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Hungary has extended its successful film production incentive for a further six years, through to 2030, with a projected $3bn budget.

The incentive, which was set to expire at the end of 2024, has been approved by the European Commission. It will continue at the current rate, through which film and TV projects produced in Hungary are eligible for 30% tax rebate based on their expenditure in the country.

Hungary has reached $910m direct annual film production spend across the past year – four times an increase in volume across the last five years.

Recent films to have used the country for production purposes include Denis Villeneuve’s Dune,...

Hungary’s 30% tax incentive for film and TV, which has helped attract recent Hollywood shoots like “Dune: Part Two,” “Maria” and “The Brutalist” to the country, has been extended by six years.

Hungary, continental Europe’s biggest production hub, has attracted direct annual production spend totalling $910 million, a fourfold increase in the last five years.

The extension of the tax incentive was revealed on Monday in Los Angeles by government commissioner for the development of the Hungarian film industry, Csaba Kael, who was in the city to reveal the winners of Hungarian Film Institute’s inaugural awards for Best International Production Filmed in Hungary.

Originally launched in 2004, the Hungarian film support scheme has contributed to such Hollywood films as “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” “A Good Day to Die Hard,” “The Martian” and “Terminator: Dark Fate.” Other international productions to have filmed in Hungary include “Poor Things,” Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Romulus,...

London’s Raindance Film Festival is making a significant calendar shift for its 32nd edition, moving from its traditional fall slot to a new summer schedule.

Raindance kicks off with the U.K. premiere of Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo,” a horror feature starring Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens that previously played at Berlin and SXSW. Closing the festival is the European premiere of “National Anthem” by Luke Gilford, starring Charlie Plummer as a construction worker joining a community of queer rodeo performers. The film, which was at Toronto and SXSW, leads into the Pride in London weekend with a wild West End party.

This year, Germany is the festival’s guest of honor. The festival will showcase new German films, including “Cuckoo,” “Eternal You” and “What You See of Me.” A dedicated shorts program and industry panels, including a session with production designer Mona Cathleen Otterbach, will highlight Germany’s cinematic achievements.

The 32nd edition of the UK’s Raindance Film Festival is to open with horror-thriller Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer, as the festival shifts away from autumn to a midsummer slot, running June 19-28.

This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features. The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.

Cuckoo is a German-us co-production that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her father and his new family as...

The 32nd edition of the UK’s Raindance Film Festival is to open with Tilman Singer’s horror-thriller Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer, as the festival shifts away from autumn to a midsummer slot, running June 19-28.

This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features.

The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.

Opening night film Cuckoo is a German-us co-production, that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her...

Italian writer-director Emma Dante’s “Misericordia” has won the top prize at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia. Adapted from her own play, her third feature tells the story of a young man (Simone Zambelli) with learning difficulties, cared for by a group of sex workers on an island, protecting him from the cruelty of his abusive father. It’s a raw portrait of a marginalized group of people, mixing natural beauty of the locations with the grime of everyday existence.

Zambelli also took the award for best actor, for his role as the man-child at the center of the drama. The best actress prize was shared by Lubna Azabal, who plays a teacher in Jawad Rhalib’s “Amal,” and Kim Higelin, who stars in the controversial French drama “Consent,” directed by Vanessa Filho, as a teenager having an affair with a manipulative and exploitative 50-year-old writer.

The...