Krisztina Goda's 'CHAMELEON' to Open 9th Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles (2009)

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Bunyik Entertainment is pleased to announce the 9th Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs from November 5th through November 15th, 2009. The Festival will feature multiple U.S. premieres of Hungary's latest and greatest films as well as a compilation of American films directed by Hungarians called "Hungarians in Hollywood."

The Opening Night film of the Festival is "CHAMELEON," the Hungarian foreign-language submission for the 82nd Academy Awards directed by Krisztina Goda who is considered one of the pre-eminent Hungarian film directors of the current era. Goda's entertaining contemporary thriller chronicles a swindler who falls into his own trap when he meets a beautiful, intelligent dancer. Lushly photographed by award-winning cinematographer Tamas Babos, and featuring an impressive, highly touted performance from lead actor Ervin Nagy, "CHAMELEON" was one of Hungary's most anticipated releases of 2008 before going on to become a hit at the box-office. "CHAMELEON" was also the first domestic film to be shot in Hungary's recently opened Korda Studios. The film receives its North American premiere at Laemmle's MONICA 4 Plex, Santa Monica on November 5th, 2009.

Opening Night Festivities will include the presentation of a Career Achievement Award to Hungarian-born, award-winning animation artist Gabor Csupo. Csupo's career began in Hungary at the famed Pannonia animation studios before moving to Sweden where he contributed to the production of Sweden's first animated feature. After relocating from Europe to Hollywood in 1979, he first worked at the legendary Hanna Barbera Studios before co-founding Klasky Csupo, a Los Angeles based multimedia entertainment production company and animation studio.

Continuing to break new ground, Csupo co-developed, produced and animated the phenomenally successful Rugrats series, the most popular children's show in the United States, in addition to producing and animating such distinguished series as The Simpsons, Duckman and As Told By Ginger. Csupo's feature film directing credits include Bridge to Terabithia; his feature producing credits include the Rugrats franchise (The Rugrats Movie, Rugrats in Paris, Rugrats Go Wild) and The Wild Thornberrys Movie.

In addition to his film, TV and commercial animation career, Csupo is an acclaimed musician, the founder of two record labels, a noted restaurateur and an engaged member of the arts community in Los Angeles. His documentary film Immigrants (L.A. Dolce Vita), a film festival favorite, will receive its US Premiere at the Hungarian Film Festival on November 13th.

Except for the Opening Night, the remaining films in the festival program will screen at the United Hungarian House of Los Angeles on November 6th and 8th followed by Raleigh Studios' Chaplin Screening Room on November 13th -14th -15th.

Among the highlights:

PRANK (West Coast Premiere)
It is 1912. In a small town's parish school run by priests the school year starts off in an ordinary way. This autumn, the pupils are overcome by a strangely overwhelming rowdiness, leading them to come up with increasingly more outrageous pranks.
Cast: Tamas Lengyel, Lorant Vata, Zsolt Kovacs, Mihaly Kovacs, Marci Kiss, Gergely Baki
Budapest Hungarian Film Week 2009: Best Director: Peter Gardos
In competition - Moscow Film Festival 2009
Director: Peter Gardos, 2009, 94 minutes

PRIMA PRIMAVERA (US Premiere)
The life of Gabor, a middle-aged man with the manners and naivete of a child, is turned upside down when his mother is killed in a botched bank robbery. He and a prostitute, Jolie, are the only ones who can identify the robbers so they must run for their lives.
Cast: Andor Lukacs, Vesela Kazakova, Djoko Rosic, Eniko Borcsok, Erzsi Mathe , Eva Schubert
Budapest Hungarian Film Wee2009: Best Actor: Andor Lukats
Varna Love is Folly International Film Festival 2009: Special Award of the Jury, Best Actress: Vesela Kazakova
Director: Janos Edelenyi, 2009, 91 minutes

MADE IN HUNGARIA (West Coast Premiere)
It's rock 'n' roll versus communism in this rollicking musical comedy. Teen Miki and his parents return to oppressive 1960s Hungary after four years in the States. Miki's stash of contraband Jack Daniels and 45s by Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis makes him a hit with local kids starved for American pop culture--but it'll be harder to win over his ex-flame Vera, tough-guy rocker Rone... and especially the local comrades.
Cast: Tamas Szabo Kimmel, Tunde Kiss, Eva Vandor, Tamas Dunai, Peter Scherer, Ivan Fenyo
Director: Gergely Fonyo, 2009, 109 minutes

