Hungary has had a notable cinema industry since the beginning of the 20th century, including Hungarians who affected the world of motion pictures both within and beyond the country's borders.

In June of the same year, Arnold and Zsigmond Sziklai opened the first Hungarian movie theatre on 41 Andrássy Street named the Okonograph, where they screened Lumière films using French machinery.

Mór Undergleider also started a professional journal on the subject of cinema, called Mozgófénykép Híradó (News of Moving Picture).

Native experts of the field, like directors Michael Curtiz or Alexander Korda left the country during or after the disarray, often making significant career abroad, like in Hollywood.

Newer technology from Vienna started appearing, leaving room for innovation: with the Projektophone, Dénes Mihály became one of the many inventors of loud film, but he was unable to sell the patent.

During the shooting of Csak egy kislány van a világon, crew members were able to borrow equipment from Fox Movietone News, whose employees worked in Budapest that day, recording a few musical and speaking scenes.

Directed by István Székely, who was called back from Berlin for the job, the movie's comedic tone and bourgeois setting became a standard for native film production in the following ten years.

As sound film enabled more natural performances, popular stage actors became more attracted to the big screen, however, many of them could not adapt to the different working conditions, or to the new phenomena of the 'filmstar,' a life with pressure from the media and fans.

As Horthy's government formed increasingly closer ties with Nazi Germany, the press also started to put pressure on Jewish cast members.

The Second World War slowly showed its signs in the country with an increasing number of air raids and bombings, making film production extremely difficult.

During the war, movie theatres did not play American and Soviet features, so industry professionals and selected audiences could watch films like Gone with the Wind only a small, hidden, makeshift screenings for high prices.

21 March 1948 became a turning point for cinema production as the state began to nationalize certain parts of the industry, with several further steps in 1948–49 resulting in a total takeover.

The first product of the nationalized industry was Frigyes Bán's Talpalatnyi föld, continuing the tradition of films that showed a more realistic country life with the help of folk literature.

By 1950, the film industry was under total government control, plans for new movies were only issued by central command (with themes like "socialist conversion of the agriculture", or "exposing enemy sabotage".

[citation needed]) The films were issued to be directed by industry veterans who started their career in the 1930-40s, like Frigyes Bán or Márton Keleti, even while they were politically not to be trusted.

Manufacturing movies depicted the labor heroes of factory production or on the fields, showcasing the ideal worker (Első fecskék, Ütközet békében, Tűzkeresztség).

While their first attempt is successful, an investigation by wise party members uncovers the conspiracy (Teljes gőzzel, Becsület és dicsőség, Civil a pályán).

While Fábri operated with a dramatic-expressionist style that placed protagonists into extreme situations to face basic moral questions (Körhinta, Hannibál tanár úr), Máriássy used a lyric, and strongly realistic tone, depicting events with high detail (Budapesti tavasz, Egy pikoló világos).

The latter also received permission to produce feature films, and while its budget and machinery were not ready for this task for a few following years, it provided a breeding ground for a number of young talents, like Miklós Jancsó.

Adopting novels from writers like Kálmán Mikszáth or Sándor Tatay, they showed the detailed lifestyle of peasants and the common man in a moderately realistic fashion.

After the harsher years following the events of 1956, the newly elected socialist government, headed by János Kádár wanted to appear more liberal, resulting in softening rules and regulations in every area.

The era's filming was largely influenced by western modernism, but similarly to Czechoslovakian and Polish cinema, new elements and styles were rarely present in their pure form, but rather mixed with cultural, historical and political themes.

Reckoning with the past and parentage were the themes of numerous movies of the decade (Oldás és kötés, Feldobott kő, Tízezer nap).

The theme of generational conflict appears in more light-hearted, entertaining forms in the second half of the decade, often in collaboration with popular pop-bands (Ezek a fiatalok, Szerelmes biciklisták).

After his debut films, Így jöttem and Szegénylegények were the first movies where Miklós Jancsó's trademark visual style – long, slow cuts and horizontal camera movement – appear.

After 1956's Professor Hannibal, Zoltán Fábri further elaborates the theme of moral choice in historical times in many of his films from the 1960s, like Isten hozta, őrnagy úr!, Két félidő a pokolban, Nappali sötétség.

After trying several genres, the cinema of Károly Makk becomes more unified, creating the most political, dramatic films of his career during the era, with Megszállottak, Elveszett paradicsom, Az utolsó előtti ember.

As film producers of the seventies were dissatisfied with the illusion of realism of the previous years, they felt that conventional acting and dramatics no longer offered new possibilities.

In these films (including András Jeles's A kis Valentino), the sociologically accurate world becomes transparent, and by exposing documentarism, a peculiar cinematic language is revealed.

Most of the films made in the BB Studio and on the Academy used cinéma verité as a method to reveal socially sensitive themes, but unlike the outer, intellectual standpoint of the sixties, they explored the inner conflicts of their subjects.