“#freeSzfe”, “Mi nem hallgatunk” (We Won’t Shut Up) - These were the hashtags and keywords of those protestors who demonstrated against a newly elected advisory board of Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest (SZFE) which based on a political decision-making. This verdict has elected a pro-government stage director called Attila Vidnyánszki to the head of board, and it's members consists of also pro-right wing characters. Hence the university has lost it's all-time autonomy and indepence. Therefore the students, teachers of SZFE, famous artists and their followers has started to arrange series of demonstrations between September and November 2020 and also a 101 days long strike underway. The strike included a barricade in the university's building, where the students did not open the doors to any outsiders and moved in to the school for couple of months. One of their symbolic action was a watch movement, where usually 6 artists per 30 minutes shifts stood out on the school's balcony to symbolize their own autonomy and loyalty. Their loss caused a huge domestic and international scandal-although the climax of their demonstration's history have reached more than 10.000 protestors on the public holiday of Hungarian Republic Day at 23th of October 2020, but they have stopped their struggle in early 2021, since neither the newly elected advisory board, nor the pro-government members could agree with their needs.
Since then the advisory board has already closed the original campus's doors, and founded a new institution under the old name mainly with new teachers, since most of them, more than 20 former employee have resigned. In parallel the former students and teachers formed a non-profit organization under the name of "freeSzfe" where they orgazine film and theater-related courses and workshops.
