Atlatszo.hu released the list of the debtor film companies

Atlatszo.hu has published several documents connected to the dysfunctional processes of Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary (Magyar Mozgókép Közalapítvány, MMKA) so far. The Foundation was negligent and irresponsible, mismanaging the division of government subsidy. The Foundation was eliminated in 2012, by then it was heavily in debt – it owed 5 billion HUF to banks and had more than 1.5 billion HUF bad debts. So far, it has been unknown, which film companies got the billions of Hungarian taxpayers, but Atlatszo.hu filed a freedom of information request. According to the obtained documents, between 2006-2010, filmmakers accumulated 1.57 billion HUF debts, its majority was long overdue. The Foundation provided more than 220 times refundable aid – 10 issues was repaid.

One of the greatest debtor is Focus Film Ltd. led by Áron Sipos, who was the president of the Association of Hungarian Producers back that time. The company got 156 million HUF repayable support from the Foundation, but there was no redemption at all. Film-Art Ltd. received loan eleven times, they paid back some amount of money, but the debt is still more than 100 million HUF. Megafilm Kft., alike Focus Film did not pay back the refundable aid to the Foundation.

Almost 38 billion HUF were set aside to the whole Hungarian film industry that time. The Foundation distributed 17 billion HUF – almost 50% of the whole budget – among twenty companies included Megafilm Ltd., Focus Film Ltd., Film-Art Ltd. and Mythberg Ltd. These four companies got almost 3,6 billion HUF all together.

Read the full article in Hungarian here.

Translated by Atlatszo.hu’s volunteers