Hungary's film industry has increased 20-fold over the past 16 years and is throwing out incentives to filmmakers by qualifying for corporate tax reliefs.
Andrew Vajna, the government’s film industry commissioner, told a panel discussion for the Hungarian National Film Fund that the film industry is the only sector among those that qualify for corporate tax reliefs in Hungary that generates a profit even in the short-term.
According to MTI, Vajna said that all films produced in Hungary generate a 31 percent tax revenue for a 25 percent tax relief.
A study compiled by tax consulting firm OrienTax and consulting firm Candole Partners found that over the past 16 years, film industry revenues in Hungary have grown 20-fold. While the industry only took 3 billion HUF in 2004, early estimates indicate that revenues for 2017 could exceed 100 billion HUF, the study found.
Vajna added that the presence of Hollywood stars in Hungary gave an invaluable boost to the country’s image. Over the past few years, Hollywood A-listers like Jennifer Lawrence, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling shot films in Hungary.
Films coming our of Hungary have also generated international attention of late. Son of Saul, pictured above, won an Oscar for foreign language film and Sing has been nominated in the short film category for the 2017 Oscars.