A KIND OF AMERICA 2 (US Premiere)
The three brothers - Tamas, Akos and Andras - are stumped. Tamas's dream film project, "City of Sin," is a failure, and their lottery win is a thing of the past, so the guys must do something together if they want to get back into the game. They accidentally stumble upon a clue that leads them to Alex and they come up with a plan to squeeze the sixty million forints out of him that he had tricked out of them.
Cast: Gyozo Szabo, Csaba Pindroch, Ferenc Hujber, Tibor Szervet, Szonja Oroszlan, Eszter Onodi Lucia Brawley
Director: Gabor Herendi, 2008, 110 minutes

THE SUN STREET BOYS (US Premiere)
The story begins on October 23, 1956 and ends on November 4 of the same year. A group of boys living in the outskirts of the capital are playing football in an abandoned lot when Juli, a ticket inspector, brings news of protests breaking out in the city. Only Gabor accompanies her into town, and together they become part of this historical event.
Cast: Peter Barnai, Sandor Czeczo, Kata Gaspar, Tamas Bruckner, Gergo Fekete, David Hervaci
Director: Gyorgy Szomjas, 2007, 90 minutes

HUNKY BLUES Hungarian Immigrants and the American Dream (West Coast Premiere)
Peter Forgacs created a documentary exploring the fate of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian men and women who arrived to the United States between 1890 and 1921. To tell their sagas Forgacs weaved this grand epic from the early American cinema, found footage, photographs and interviews.
World Premiere: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) May 4, 2009, New York
Director: Peter Forgacs, 2009, B/W, 100 minutes

PUSKAS HUNGARY (North American Premiere) (Documentary)
This documentary tells the story of legendary soccer player Ferenc Puskas, who started from the Budapest slums and became an international star, living his life irrespective of politics, war and conventions of society, doing the one thing he loved and knew best: play soccer.
Director: Tamas Almasi, 2009, 116 minutes

Hungarians in Hollywood:

IMMIGRANTS (L.A. DOLCE VITA) (US Premiere) (Animation)
Immigrants is the story of Vladislav (a Russian), and Joska (a Hungarian). Both are immigrants and best friends, living and chasing the American dream together.
Director: Gabor Csupo, 2008, 87 minutes

AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY
15-year-old Suzanne, rebellious and unsure-of-herself, tries to come to terms with her roots and decides to travel back to Budapest, Hungary to unravel her past and to find her true identity.
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Nastassja Kinski, Raffaella Bansagi, Tony Goldwyn, Agnes Banfalvy, Zoltan Seress, Kata Dobo, Eva Szorenyi, Colleen Camp
Director: Eva Gardos, 2001, 106 minutes

A MAN FROM MUNKACS - Portrait of Ferenc Javori (North American Premiere) (Documentary)
Ferenc Javori learned about Jewish culture in his hometown, Munkacs, and he got to know traditional Jewish music, klezmer, from a versatile Gypsy musician called Gyula Galambos. "Fegya" resettled in Hungary in the late 80s, and in 1990 he formed the first ever klezmer band in Hungary, the Budapest Klezmer Band.
Director: Yale Strom, 2005, 54 minutes

Short films:

THE HISTORY OF AVIATION
Normandy, 1905. The picnic is over; the upper middle class party prepare to go home.
They are waiting for just one last photograph, but someone is still missing from the group...
Cast: Marie Mure, Juli Nyako, Laszlo Babarczy, Eszter Adorjan, Caroline Matthieu
Director: Balint Kenyeres, 2009, 15 minutes

THE DINNER
A day in the life of a small, rural Hungarian family during the riots of September 2006. The adult son of the family slips and falls during the morning feeding round and lies unconscious in the pigpen. The town also wakes up and goes about its business but nobody notices. The constant radio chatter brings the outside world in, echoing the cultural and political pulse of Hungary. As the day ends and the sun sets, the story also unwinds, but not without the proverbial irony we know life to have.
Cast: Piroska Molnar, Olga Koos, Judit Pogany, Laszlo Klementisz
Director: Karchi Perlman, 2008, 26 minutes

About the US Hungarian Film Festival:

The Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles aims each year to take a thorough look and highlight the richness of new Hungarian cinema. The Festival was established in 1996 by Bunyik Entertainment.

    For more information, contact:  Bonnie Anderle
    Tel: 1 818 848 5902
    Or visit: www.hffla.org