User:Angelica L-K/sandbox

Mónika Mécs (born 17th of November 1967.) is a Hungarian film producer, and co-founder of Inforg-M&M Film Production Company and M&M Film Production Company. In 2012 Just the Wind produced by Inforg-M&M Film^[1] won the Jury Grand Prix at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival^[2]. The film was directed by Benedek Fliegauf, and was selected as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards.

In 2017 On Body and Soul produced by Inforg-M&M Film as well, won the Golden Bear in the competition section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Mónika is the daughter of Hungarian politician, Imre Mécs^[6], and the wife of Hungarian businessman and film producer, Ernő Mesterházy.

With Ernő Mesterházy and Andras Muhi, her partner-producers, they won further prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival with On Body and Soul; such as the FIPRESCI prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. The film was also selected as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Oscar at the 90th Academy Awards.^[7] The main female character Alexandra Borbély also won the Best European Actress award at the European Film Awards for her performance in the film.^[8]^[9]

Biography

Mónika Mécs finished her studies at SZFE Hungarian University of Theatre and Film Arts as a producer in 1996. After she began her work at “Fekete Doboz” Black Box , which was a documentary filmmaking company, which reported on every historical cut-off and social crisis’ centre on the soviet side of the Iron Curtain before the democratic transformation. In 2005 with her husband, Ernő Mesterházy they established M&M film Production company^[10]. The company’s first big success was the film “The End” (Konyec) directed by Gábor Rohonyi in 2007. The film was released all around the European movie scene, furthermore, it was in the Japanese movie programme too.

In the past decade the M&M Film Production company’s work stands behind most of the successful Hungarian popular films. But M&M Film also produced such art films as the Beast directed by Till Attila (2011), or Szabolcs Hajdu’s Bibliotheques Pascal in 2010 (as a co-producer).^[11]During this period Mónika Mécs started a big feature film with András Muhi who was the manager at Inforg Studio, and became the producer of Milky Way (directed by: Benedek Fliegauf, 2007) or the film called Womb also directed by Benedek Fliegauf, 2010. ^[11]The M&M film and Inforg Studio merged in the same year and established Inforg-M&M Film (IMM). The new company’s first film Just the Wind directed by Benedek Fliegauf (2012) won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and five years later in 2017 On Body and Soul directed by Ildiko Enyedi won the Golden Bear prize. There are currently many short fiction films and feature films at IMM under production, the most prominent is “The Story of My Wife” developed by Ildiko Enyedi, and “Glowman” by Benedek Fliegauf.^[11]

She is a prominent female figure in the Hungarian film industry as a successful producer, and an advocate for equality in the industry. "We female artists can contribute our part to this cause by pursuing our careers and perhaps setting a good example to women who are lacking in faith in themselves, in their opportunities, or their ability to achieve their goals," she said. "We believe that even if we cannot offer a ready-made solution, we can certainly show the way forward and prove that it is possible and worthwhile starting out on this journey, as women can also achieve great results."^[12]