Katapult European Script Centre - Katapult Film Ltd.

KATAPULT FILM, FILM PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION LTD.

Katapult Film Ltd was founded in October 2002 by members of the intellectual workshop of Sandor Simo, the outstanding filmmaker and teacher. After graduating from the College of Film and Theatre Arts (Budapest, Hungary) in 2000 the eight writer / directors and two editors decided to continue their collaboration as professionals by founding the Madzag Film Association. It has provided a background for continuous workshops the members have organised among themselves to improve their own screenplays. Soon they became convinced that in order to be able to realise their film ideas, the establishing of a film production company was inevitable. They invited two producers and together founded Katapult Film Ltd. Up until now, Katapult Film has produced three feature films (Montecarlo!, Miracle in Cracow, and White Palms), all of them directed by its members (G. Fischer, D. Groo, and Sz. Hajdu).

Katapult Film's intention is to be open to any young professionals of the audiovisual industry and their work. With this aim in mind, in 2003, Katapult Film announced a screenwriting competition in Hungary, to which several hundred screenwriters have applied with synopses. There have been a couple of awards granted for the best ones, whose writers Katapult Film has contracted to further develop their ideas. Owing to its success, the screenwriting competition was organised again in 2004 and 2005.

Also, in 2003, Katapult Film organised the Madzag Film Festival for European First Films, to which many European filmmakers were invited with films from Poland, Italy, Serbia, Czech Republic, Rumania and Hungary. The aim of this event was to promote cooperation among young film professionals in Europe. This Festival has become a successful event that Katapult Film organised again in 2004 and shall be organising in 2006.

The first Script Development Workshop organised by Katapult Film took place in 2004 during the time of the 2nd Madzag Film Festival.

Katapult boasts some of the best young directorial talent in Hungary. For example, Gyorgy Palfi's feature Hukkle won the Fassbinder Award in 2002 and has taken home more festival awards than any Hungarian film ever made. Ferenc Torok's Moscow Square has become a generational cult film. Csaba Fazekas directed Happy Birthday, winner of the best first film and audience awards at Hungarian Film Week 2002.

The project manager of the Katapult - European Script Centre is Krisztina Esztergalyos, who - as a screenwriter - has participated in a number of MEDIA supported European script development workshops in the past. As a result, she became determined to set up such a centre in the Eastern European region.