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The Budapest Bridge 1st. International Paralympic Sport Film Festival opened its doors at 7 pm, Thursday, to host disabled athletes, paralympic champions, visitors and, of course, the media. Sir Philip Craven, President of the IPC was among the first to arrive. The two hostesses of the evening, Dóra Pásztory and Nóra Szily, took to the stage before a full house. The festival was opened by Pál Nádas, President of the Hungarian Paralympic Committee. Attila Ábrahám, honorary Secretary of State and President of the National Sports Office praised the paralympic athletes and welcomed those participating in the Winter Paralympics.
The next event of the evening was the opening speech of Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee, who welcomed the initiative, since this festival is the very first of its kind in the world. Following this the two presidents, Sir Philip Craven and Pál Nádas, rewarded Dr. András Fejes, the first Hungarian Paralympic medal winner, Dr. Mrs. Benczúr, senior lecturer of the Department of General Theory of Special Education at ELTE, Dr. István Plesa, orthopaedic, and Zoltán Tauber, the first Hungarian Paralympic gold medal winner, with a certificate for their outstanding achievement in the International Paralympics Movement.
For the final event of the opening ceremony, the audience watched Murderball, a prize-winning documentary from the Sundance Film Festival.
The second day of the Budapest Bridge 1st. International Paralympic Sport Film Festival also welcomed the masses.
From 9 am, primary- and secondary school students could participate in discussions with Paralympic athletes in an irregular meeting hosted by Dóra Pásztory and Nóra Szily. The athletes introduced the rules of various sports and talked about their everyday struggles. The paralympic athletes were represented at the meeting by foil-fencers Zsuzsa Krajnyák, Judit Pálfi and Andrea Jurák, fencer Pál Szekeres, monoskier Sándor Navratyil, marathon runner Bendegúz Nagy, tennis player László Farkas, judoist Gábor Vincze, powerlifter Sándor Sas and Zsolt Orsós, member of the national goalball team.
The reception hall and the park gave place to an Ability Park, where all those interested in trying disabled sports equipment could experience the difficulties of a person in a wheelchair or someone with partial or complete visual impairment. The children’s drawing exhibition was so successful that 55 prizes were handed out and the show was invited to Brussels to be exhibited at the European Parliament.
The films that qualified for the festival’s competition program were shown all day Friday and Saturday in the projection hall.
Visitors could also see a Paralympic photo exhibition.
Disabled sports could be tried out this time in the company of public figures:
Water polo players Máté Hesz and Tibor Benedek, model Panni Epres, former Olympic swimmer Éva Risztov, pentathlonist Zsuzsa Vörös and Szilárd Balanyi, keyboard player of Quimby.
They bravely met the challenge at the Ability Park in the wheelchair labyrinth, the blind tent and in sign language.
Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee played basketball together with Hungarian Paralympic champions during a two-hour game.
At the evening awards ceremony, the first prize to be handed out was the special prize of Disability Intergroup, a cross-party group of European Parliamentarians supporting the rights of disabled people, which was an invitation for the winning film to be shown in the European Parliament, accompanied by a conference about the Festival. The film to win the prize was Athens 2004, directed by László Ponyiczky, the award being handed out by Evangelina Tzampazi, MEP.