Hungary Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent RTL Group has reached a deal to sell RTL Nederland, the leading Dutch commercial TV group and owner of the local streaming service Videoland, to DPG Media, a multimedia company active in Benelux and Denmark. The sale of RTL Nederland is subject to regulatory approvals and a consultation with labor unions.

RTL Group is selling its Dutch business RTL Nederland for €1.1B ($1.2B) in cash.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian director Edoardo De Angelis’ anti-war epic “Comandante” – the opener of this year’s Venice Film Festival – has secured North American distribution via Uncork’d Entertainment, which will release the film theatrically in tandem with partner company Dark Star Pictures. The movie stars Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino as Sicilian World War II naval captain Salvatore Todaro and depicts his act of wartime humanitarianism on Oct.

French director Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winning film Anatomy Of A Fall swept the awards at 36th European Film Awards in Berlin this evening, winning Best European Film, Director, Screenplay (with Arthur Harari) and actress for Sandra Hüller.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 36th European Film Awards are underway at the Arena in the German capital of Berlin. The awards have been voted on by the 4,600 members of the European Film Academy.

The Formula 1 season for 2023 may be over, but race fans will only have to wait a few more months until the 2024 season!

Edward Berger To Address Israel’s Sam Spiegel International Film Lab

EXCLUSIVE: Juno Films has claimed U.S. rights to Four Souls of Coyote, the animated feature that marks Hungary’s official entry for the Best International Feature Oscar in 2024. Premiering at the Annecy Animated Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award for Best Feature, the film is now poised for an extended festival run into the spring of 2024, when it will be released in theaters.

French studio Federation’s new theatrical sales arm Ginger & Fed and Paris-based genre specialist WTFilms have unveiled a slew of AFM deals for apocalyptic thriller Survive.

Will Tizard Contributor Robbie Ryan says “becoming a diplomat and a bit of a politician” was one of the key skills he learned while filming “Poor Things,” the surrealist Frankenstein-esque adventure by Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. The film screened at the Camerimage cinematography festival in Torun, Poland, where director of photography Ryan and Dafoe presented it to a packed screening hall on the fest’s opening night.

Blaga’s Lessons, Bulgaria’s International Film Oscar submission, has set a release in multiple countries.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Matteo Garrone’s “Io Capitano” is getting a special screening on Wednesday in Brussels, where hundreds of EU parliament members will watch the timely immigration drama on which Pathè has announced a slew of sales. The film, which is Italy’s Oscar candidate for best international feature film, world premiered to strong reviews in September at Venice Film Festival, where it won best director for Garrone and best emerging actor for its co-star Seydou Sarr.

Pablo Larraín and Angelina Jolie were spotted at the Hungarian State Opera,in Budapest. The two looked comfortable as they sat next to each other in the Opera’s theater box. As the story developed on the stage, Jolie was visibly moved, wiping tears from her eyes while Larraín stood from his seat to get a better look at the stage.

Valerie Wu Intern “Poor Things,” starring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, has already generated a substantial amount of Oscars buzz, becoming a major contender for next year’s awards season. What less people might know about the film is that it was shot in Budapest, Hungary — a location that appealed to the “Poor Things” filmmakers for its “abundant studio space,” “highly skilled crew base,” “favorable costs” and “attractive 30% cash rebate,” according to Christopher Vourlias of Variety. Not only that, but Hollywood filmmakers have historically used Hungary in their productions, with films like “Dune,” “Blade Runner 2049” and “Black Widow” all being shot in Budapest.

Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai joked that Erling Haaland is 'a bit sick' for the lengths he goes to in a bid to improve performance.

Christopher Vourlias With the resolution of the Hollywood writers strike in September, hopes were high for a return to business as usual in bustling Budapest, host to such recent high-profile productions as Yorgos Lanthimos’ Venice sensation and Oscar frontrunner “Poor Things.” But the sudden breakdown in negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP in early October dampened that enthusiasm. “We were starting to get momentum back, which was leading us to believe that we would be opening up offices on new shows in early November, on the assumption that the strike would be over by the end of October,” says Adam Goodman of Mid Atlantic Films, which is currently servicing Peacock and Sky’s spy series “The Day of the Jackal.” Instead, a waiting game is playing out in studios and C-suites across the globe, as actors, talent reps, executives and other industry players not only try to hash out a blueprint for the film and TV business moving forward but plot the next step for the many productions put on pause during the nearly four-month-old strike.

Christopher Vourlias When director Yorgos Lanthimos approached production designers James Price and Shona Heath with a vision for his latest feature, “Poor Things,” the Venice sensation and Golden Lion winner that’s landed the filmmaker and lead actress Emma Stone at the forefront of this year’s Oscar race, the notoriously meticulous and demanding director had no shortage of notes for the duo. Nor did he have any reservations about the scale of what he wanted to achieve.

Emiliano De Pablos In standout results that suggests the strength of select Spanish arthouse films on the current international market, Bendita Films Sales, the Santa Cruz de Tenerife-based boutique world sales agency, has closed a formidable raft of deals to Galician auteur Lois Patiño’s multisensory journey film “Samsara.” Winner of a Special Jury Award at Berlin’s 2023 major sidebar Encounters and the Audience Award at Mexico’s Ficunam festival, “Samsara” has just screened in main competition gathered “Samsara”(Oct. 20-28), running up more than a dozen international film festival selections. Bendita Film Sales has clinched commercial release pacts in the U.K.

