Press Releases

Budapest, June 17, 2020 16:00

The award ceremony of the MagentaFilm Hungarian Mobile Video Festival was held on June 17. The festival, created by Prof. Karl Bardosh, film director and university professor, was realized this year with the support of Magyar Telekom. Out of nearly 180 works the prestigious professional jury selected 11 to represent Hungary this year at the Marché du Film in Cannes.

There are exciting and hard working weeks behind those who grabbed a camera during the isolation to respond in a video format to the call of the MagentaFilm Hungarian Mobile Video Festival. Nearly 180 creative artists demonstrated their cinematic skills and creativity at the event and many of them were inspired by the key theme: how life is lived between four walls and how people experience the coronavirus situation. The films - the length of which was up to three minutes - were recorded by mobile phone cameras and the works were a great demonstration of the value-creating potential of smartphones and the versatility of high-quality works that can be made with such a simple, everyday device. This year, Magyar Telekom joined the event as the main sponsor, providing not only inspiration and educational content ¹ but also offered unique opportunities as prizes to the makers of the best works. “In recent months, we’ve been stuck between four walls and during this period we have become even more aware of how unlimitedness smart devices provide u s.We were happy to support an initiative where the smartphone is used as a creative digital device and with which young people can show themselves and their way of seeing the world, ”said András Péter Kovács, co-president of the jury and head of Magyar Telekom's content and marketing communication department.

Out of 177 videos the jury selected eleven that will not only come to the attention of New York University but also represent Hungary in the international competition of the Mobile Short Film Awards category of the Marché du Film in Cannes.

The members of the jury of renowned filmmakers were as follows:
Jury President: Prof. Karl Bardosh - Professor, Head of the Telephone Filming Course at the Department of Film / TV at the New York University, Director of American Hungarian Television
Tamás Kalamár - producer - showrunner, Land of the Brave (RTL)
Sándor Kardos - Kossuth Prize awardee cameraman
dr. Tamás Kollarik - director, Moholy-Nagy University of Arts
dr. András Muhi - Oscar-nominated film producer, CEO, FocusFox
László Pentelényi - Director, French New Wave Publishing House
dr. András Szekfű, PhD. - professor, film historian, NFI Film Archive
dr. Sándor Takó - CEO, Film Hungary
Co-president of the jury delegated by Telekom: András Péter Kovács - Head of Marketing Communications

Based on the jury's decision, the first 11 films, in order, are as follows:
(due to a tie decision the jury selected the 11 best works instead of the best 10)

Izabella Mazzag - With you
Dr. Miklós Százados - CURIOSITY
Ferenc Kriska - Lively Stream
Ábel Százados - Box
Dániel Csákvári - Crown Circles
Péter Vadócz - Ciao Bella
Cibulya Nikol - Dance Marathon Men
De Re Attila Luigi - Rain
Fanni Hegyesi - Cat Quarantine
Péter Pallag - Let's go back to sleep
Csaba Székely - Day 42

The winner of the competition and the special prize winners were also announced at the award ceremony. The best work of the MagentaFilm Mobile Video Festival was selected Izabella Mazzag’s With You. The film was chosen by a professional jury of renowned filmmakers and Izabella was awarded a DJI OSMO high-end hand stabilizer and Telekom's advertising contract in the value of maximum HUF 1,000,000. Through its MagentaKraft platform, Telekom also awarded a special prize to three talented artists: this year Dániel Csákvári, Márk Mezei and Nikol Cibulya were given the 300, 150 and 60 thousand HUF prizes.
“With the festival our goal was to bring Béla Balázs' dream to life: to take the knowledge of the language of films and the experience of filming to as many people as possible, and thus to form an audience that truly understands the art of filming. Under the influence of last year's winner and now also well-performing Ábel Százados many young people grabbed their mobile phones to record the period of isolation therefore next year we will start a separate youth category for young filmmakers - who participate the festival with parental permission. Our call has reached beyond the borders of the country so we can say that our initiative was a success beyond expectations, as a mass movement started in Hungary and also among Hungarians abroad” added Prof. Karl Bardosh, chairman of the jury.

The 11 shortlisted films as well as the award-winning ones can be viewed on Telekom's Youtube channel.

1) Live mentor videos were made with Professor Karl Bardosh, Oscar-winning film director Kristóf Deák and director Ábel Regős. The videos can be viewed on the competition’s Facebook site.