The 13th Hungarian Film Festival, scheduled to screen 15 Hungarian films, was opened by Minister of State for Culture János Halász in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The festival focuses on recent Hungarian films, including among others Zsolt Bernáth's In The Name of Sherlock Holmes about two young dedicated Holmes fans, Sára Cserhalmi's Dear Betrayed Friends on secret agents' spying activities in the totalitarian era, and Krisztina Deák's Aglaja about the survival of a circus family in the West.

At the opening, The Notebook, a new film by János Szász was screened. Minister of State János Halász said that the film had won the prestigious Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe award and was Hungary's entry for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards.

The festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to American screenwriter of Hungarian origin Joe Eszterhas.

The festival also plays tribute to Hungarian-American actor Béla Lugosi by screening his horror film White Zombie (1932), directed by Victor Halperin.

(Ministry of Human Resources)