Filming in Hungary
Budapest the Film Location Double
Hollywood Movies, where Budapest has Faked Cities like Paris, Berlin or Moscow
Last updated on January 21st, 2025
Last updated on January 21st, 2025
Over the past two decades, Budapest's film industry has flourished, attracting an increasing number of international productions each year—including many that choose to work with Progressive Productions. It is no coincidence that filmmakers from around the world select Budapest as their filming destination.
Budapest’s architectural diversity allows certain areas of the city to convincingly stand in for a wide range of European locations, including Berlin, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Vienna, Saint Petersburg, and even Buenos Aires. The city has already portrayed these iconic destinations in numerous films.
Over the past two decades, Budapest's film industry has flourished, attracting an increasing number of international productions each year—including many that choose to work with Progressive Productions. It is no coincidence that filmmakers from around the world select Budapest as their filming destination.
Budapest’s architectural diversity allows certain areas of the city to convincingly stand in for a wide range of European locations, including Berlin, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Vienna, Saint Petersburg, and even Buenos Aires. The city has already portrayed these iconic destinations in numerous films.
Photo: Progressive Productions
With its nostalgic atmosphere, Budapest can seamlessly double as almost any European city, often requiring only minimal modifications.
Some Serious Action in Moscow
Photo: Progressive Productions
Several scenes from the fifth installment of the Die Hard series were filmed in Hungary’s capital. Bruce Willis found himself in the midst of intense action on the streets of Budapest, including the alleys of Andrássy Avenue, Szabadság Square, and Heroes’ Square.
He took down a few Russian adversaries, engaged in a high-speed car chase on Baross Street, and even set off explosions near the grand Opera House. Since the film’s storyline was set in Moscow, these Budapest locations stood in for the Russian capital. Budapest’s atmosphere bears a striking resemblance to Moscow’s, a similarity rooted in certain shared historical influences.
Budapest has doubled as Moscow before, notably in the 1988 action film Red Heat, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi. In the film, Schwarzenegger scoured the stairs of Buda Castle in search of a drug-dealing mafia, and—as expected—took down some villains in the Lukács thermal bath.
The visually striking spy thriller Red Sparrow, starring Jennifer Lawrence, was originally set in Helsinki and Moscow. However, filmmakers found Hungary to be such a treasure trove of locations that they not only shot the majority of the film in Budapest but even rewrote parts of the script to incorporate the city into the storyline. This is a testament to Budapest’s versatility—it can seamlessly double as both the Finnish and Russian capitals while also shining in its own right.
Progressive Productions also shot two episodes of Covert Affairs, USA Network’s popular summer series, where Budapest once again played the role of Moscow.
Finally, Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts stood in as Stalin’s Soviet headquarters in the 2013 film The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. However, this time, the action was of a different kind—an impromptu, larger-than-life drinking party.
Action, History and Romance in Paris
In Steven Spielberg’s Munich, a film nominated for five Oscars in 2005, Budapest’s historic Andrássy Boulevard stood in for 1970s Paris and Rome. Rick Carter, the production designer of Munich, remarked that Budapest was the most convincing Paris look-alike the team had ever encountered. Additionally, Budapest’s Marriott Hotel was transformed into a London setting, while Puskás Stadion served as Munich in the 1940s.
Photo: Progressive Productions
Carter humorously noted that the next street over from the Paris set was used to recreate scenes set in Rome.
Surprisingly, the same streets that brought the 1970s Paris to life in Munich later became the romantic backdrop for Robert Pattinson’s Bel Ami. In this period drama, Pattinson portrayed a charming writer who seduced women such as Uma Thurman’s character, with Budapest’s streets convincingly doubling as 19th-century Paris.
In 2016, Rowan Atkinson traded comedy for drama while filming the British television production Maigret in Budapest. The city’s cafés and alleyways were transformed into the darker side of 1950s Paris, with locations like the Palace of Justice, Nyugati Train Station, and Fisherman’s Bastion bringing the setting to life.
Budapest’s ability to portray Paris may be its most celebrated talent. With its romantic, vintage architecture and nostalgic atmosphere, the city easily mimics Paris from both the 19th and 20th centuries. In the modern-day rom-com Monte Carlo, Budapest once again doubled as Paris, this time embodying the French capital of today.
Photo: Progressive Productions
- said Wash Westmoreland, Director and Co-Writer of Colette. He continued: “In doing that they have their own Champs-Élysées which is called Andrassy, which is a big boulevard in the center of the city. And they have also their own Moulin Rouge, which was built to sort of copy the Moulin Rouge in Paris, but now it looks more like the original Moulin Rouge then the one in Paris does. Because the one in Paris has expanded and become a much bigger space. So, there’s many things about Budapest that really lent themselves. All the interiors really we found had this sort of unrefurbished look to them, like it was the same windows, the same doorknobs, and floorboards, it just felt like time had not changed this place.”
Westmoreland and his team once again demonstrated Budapest’s ability to convincingly double as Paris of the past in Colette. In fact, the attention to detail was so meticulous that even locals were fooled, believing parts of the film had been shot in the actual French capital.