Will Tizard Contributor From hulks of collective ruins to immigrant family struggles, marginalized communities and climate crises, the 27th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival wrapped Saturday with honors for work from diverse perspectives on a myriad of pressing subjects. The Opus Bonum main prize went to Elvis Lenic’s Croatian doc “Ship,” an exploration of an unintentional monument to socialist worker collectives in the form of the Uljanik shipyard, once the country’s largest.

Marta Balaga Péter Kerekes will follow “107 Mothers” – which won Venice’s Horizons Award for best screenplay – with “Marathon,” currently in production and eyeing a winter 2024 release. Set in his Slovak hometown and revolving around the Košice Peace Marathon, established in 1924, the doc will clock in at exactly 2 hours and 7 minutes, mirroring its current record. “It’s not just about people who run, get to the finish line and that’s it, end credits.

Christopher Vourlias It’s been more than 15 years since Oscar-nominated cinematographer and director Lajos Koltai (“Fateless,” “Malena”) helmed his last film, “Evening” (2007), a poignant meditation on mortality, regret and womanhood that featured a star-studded ensemble cast, including Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close, Eileen Atkins and Meryl Streep, and was released domestically by Focus Features. For his return to the director’s chair, the Hungarian-born filmmaker also returns closer to home with “Semmelweis,” a period biopic drama about a Hungarian doctor who turns the medical establishment on its head in 19th-century Vienna. The film opens the 21st Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs Oct.

Christopher Vourlias Annecy Cristal Prize winner Áron Gauder, who won the festival’s top prize in 2005 for his time-traveling love story “The District!”, returned to the prestigious French animation event this year with “Four Souls of Coyote,” an epic adventure inspired by a Native American myth about the creation of the universe that scooped the festival’s Jury Award. Produced by Budapest-based animation studio Cinemon Entertainment and written and created by Gauder, the 2D-animated project is Hungary’s selection for the best international feature film race at the 96th Academy Awards and plays next at the Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs Oct. 27 – Nov.

Christopher Vourlias As a young boy growing up in Budapest, a town that would come to be known as “Hollywood on the Danube,” Béla Bunyik dreamed of being in the pictures. “I fell in love with movies in Hungary back in the ’50s,” Bunyik tells Variety. “When I was 12 years old, I started to work as an extra in a few movies….

A man from Wythenshawe has completed the massive achievement of cycling just under 1200 miles across 11 countries in just over two weeks.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome Film Fest opener “There’s Still Tomorrow,” a bold period dramedy that marks the directorial debut of popular Italian actor Paola Cortellesi, has scored a slew of international sales. The film, shot in black-and-white and set in post-World War II Rome, riffs on Italy’s neorealist past, albeit with a female empowerment element angle and a contemporary A-list Italian cast.

Slash and Myles Kennedy and The Co-Conspirators have announced a 2024 world tour set to take place in January.The 32-date run titled ‘The River Is Rising – Rest of the World Tour ’24’ will see the rock icon travel across 21 countries. Kicking off on January 23 at the Pepsi Center WTC in Mexico City, they will then head to Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile.

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of its world premiere tonight, the Zorro TV series adaptation has landed a trio of European deals, as Mediawan Rights leans further into big-ticket IP.

Alex Lowry insists he’s not thinking about a January return to Rangers – even with a new boss set to be installed at Ibrox.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer The South by Southwest Music Festival has announced its initial lineup for its 38th annual event, descending on Austin, Texas from March 11-16. Organizers have revealed the first slate of 149 musicians set to perform during the festival, including Lo Moon (from Los Angeles), Cumgirl8 (New York), Omar S (Detroit), Rawayana (Caracas), Dry Cleaning (London), Hinds (Madrid) and Red Axes (Tel Aviv).

Béla Tarr Set For European Film Awards Honor

Ellise Shafer Legendary Hungarian director Béla Tarr will receive the Honorary Award from of the Academy President and Board at the European Film Awards on Dec. 9. “With this award the European Film Academy wishes to pay special tribute to an outstanding director and a personality with a strong political voice, who is not only deeply respected by his colleagues but also celebrated by audiences worldwide,” the Academy said in a press release.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent France TV Distribution has enlisted a raft of major distributors worldwide for “Sugar and Stars,” a movie starring Riadh Belaïche, a social media influencer-turned-actor. The inspirational drama is based on the true story of Yazid Ichemrahem, an underdog who became a famous pastry chef.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Match Factory has sold Sofia Coppola‘s “Priscilla” to distributors worldwide, the sales agency revealed Friday ahead of its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last month, and won the Coppa Volpi award for best actress for Cailee Spaeny’s performance. Adding to the previously announced sales in France (ARP SAS), The Match Factory has secured distribution in Australia and New Zealand (Madman Entertainment), Spain (Elastica Films and BTeam Pictures), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), CIS (Capella Film), Scandinavia and Iceland (Nordisk Film), Poland (Best Film), Greece (Spentzos Film), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), Hungary (ADS), Middle East and North Africa (Front Row Filmed Ent.), Israel (Lev Cinemas), former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Ukraine (Arthouse Traffic), Japan (GAGA Corporation), Taiwan (Moviecloud) and worldwide airline distribution (Echo Lake Distribution).

The Match Factory has announced a raft of world sales for Sofia Coppola’s biopic Priscilla ahead of its North American premiere as the Centrepiece selection of the New York Film Festival on Friday.

NFTS And Left Bank Pictures Launch UK Writers Program

Wowcher has slashed the price of a short break to one of Europe's most popular Christmas markets, with magical winter weekends available from just £99 per person.