Focus on Cinefest 2013 in Miskolc, Hungary
By Alex Deleon
Miskolc is the third largest city in Hungary, the birthplace of legendary British filmmaker, Emerich Pressburger, (born IMRE Pressburger right in this city) and now, since 2004 the home of Hungary's only authentic international film festival.
Officially known as the "Jameson Cinefest" after the main sponsor -- the Irish whiskey brand known as Jameson.
This is the tenth installment of this festival which has gradually come to be recognized as one if the leading East European events of its kind.
The festival focuses mainly on introducing the work of young talents under the age of 35 but the main competition section features mature filmmakers as well. each film in the competition section must be a premiere in Hungary but a selection of prize winners from other major festivals such as Locarno and Berlin are presented as well. There is a certain emphasis on American and European indies.
The festival's CineClassics program, organized by Peter Muszatics under the patronage of Oscar winning director István Szabo, highlights famous filmmakers who came from Central Europe (an unusually large number of them from Hungary, such as Pressburger, the fabulous Korda brothers and Hollywood master director Michael Curtiz, among others) and are little know in their own countries of origin.
This year István Szabo, now 75' will be the recipient of the Cinefest Life Achievement Award. The festival will honor the Academy Award winning director by screening three of his best known materpieces, "Mephisto", "Colonel Redl" and "Hanussen". The last screening will be followed by a panel with Szabó's participation and that of the Austrian star of all the films in this trilogy, Klaus-Maria Brandauer.
Mephisto was one of the most acclaimed European films of 1981, not only winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but in addition Golden Globe nominations and awards at Cannes.
The opening gala this year is the new American production "Don Jon" directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, starring Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. Among other festival highlights on tap are the Hungarian premiere of Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm winner "Blue Is The Warmest Colour" (La Vie d’Adele) and Robert Redford starrer "All Is Lost" which will be seen here almost a month before its US premiere. "Lost" is directed by J.C. Chador whom Redford met at Sundance in 2011 where she presented "Margin Call". This is practically a solo performance by Redford as a man lost at sea -- still going strong for a guy himself up there in years!
"Blue" Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, stsrs Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos, in the story of a young lesbian couple's problematic romance in France. A retrospective of the work of this Tunisian-French actor/director/screenwriter will also be presented.
A prominent Hungarian film critic notes that "the Jameson CineFest has needed less than ten years to grow into the most important Hungarian film festival with the best official selection". The Hungarian cinema itself has fallen on such hard times lately that even the long standing Annual review of Hungarian feature films (MagyarFilm Szemle) was canceled wo years ago. Cinefest Miskolc is now a welcome addition to the Hungarian and Central European film scene.
Alex, Budapest