Eerie 19th Century New York
TNT’s drama series The Alienist, set in 1896 New York, was filmed in Budapest in 2017. To recreate the atmosphere of 19th-century Manhattan, massive cobblestone streets were constructed on the backlots of Origo Studios, complete with meticulously detailed exteriors. Several streets and squares in Budapest also served as filming locations; for example, the trailer’s main establishing shot was filmed in the city center, in front of an old brick school building that stood in for a New York police station. Many interior scenes were shot in Budapest’s historic landmarks, including the Király Baths, the Wenckheim Palace, and the Hungarian State Opera, which doubled as the iconic Met Opera.
Photo: Progressive Productions
Singing in Buenos Aires
One of the earliest American feature films shot in Budapest is the 1996 cult classic Evita, directed by Alan Parker. Portraying the iconic actress and First Lady of Argentina, Eva Perón, Madonna performed many of the musical’s famous songs in various Budapest locations, including Andrássy Avenue, the main glass hall of Keleti Train Station, and the grand marble hall of the Palace of Justice.
Since the film is set in Buenos Aires, these Budapest landmarks convincingly doubled as Argentina. Evita serves as an excellent example of the wide variety of locations Budapest has to offer.
Wars and Spies in Berlin
In 2001, Brad Pitt and the legendary Robert Redford came to Budapest to film Tony Scott’s clever CIA thriller Spy Game. As you might have guessed, this iconic movie features the Hungarian capital in a starring role.
Photo: Progressive Productions
The banks of the Danube River in central Budapest appear frequently throughout the film. One memorable scene shows Pitt and Redford in conversation on a rooftop with a stunning view of the city’s famous Synagogue and the surroundings of Astoria Square. Along with Budapest’s lively Gozsdu Courtyard, these locations stood in for 1970s Berlin in this gripping thriller.
The cast of Good also took advantage of Budapest’s nostalgic and wartime ambiance.
In this film, starring Viggo Mortensen, Keleti Railway Station was transformed into Berlin’s main train station from the 1940s, complete with swastika flags for the scene where Nazis capture the film’s protagonist.
More espionage unfolded in The Debt (2011), where Jessica Chastain’s character, a spy, searched for a supposedly dead Mossad agent in Keleti Railway Station. Once again, Budapest convincingly portrayed Berlin.
Budapest can also play 20th-century Berlin very well. Both cities were under communist influence during the last decades of the 20th century, leading to architectural similarities, such as the prevalence of panel-flat buildings. The key difference is that Berlin has been almost entirely renovated and redesigned, while Budapest largely retains its mid-20th-century look.
A prime example of Budapest’s versatility is the 2017 action spy film Atomic Blonde. Budapest was chosen to double not only as 1980s Berlin but also as London and Paris, as the latter cities have undergone such significant modernization that Budapest was deemed the ideal choice to convey an authentic, historical atmosphere.
Love in the Time of War in Bosnia
Photo: Progressive Productions
Angelina Jolie made her directorial debut in 2011 with In the Land of Blood and Honey, a love story set during the Bosnian war and almost entirely filmed in Hungary.
Budapest locations such as Roses’ Square, Városliget Lake, Szent Erzsébet Church, and several other sites were used to double as Bosnian settings for this poignant film. Jolie specifically chose Budapest because the crumbling walls of certain apartment blocks in the city provided an authentic backdrop reminiscent of the Bosnian war.
Exorcism in Rome
In 2010, another great Oscar-winning actor came to Budapest. Anthony Hopkins was filming his horror thriller The Rite, which was set in Rome. Naturally, Budapest’s locations stood in for the iconic Italian capital.
Photo: Progressive Productions
Key scenes of the movie were filmed at Buda Castle (the Royal Castle in Budapest) and Basilica Square, a charming cobblestone square in the heart of the city. The filmmakers also took advantage of one of Budapest’s most stunning interiors: several scenes were shot in the grand and opulent hall of the Palace of Justice.
Great Laughs in Saint Petersburg
Woody Allen was once known for filming almost exclusively in New York, but in 1974, he made an exception and chose Budapest for several scenes of his comedy Love and Death, starring Diane Keaton.
Set in Saint Petersburg during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, the film’s outdoor scenes were shot in the medieval streets of the Buda Castle District. Budapest’s historic Opera House also doubled as Saint Petersburg’s 19th-century opera house.
A Serial Killer on the Loose in Baltimore
Budapest can convincingly double for any city in the world—not just iconic European ones.
Photo: Progressive Productions
While John Cusack portrayed Edgar Allan Poe in James McTeigue’s fiction film The Raven, Budapest authentically stood in for 19th-century Baltimore. The grand ball scene was filmed in the opulent Palace of Justice, while another key scene featured Cusack searching for the movie’s serial killer along Szobi Street, a secluded area with century-old architecture. To capture the atmosphere of 19th-century Baltimore, the crew covered the ground with sand and brought horse carriages onto the street, creating a perfectly immersive setting.
Very few cities can take on as many roles as Budapest. But Budapest is not just a character actor—it is just as authentic as Berlin, Paris, or any other great city in the world. Beyond its talent for illusion, as more filmmakers showcase Budapest and audiences become familiar with its stunning architecture and unique atmosphere, the city is increasingly cast as itself. This is evident in productions like Royal Pains, where Budapest plays no other role but its own.
