Viktoria Sovak

Viktoria Sovak Lefievre is the Director of the National Film Institute Hungary, Filmlab. 

Director of the NFI Filmlab in Budapest, Hungary, she studied cinema at the Université Paris 8 and the Alma Mater Studiorum in Bologna. From 2001 onwards, she worked in a number of cinematographic fields: first on location, then in film distribution. Her interests soon turned to film post-production. Since 2007, she has acquired in-depth professional experience in analog and digital film post-production at several major European film laboratories: Laboratoires Éclair in Paris, Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna and Hiventy - Transperfect in Paris. A specialist in photochemistry, her other main area of expertise: analog and digital restoration, is closely linked. She took part in the launch of ECPAD's PSNA contract for the photochemical backup and digitization of their nitrate holdings in 2019: setting up teams and monitoring tools exclusively dedicated to the contract. For the duration of the contract, she was in charge of recruiting and training people in film expertise and repair, contributing to the preservation of photochemical know-how.

She returned to Hungary after 21 years abroad and became Director of the NFI Filmlab in Budapest from 2024. In this capacity, she oversees all the laboratory's photochemical and digital operations.