on motion picture

Chapter I
General provisions

 

Title 1
Scope of the Act

Section 1
(1) This Act shall cover the production, distribution and archiving of Hungarian films and films produced with Hungarian participation as well as the distribution of films in Hungary.

(2) The scope of this Act shall not cover the audiovisual works produced by business and other organisations as well as government bodies for the purpose of performing their tasks, exclusively for their internal use, as well as television broadcasting purposes defined in a separate law, as well as multimedia works marketed for the purpose of being played as games.

(3) Chapter I titles 1 and 4 of Chapter II of this Act must be applied to subsidies that serve the purpose of implementing objectives of the film industry if the source of these subsidies is an appropriation determined in the central budget or the budget of local authority or minority self-governments and/or if the subsidy is granted by the government, a central budget agency, a non-profit company or foundation with majority ownership by a local authority or minority self-government, and to subsidies granted by the National Cultural Basic Programme for the motion picture industry.

 

Title 2
Definitions of terms

1. motion picture industry: the total of activities that are in the scope of motion picture culture and motion picture industry as well as all persons pursuing such activities.

2. film: a work created by any technical procedure, which consists of a series of motion pictures set in a defined order without audio or connected by audio and is deemed to be an author’s work under Act LXXVI of 1999 on author’s rights.

3. film authors: authors of literary and music works produced for the purpose of the film, the director of the film and all persons who have contributed creatively to developing the entire film, as well as authors of other works used in the film.

4. film producer: a legal person or business company without legal personality who or which proposes and organises the realisation of the film in his own name, ensuring the financial and other conditions for this.

5. Hungarian film producer: a film producer who is a legal entity or a business company without legal personality with its registered office in Hungary and most of whose leading officials are citizens of a Member State of the European Union or a country that is a signatory to the European Convention on Transfrontier Television and in which citizens or legal persons of such countries have an influence that ensures majority control.

6. co-production film: a film produced by film producers who are subject to the jurisdiction of different states, which is qualified to be a co-production film by a bilateral or multilateral international agreement or the laws of the countries concerned.

7. a) Hungarian film: a film in which Hungarian participation reaches at least 75 points based on the table set out in Section 3.

b) co-production film with Hungarian participation: a co-production film in which Hungarian participation reaches at least 30 points based on the table set out in Section 3 and the share of the film’s budget to be borne by the Hungarian film producer reaches twenty per cent bilateral co-production or ten per cent in the case of multilateral co-production unless otherwise provided by a bilateral or multilateral international agreement.

c) other film with Hungarian participation: a film in which Hungarian participation reaches at least 15 points based on the table set out in Section 3 and is not deemed to be a co-production film with Hungarian participation.

8. film originally produced in the Hungarian language: a film that belongs to any of the following categories:
a) its original version has been presented in the Hungarian language,
b) it has originally been presented in two or more languages but in terms of its duration, its part in which the original language is Hungarian is longer than any other part in any other language,
c) it has originally been produced in the language of a minority living in Hungary, if the subject is related to the life or culture of that given minority of Hungary.

9. direct subsidy: financial allowance granted by the bodies defined in para (3), Section 1 of this Act for motion picture industry purposes, including the support granted by the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary.

10. indirect subsidy: tax and investment benefits specified in a separate law, which serve the achievement of objectives of the motion picture industry, particularly the motion picture sector as defined in this Act.

11. normative subsidy: subsidy that is due to a film producer or film distributor if they meet the conditions specified in this Act or announced by the supporting body, and which may be used by film distributors for distributing the film and by film producers to produce their film.

12. selective subsidy: subsidy that is due to the film producer, film distributor or any other applicants under this Act based on the decision of the supporting body made by way of applications or by evaluating and individual request subject to the characteristics of the film (in particular script, budget, artistic value, the identity of the authors, producers, and actors of the film) or the nature of another objective to be supported.

13. structural subsidy: subsidy granted to applicants by the supporting body on a continuous basis, by assuming an obligation for several budget years for motion picture industry objectives implemented throughout several years or in the same manner every year in accordance with this Act, provided that the applicant complies with the conditions specified by the Act and/or the support body throughout the entire duration of support.

14. supporting body: the organisational institution that provides support to motion picture industry objectives as defined in para (3), Section 1.

15. film distribution: making accessible the original or reproduced copies of a film for the public
a) by marketing, or offer films for marketing,
b) by operating cinemas,
c) by publishing, selling, renting or renting in usufruct films on any media, particularly on video and DVD,
d) importing films into Hungary for commercial purposes,
e) possession for commercial purposes.

16. cinema: premises installed and used for the public presentation of films against and entrance fee, equipped with any visual display equipment.

17. cinema operation: business activity aimed at presenting films to the public in cinemas.

18. film distributor: business company or any other organisation engaged in the distribution of films in a business like manner.

19. film plan development: the total of research, production, planning and organisation work aimed at the creation, merchantability and sale, and feasibility and later realisation of film plans and scripts.

20. film productions: the total of author’s, organisation, economic and technical activities leading from starting to record the film up to producing the first original copy of the film.

21. preparation of film production: author’s and organisational activities aimed at ensuring the material, technical and organisational conditions for film production, preceding the start of producing films.

22. workshop: an author’s community established for the development of film plans and scripts members of which shall co-operate closely within the framework of the business form selected by them explicitly for the purpose of developing film plans and film plan packages and to produce films.

23. film produced on order: a film deemed to be any other film with Hungarian participation or other film that may not be granted direct subsidies under this Act and in the case of which a Hungarian undertaking participating in the production of that film is a legal person or a business company without legal personality having its registered office in Hungary, registered in accordance with Section 27 and engaged in film production activities, which is not deemed to be a film producer in respect of the given film by way of its activities.

24. film not produced on order: all films in the production of which an undertaking deemed to be a Hungarian film producer for the purposes of the given film participates and/or for the production of which a Hungarian undertaking or natural person gives support in exchange for which it/he acquired a right of property nature related to the film.

25. direct cost of film production: payment included in the budget of the given film financially settled by the producer of the film and confirmed by a receipt. The margin charged by the film producer shall not be deemed to be a direct cost of film production.

26. national film assets: the total of author’s pecuniary rights due to the state under para (3), Section 41 of Act III of 1969 on author’s rights as repealed, rights of used due to the state under section 64 of Act LXXVI of 1999 on author’s rights, and rights due to the state as holder of neighbouring rights under section 82 of Act LXXVI of 1999 on author’s rights, which shall be deemed to form a part of treasury assets.

 

Title 3
Classification of films

Section 3
(1) Fiction films shall be classified into one of the categories named Hungarian film, co-production film with Hungarian participation, and films with other Hungarian participation according to the score achieved based on the following table:

 

(2) Animated films must be classified into one of the categories of Hungarian films, co-production films with Hungarian participation, and other films with Hungarian participation in accordance with the score attained based on the following table:

 

(3) The table set out in paragraph (1) shall apply to documentary films, information films, experimental films, and other styles not regulated in this Act with the following derogations: if the highest score that can be achieved by the film to be classified – based on actual participation by authors and conditions that can be evaluated based on the table – is less than 100 points, taking the score that may be achieved as 100 %, the condition for classification into one of the categories set out in sub-paragraph 7 of Section 2 shall be for the given film to achieve 15, 30, or 75 %, respectively.