Hungarian International Co-Productions: Connecting Hungary with the World

Recent Co-production Highlights

Among the most recent examples, the Slovakian-Hungarian White Plastic Sky (2023) is the first feature film by Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó. In a world where humans are transformed into trees at the age of 50 to ensure the survival of the species, Stefan embarks on a desperate mission to save his wife, Nora, after discovering that she has volunteered for transformation before her time. The feature is co-produced by the Hungarian SALTO Film and Proton Cinema and the Slovakian Artichoke, with support from the National Film Institute Hungary, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund and the Council of Europe’s film fund Eurimages.

Ekran Studio in Bratislava played an important role in the creation of the 3D backgrounds, while the Hungarian animators built the 3D raw environment and vehicles from the director’s designs.

The Oscar-nominated The Secret of Kells (2009) by Tomm Moore and The Most Precious of Cargoes (2024) by Michel Hazanavicius are both produced by Kecskemétfilm Studio – one of the favourite creative teams for European animation productions.

In The Secret of Kells, a young boy in a remote medieval outpost, under siege from barbarian raids, is called to adventure when a renowned master illuminator arrives with an ancient book filled with wisdom and secret powers.

The Most Precious of Cargoes is the moving tale of a Holocaust-surviving baby girl. Found by a lumberjack and his wife, the baby completely transforms the couple’s life. Working on the feature for two years, Kecskemétfilm supervised animator-assistant work, character animation, light and shadow animation, effects drawing and almost the entire painting of the film.

The Czech-Slovak-Hungarian stop-motion film Tony, Shelley, and the Magic Light (2023) directed by Filip Pošivač, was filmed on a constructed set at Barrandov Studios in Prague. A significant portion of the post-production, which involved a variety of intricate visual effects techniques, was completed in Hungary, including the finalisation of the VFX and sound design. The story follows 11-year-old Tony, born with the unique ability to glow. His life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Shelly, a mysterious girl who helps him create magical worlds from ordinary things – real only to them.

A four-year collaboration between North Macedonia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Croatia resulted in Macedonia’s first featurelength animated film, John Vardar vs The Galaxy (2025). Directed by Goce Cvetanovski, the film is centred around the adventures of a failed actor who is abducted by an alien spaceship. One quarter of the film was produced by the Hungarian studio Umatik Entertainment, and the entire postproduction process took place in Hungary.

Hungarian international co-productions landed on streaming platforms as well. The episodes of Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots anthology (2019) are produced by various studios. Digic Pictures worked on one standout episode, The Secret War, which marked their first short film. More recently, Digic Pictures produced four short films for the Secret Level anthology (2024), released on Prime Video.

Co-productions on the Way: Fairyheart

Following this blueprint, the awaited international coproduction Fairyheart will be showcased in the WIP Selection at the Annecy Festival. Adapted from the tales of the popular Hungarian writer Magda Szabó, the storyline follows Lala, the only fairy child in the immortal fairy kingdom, and his curiosity for human children. When Lala meets Bea, a grieving human girl, he becomes convinced that humans deserve to live despite the wizard Aterpater’s attempt to end their lives, severing the thread that connects fairies to humans. To save both fairies and humans, Lala resolves to sacrifice his fairy heart to restore the thread.

Produced by the Hungarian Mythberg Films, in collaboration with the Hungarian Cinemon Entertainment, the Canadian Storyteller Pictures and Lakeside Animation, and the German Traumhaus Studios, the project is co-written by director Anita Doron and Attila Gigor, with character designs by Simón Estrada.