fodor, András Pusztay
Screen play writers: Péter Gál, Zsuzsanna Szászi, Csaba Tóth, Edit Zakál
DOP: Márk Győri
Composer: Dániel Hérincs
Editing: Márton Gothár, Áron Mátyássy
Cast: Ildikó Bánsági, Kata Pálfi, Gábor Hevér, Zsófia Szamosi, Tilo Werner, Annamária Fodor, Alexandra Németh, Benett Vilmányi, Tibor Gáspár
Year of Production: 2009
The Pierre Woodman story
Documentary
Pierre Woodman is a balding, not particularly attractive French man. He works as a pornographic film producer, director, and photographer. There are hundreds of men around the world with similar occupations, but Pierre’s story is unique. With his genre-defining “casting” videos, he became the uncrowned king of pornographic films. But who is he, what does he do, and how is he connected to Hungary?
Director: Péter Szajki, András Kovács M.
Producer: Gergely Fodor, Tamás Zákonyi S, Norbet Köbli
DOP: Ábris Gosztola, Péter Rudolf Kiss
Editing: András Kovács M., Álmos Ozváry
Cast: Pierre Woodman
Co-production partner: HBO
Year of Production: 2009
Theatre in Szentendre
Documentary
Director: István Szakály
Producer: Gergely Fodor
Screenwriter: István Szakály
DOP: Sándor Kiss
Editing Reporter: Ingrid Hutterer
Editing: Sándor Kiss
Year of Production: 2009
Born Loser
TV series of 12 episodes
BuSho Festival 2009 – Award for Best Comedy
Director: Péter Bartos, Márton Szirmai, Barnabás Tóth, Gábor Fischer, Márton Vécsei, György Pálfi, Dániel Erdélyi
Producer: Gergely Fodor, Péter Gál, Judit Minda
Screenwriters: Bálint Hegedűs, Gábor Krigler, Balázs Lovas
Cameraman: Ábris Gosztola, Márton Miklauzic, András Gondár, Balázs Szügyi, Gergely Pohárnok, Balázs Márton, György Réder
Co-production partner: HBO
Year of Production: 2008-2009
Nexus
Scientific Documentary
40. Hungarian Film Week 2009 – Ágoston Kollányi Best Director’s prize
Director: Csaba Szekeres
Producer: Gergely Fodor
Screenwriter: Csaba Szekeres
Cameraman: Csaba Szekeres, Sándor Várkonyi
Year of Production: 2008