Vilmos Zsigmont star Hollywood cinematographer Will be an honored  guest of the Fest

By Alex Deleon, <filmfestivals.com>

The International Cinema Festival of Miskolc, (CINEFEST)  sponsored by Jameson Whiskey, is a modest festival in a provincial town, but it is Hungary's one and only authentic international film festival and the canny programming is offering one discovery after another during a solid ten day run, September 10-21, 2014.

Twenty feature films in competition include a mix of fiction, documentary and one feature length animation, some premieres and some culled from other festivals, notably Telluride, with four entries out of competition in the  "Open Eye" section which comprises eight titles in all, ranging from works by recognized world class directors of high repute such as Mike Leigh with "Mr. Turner" and Richard Linklater  with "Boyhood" plus the latest film of iconic Hollywood actor Robert Duvall, (80!) "A Night in Old Mexico".

Twenty eight carefully chosen new features in ten days, even if it takes a two hour train ride from Budapest to get here -- is nothing to sneeze at!

In addition to this  impressive lineup of new films a section devoted to "Cineclassics" of famous films from Hollywood and Hungary fill out a truly amazing festival selection. People associated with these films such as Hollywood's ace Hungarian DOP, Vilmos Zsigmond, perhaps the world's finest living cinematographer, will attend to introduce and discuss the classics in question. Directors of most films, mostly younger artists in their thirties will attend the Big Hall screenings for the lively Q & A sessions that have become a trademark of This festival.

Among eye-opening discoveries in the first four daze:

PARADOR-HUNGARO, a meta documentary about an aging Hungarian snack stand owner in Bogota, Columbia, made by a young Hungarian speaking non-Hungarian escaping from an American military childhood.

Israeli Documentary feature, HIMMLER, The Private letters of a Decent Man!! --

A totally different take on one of the most notorious NAZI war criminals gives new meaning to the famous phrase "The banality of evil" ~~ straight from Telluride.

"The Two Faces of January", a magnificent thriller by debut director Hossein Amini, set entirely in Greece and Istanbul, starring Vigo Mortensen  and Kristen Dunst, with Oscar Isaac in a star launching breakthrough role as a Greek speaking American tour guide and ballsy con artist. White knuckles all the way, straight from Venice to Miskolc.

Last but by no means least: "The Upthrown Stone" (A feldobott kő), a masterful 1969 indictment of the Communist system  and the oppression of Gypsies in Hungary, by all around cinema maestro (cameraman, writer, director), Sandor Sára, now eighty. Sára Will give a master class during his visit to Miskolc.

If the festival ended here I would go home satisfied but it's only half over.

Still to come:

Three Hollywood classics lensed by Zsigmond; "The Deer Hunter", 1978, which introduced Meryl Streep; Spielberg's SciFi masterpiece, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), "Deliverance"(1972), John Boorman's fast water thriller that starred Burt Reynolds, John Voight (father of Angéla Jolie) and Ned Beatty and was up for scads  of prizes, plus the great Hungarian opera film "Bánk Bán" (2002) which Zsigmond not only lensed but basically directed -- arguably the best opera film ever made.

A special event will be an evening with Frenchman Olivier Gérard who was assistant director to Orson Welles on "The Immortal Story" 1968, made for French Tv with Jeanne Moreau. Welles least known next-to-last film, only 55 minutes long, yet still quite powerful with all the well known Wellesian earmarks. Hard to find, but here but is in Miskolc along with lots of other surprises.

Alex, Hotel Pannónia, Miskolc, Hungary