THE SPARKS HISTORY
SPARKS Camera and Lighting Ltd. was established in 1992, by Vilmos Zsigmond, the Oscar-winning cinematographer, and has since played a major role in the world of international and domestic filmmaking. The company is constantly working on fulfilling as most completely as possible the needs of film producers coming from Hungary, Eastern European and from all over the world.
It not only “provides” equipment, but also knowledge and experience, which often helps the young, wing-trying generation to become real professionals. SPARKS Ltd. is proud of its professional technicians and colleagues, with whom it represents not only the company, but also its world-renowned partners, such as Panavision, one of the world's best manufacturers of lenses and cameras.
SPARKS Ltd. is constantly developing its lighting, camera and grip equipment according to the latest technological developments and trends, in order to serve the growing number of shootings in Hungary with such qualitative equipment and expertise, which will carry its fame, and to provide such a high level of service, that will always meet the needs of Productions, cameramen, and gaffers’.
The managing directors of SPARKS Ltd., Béla Romwalter „Richy” and Judit Romwalter consider it important to further promote and continuously develop the Hungarian film production activity, and also the active participation of their company in it. Judit is contributing in the development and production of several projects as (co)-producer and even co-creator and co-writer.
Some of our nominated and award winner films:
The summer youth drama, Free entry won Gamechanger Award at SXSW Film Festival in 2015, and was also nominated at Cardiff Independent Film Festival and Cayman Islands International Film Festival.
The 2018 drama, One day has also won awards: FIPRESCI Prize in Directors' Fortnight or Critics' Week cathegory at Cannes Film Festival in 2018 (nominated in other two cathegories), Best actress in International Competition cathegory at Cairo International Film Festival in 2018, Best director in New Europe-New Names Competition cathegory at Vilnius International Film Festival in 2019, George Gund III Memorial Central and Eastern European Film Competition winner at Cleveland International Film Festival in 2019, Blue angel in Best Female Performance cathegory at Art Film Festival in 2018. Nominated as best film at Vilnius International Film Festival, Trieste Film Festival, Camerimage, Gijón International Film Festival, Minsk International Film Festival “Listapad”, Sydney Film Festival.
The biography movie about Michael Curtiz, director of Casablanca, was nominated and has won several awards, such as: Best Film in Grand Prix des Amériques cathegory at Montréal World Film Festival in 2018, Best Foreign Feature Film at Burbank International Film Festival in 2019, Best director at Riviera International Film Festival in 2019, Best Cinematography in Feature film cathegory at Boston International Film Festival in 2019, nominated at SXSW Film Festival in 2019, Rivera International Film Festival in 2019 and Camerimage 2019.
The latest movie called Six Weeks had it’s world premiere at 28th Sarajevo Film Festival Main Competition in 2022. Since, it has won several awards, such as: Adolph Zukor Grand Prize at CineFest International Film Festival 2022, Best Actress Award in the International Feature Competition at Bosphorus Film Festival 2022, Silver Atlas Award for Best Director and Youth Jury’s Award for Best Film, both at Arras Film Festival 2022, Just Film Grand Prix for the Best Youth Film at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2022.