The Ministry of Human Resources launched a HUF 100 million tender for the digitalisation of art cinemas in Hungary in 2013, thanks to which a further ten institutions have been able to switch to digital projection this year, Minister of State for Culture Mr János Halász announced in Nyíregyháza, on 4 December 2013.

The Ministry of Human Resources has launched tenders for the digitisation of art cinemas on a yearly basis since 2011, to facilitate the survival of municipal and art cinemas, the sole competitors of multiplex cinemas. HUF 100 million in funding was also provided this year. Acting on behalf of Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog, Minister of State for Culture János Halász granted funding to ten cinemas out of a total of twelve applicants.

The digitisation of art cinemas is required because of the fact that since 1 January 2013, traditional film reels have disappeared and film distributors only distribute movies via digital media. In 2011, the Ministry responsible for culture developed the act on the digital development of art cinemas, which set out the regulations for allocating a total amount of HUF 100 million.

This year, municipal cinemas with no art classification were not excluded from the tender, a chance form previous years. These cinemas had to declare that they would be receiving the classification before the conclusion of the subsidy agreement, in addition to which they had to guarantee that the cinema to be developed will function as an art hall for at least two years after digitalization. In this way, the Ministry has contributed to the survival of municipal cinemas and given an impetus to cinemas that prefer Hungarian and European films rather than American ones in their programme structures.

Next year, the program will continue and enable the last twelve halls still using the analogue technique to switch to digital projection. Accordingly, next year’s budget also includes HUF 100 million for this purpose.

(Ministry of Human Resources)