Corvinus Research Week has started on the 20th of June, attracting researchers from different universities of the world. One of the most interesting workshops in the programme was “Hollywood on the Danube: Budapest as Peripheral Media Capital” – a presentation by Timothy Havens, a professor from the University of Iowa who spent 10 months on researching the shooting of foreign films and television series in Budapest and surrounding areas.
He started the lecture by mentioning Andy Vajna – a famous Hungarian-American producer, and his great influence on film production in both communities. Havens also focused on advantages of film production in Hungary, such as top-quality equipment, architectural versatility and EU membership, and factors that can change the flow of it. He touched upon the war in Ukraine, and how it affects film industry in different ways.
At the end of Timothy’s 30-minutes long presentation, we talked about the threats that Hungarian film production may encounter, them being: limited studio capacity, high costs for independent production and political issues in the country. The lecture was followed by a short question-and-answer session, during which members of audience asked all kinds of questions – from how the Hungarian government’s position on the war in Ukraine influences the attractiveness of the country to Havens’ favourite Hungarian films.
