Explore key moments in the evolution of Hungarian animation, from its early beginnings in 1914 to its present-day success on the global stage.

1914 Zsirb Ödön, the first Hungarian animation – now lost – was created by graphic artist István Kató-Kiszly using the cutout technique. The title character’s name sounds like “greasy tub” in Hungarian (zsíros bödön), a familiar essential of fairground comedy.

1918 One of the first surviving animated sequences is by graphic artist Marcel Vertès (né Marcell Vértes), who later won an Oscar as an art director. He made his debut in the film industry with political animations for Evening News (Est Híradó) between 1918 and 1919. In his series The Humor of the Week (A hét humora), he created satirical blackboard drawings commenting on public affairs in the spirit of popular fairground stage genres like chalk talks and lightning sketches.

1932 The first commercial film studio, Coloriton, was established in Budapest by three young graphic designers – John Halas (né János Halász), Félix Kassowitz, and Gyula Macskássy. For their animated ads, they used Gasparcolor film stock, which had been invented in Berlin by Hungarian chemist Béla Gáspár. In 1954, John Halas directed the first British feature-length animated film, Animal Farm.

1951 The fifteen-minute The Little Rooster’s Diamond Halfpenny (A kiskakas gyémánt félkrajcárja) by Gyula Macskássy proclaims itself “the first Hungarian color cartoon.” Made under primitive technical conditions, it was also shaped by the ideological constraints of Stalinism: the villain of the original tale, the evil Turkish sultan, was replaced by a Hungarian king who exploits his people.

1963 The Monologue (A monológ), created using collage technique, was the first Hungarian animated film to present the vision of the sixties’ generation in the first person singular. The debut of György Kovásznai, a painter by training, and his mentor, avant-garde artist Dezső Korniss, broke away from the generic and stylistic conventions of Hungarian animation.

1964–1965 Peter’s Adventures (Peti) was the first Hungarian cartoon series. Its protagonist of the two-season sci-fi series is a curious city boy exploring utopian technologies. In 1965, the first Hungarian cartoon series for adults, Gustavus (Gusztáv), was released in cinemas. Its title character is an iconic (anti)hero of Hungarian animation history.

1973 The first Hungarian feature-length animated film, Johnny Corncob (János vitéz), premiered with a visual world blending Art Nouveau, Pop Art, and Hungarian folk motifs. Produced in less than two years for the 150^th anniversary of Sándor Petőfi’s birth, it marked a breakthrough for the young director Marcell Jankovics.

1977 Marcell Jankovics’s Fight (Küzdők) is a symbolic meditation on the struggle between creator and creation, each shaping the other until the very end. The short won the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1977, paving the way for later Hungarian selections like Béla Vajda’s Moto perpetuo (1981) and Anna Flóra Buda’s 27 (2023).

1981 The Fly (A légy) by Ferenc Rofusz became the first Hungarian Oscar winner. The viewer is forced to experience the final moments of a trapped insect. The animation, composed of nearly 4,000 crayon background drawings, is based on a series of photographs taken with a fisheye lens.

1982 The fascinating French–Hungarian science fiction cartoon, Time Masters (Az idő urai – Les Maîtres du temps) produced by Pannónia Film Studio in Budapest, was directed by René Laloux, best known for his Cannes-winning sci-fi cartoon Fantastic Planet (1973). The utopian visuals of the film were designed by one of the most famous French comic book artists, Mœbius (Jean Giraud), while its animation director was Tibor Hernádi from Hungary.

1986 ​​A masterpiece of Hungarian cinema history, Cat City (Macskafogó) parodies multiple film genres, and its legendary characters and proverbial dialogues remain beloved by audiences today. Béla Ternovszky’s evergreen action comedy is set in a civilization of cats and mice.

1989 The first Annecy Cristal awarded to a Hungarian animated short went to Ferenc Cakó’s sand animation Ab Ovo. Later winners include Balázs Turai’s Amok (2022) and Flóra Anna Buda’s 27 (2023).

2005 TheDistrict (Nyócker!) – the feature-length “ghetto cartoon” by director Áron Gauder and producer Erik Novák – is Hungary’s answer to South Park. The film boldly combines 3D digital techniques with paper cut-outs in a strikingly fresh manner. It won the Cristal at the Annecy Film Festival in 2005 – exactly 20 years after József Gémes’s Heroic Times (Daliás idők), a painting film that won the first prize in the feature film category at Annecy in 1985, when it was the first time this prize was awarded at the world’s most prestigious animation festival.

2023 A record number of Hungarian animated features were produced and invited to the Annecy Film Festival. Among them were Áron Gauder’s Four Souls of Coyote (Kojot négy lelke), which won the Jury Award; White Plastic Sky (Műanyag égbolt) by Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó; Marcell Jankovics’s Toldi; and Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light, a Czech–Slovak–Hungarian co-production that also won the Jury Prize in the Contrechamps category.

Anna Ida Orosz