Presenting the National Film Office of Hungary

The National Film Office is the authority discharging national administrative and controlling duties in relation to motion picture films and as such it is subject to the general rules of public administration and the Motion Picture Act.

 

The Film Office has been operating as one of the most important Hungarian institutions in the field of film administration and financing for more than 17 years and is currently in charge of the 30% tax refund system.

 

The Film Office is responsible for many other essential procedures, which include:

 

- administrative procedures entitling to direct Hungarian film production subsidies,

- registering and controlling all production and distribution companies and all filming in Hungary,

- supervising the execution of all bilateral and multilateral international film production treaties with Hungarian participation,

- classifying and supervising art-cinemas and art films distributed in Hungary,

- classifying also all cinematographic works to be shown in cinemas according to age limits and monitoring the compliance,

- statistical procedures for the entire Hungarian film sector.

At present, the Film Office has a full-time staff of 20. We also operate two committees, the Content Rating Committee makes a recommendation to the authority on the classification of films (for the protection of minors), and the Art Committee assists us in the classification of art films.

 

What does the Hungarian National Film Office do in the field of film financing? Among many other tasks, the NFO is responsible for issuing tax certificates proving eligibility for tax benefits, examining and certifying production costs and registering Hungarian production companies.

The objective of the system is to increase the number of films produced partly or entirely in Hungary to support the Hungarian audiovisual industry and the production capacity of the country, while increasing the number of experts employed in the film industry. The tax relief system achieves such goals by allowing foreign film producers to reduce the production costs, and providing additional resources for Hungarian films and co-productions by encouraging Hungarian companies to invest in film production.

 

What types of productions may be eligible for the tax relief? Films produced on order (productions carried out by foreign film producers with the involvement of an assigned Hungarian film production company), and films not produced on order (co-productions or Hungarian films: productions made by a Hungarian producer or co-producer). All films made in Hungary, produced either or not on order by a registered Hungarian film production company may be eligible for the tax relief.  All films shot in Hungary are also subject to a cultural test in accordance with the European cultural standards and film-industrial criteria.

Films that are not in the scope of the tax relief system and therefore excluded by law are the following:

- extremely violent and/or films with explicit content ,

- reality shows,

- scripted reality shows,

- soap operas,

- advertisements, commercials.

 

What are the direct film production costs incurred in Hungary? Shortly, all payments listed in the budget that were paid to Hungarian taxpayers. Direct expenses paid by the qualified Hungarian production (pre-production, production /shooting time/, and post-production), as wages, above- and below-the-line, all kinds of production costs, financing costs, administration, insurance, etc. costs.

 

Items excluded by law:

 

- indirect costs (advertising, promotion),

 

- costs incurred following the master print (distribution),

 

- royalties are limited to 4% of the Hungarian budget of the film,

 

- the sum of the producers’ fees are limited to 4% of the Hungarian budget of the film.

- the sum of the producers’ fees is limited to 4% of the Hungarian budget of the film.

 

The qualifying non-Hungarian expenses can be incurred in any country and such expenses may qualify to the tax relief system up to 20% of Hungarian production costs.

 

 

Here are some examples of recent productions that were our clients:

 

Title	Year	Hungarian Film Costs         (Billion HUF)	Director	Stars
Poor Things	2021-	11,7	Yorgos Lanthimos	Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe
FBI International	2021-	19,6		(tv series)
Borderlands	2021-	23,4	Eli Roth	Cate Blanchett
Jack Ryan - Season 3	2021-	29		(tv series) John Krasinski
Half Stack/ Moon Knight	2021-	33,5		(tv series) Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke
The Continental	2021-	18,3		(tv series) Mel Gibson
The Last Kingdom  5. évad	2021-	8,6		(tv series)
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris	2020-	2,4	Anthony Fabian	Isabelle Huppert, Lucas Bravo
The Unbearable Weight os Massive Talent	2020-	8	Tom Gormican	Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal
Harry Haft	2019-2020	4,7	Barry Levinson	Peter Sarsgaard, Danny DeVito
The Barbarians	2019-2020	4,4		(tv series)
Outside of the Wire	2019-2020	5,2		Anthony Mackie
The Last Kingdom 4. évad	2019-2020	6,6		(tv series)
Treadstone	2019-2020	11,9		(tv series)
Shadow and Bone	2019-2020	14,8		(tv series)
Angel of Darkness	2019-2020	18,2		(tv series)
HALO (a.k.a. Silver)	2019-2020	37,8		(tv series)
Dune	2019-2020	29,5	Denis Villeneuve	Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson
The King	2018-2019	6,5	David Michôd	Robert Pattinson, Ben Mendelsohn, Timothée Chalamet, Joel Edgerton
The Witcher	2018-2019	11,7	Lauren Schmidt Hissrich	Henry Cavill
Phoenix / Untitled Terminator Reboot	2018-2019	20,6	Tim Miller	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Gemini Man	2018-2019	7,4	Ang Lee	Will Smith
Géniusz (Picasso)	2018	7,2	Kenneth Biller	Antonio Banderas
The Alienist	2018	22	Jakob Verbruggen	Daniel Brühl, Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans
Colette	2018	1,8	Wash Westmoreland	Keira Knightley
The Spy Who Dumped Me	2018	9	Susanna Fogel	Justin Theroux, Mila Kunis
Red Sparrow	2018	11,3	Francis Lawrence	Jennifer Lawrence
Blade Runner 2049	2017	28,5	Denis Villeneuve	Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling
Atomic Blonde (The Coldest City)	2015-2017	4,9	David Leitch	Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman
The Childhood of a Leader	2015-2016	0,7	Brady Corbet	Robert Pattinson
Maigret	2015-2016	1,6	Ashley Pearce	Rowan Atkinson
Inferno	2015-2016	11,2	Ron Howard	Tom Hanks
Spy	2015	7,3	Paul Feig	Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Jason Statham
The Martian	2015	11,8	Ridley Scott	Matt Damon
Hercules	2014	14,2	Brett Ratner	Dwayne Johnson
Houdini (TV Series)	2014	2	Uli Edel	Adrien Brody
47 Ronin	2013	4,2	Carl Rinsch	Keanu Reeves
World War Z	2013	3,5	Marc Forster	Brad Pitt
A Good Day to Die Hard	2013	10,4	John Moore	Bruce Willis
The Borgias (TV Series)	2011-2013	15,3	Neil Jordan	Jeremy Irons
The Rite	2011	3,2	Mikael Hafström	Anthony Hopkins

 

 

 

For more detailed information, please consult the relevant parts of the Hungarian Film Act. We hope to make it easier for you through our new English-language information website, which will be available soon. In the meantime, for any further questions you may contact: filmiroda@mk.gov.hu

 

 

 

 

            dr. Miklós TABA

 

Head of the National Film Office