Art Film Fest Commemorates Significant Anniversaries

The 26th edition of ART FILM FEST (June 15 – 23, 2018) has prepared an appealing programme with a number of Slovak films. International film festival will present contemporary Slovak cinema mainly within Slovak Season section, archive films will commemorate events of great significance and historical milestones as the 100th anniversary of The Founding of Czechoslovakia and a major figure of Slovak filmmaker Fero Fenič as well.

The International Competition of Features Films includes Slovak The Last Self-Portrait by Marek Kuboš, an honest confession about why he is seriously considering ending his film career. Slovak-Portugese co-production Fight by Eva Križková, revealing the principles of interpersonal interaction and communication, will be competing in International Competition of Shorts. Slovak producer Lívia Filusová will be the part of the international jury this year.

Slovak Season consists of 11 feature films, short animation Yellow (d. Ivana Šebestová) and three episodes of television series Constructing Slovakia: Bratislava’s Winter Harbour, The Dubnica Arms Factory and The Partizánske Shoe Factory by Bibiana Beňová. Festival will also present The Line (d. Peter Bebjak), Insect (d. Jan Švankmajer), The Interpreter (d. Martin Šulík), The Flower Shop (d. Ruben Desiere), Nina (d. Juraj Lehotský) and documentaries Heavy Heart (d. Marek Šulík), Válek (d. Patrik Lančarič), The Lust for Power (d. Tereza Nvotová), Elsewhere (d. Juraj Nvota, Marian Urban). Psychological thriller Intimate Enemy (d. Karel Janák), which reacts to technology’s ever more frequent intrusions into our privacy will have a special pre-release. The life of controversial figure of Slovak mountaineering: Pavel “The Spider” Pochylý (1945–2000) captures documentary The Spider by Ľubomír Slivka. ART FILM FEST will for the first time take place in Spišská Nová Ves during the first weekend.

This edition of ART FILM FEST dedicated the section and Special Award Actor´s Mission to Slovak actress Zuzana Mauréry. The festival will screen The Teacher (d. Jan Hřebejk), which earned her Best Actress award at Karlovy Vary IFF, and the feature debut Fine, Thanks by Mátyás Prikler, which earned Mauréry a Slovak national film award The Sun in a Net.

Polish director Agnieszka Holland will receive Golden Camera award, and given this occasion, a minority Slovak co-production Spoor (d. Agnieszka Holland, Kasia Adamik) will be screened. The film was world premiered in the Main Competition of the 67th Berlinale.
Fero Fenič Special is a section dedicated to Fero Fenič, the founder of Febiofest Film Festival. The section consists of his work among other films. Diadem and There and Back both belong to National Film Archive collection of Slovak Film Institute.

Variety Select: Art Films is a selection dedicated to well-known artists. This year´s festival will screen co-production documentary Červená (d. Olga Sommerová), which received The Czech Lion Award last year.

Two sections will commemorate notable Slovak historic events. Topic: 100 SK/CZ(100 Years of Fellowship) will evoke 100th anniversary of founding of Czechoslovakia by the medium of older and new feature and documentary films like Dubček (d. Laco Halama), Newsreel 20/1990: Štefánik´s Ressurrection (d. Vladimír Mináč), Leopoldov Fortress (d. Ladislav Kubelka) and The Time We Are Living (d. collective of authors). Documentary Occupation 1968 will be presented in Slovak premiere. Five countries from the Warsaw Pact occupied Czechoslovakia in 1968. Fifty years later, five directors from these five countries shot five short films about the invasion from the perspectives of occupiers. The film will be presented by director Marie Elisa Scheidt, protagonist Ilya Lvovitch Smolokovskiand Slovak producer Peter Kerekes.

Screenings primarily for schools will be held within the accompanying events. Block August 1968 (from Dubček to Palach) consists of 3 newsreels dating from 1968/1969, along with Commemoration (d. Vlado Kubenko, Peter Mihálik, Dušan Trančík), a documentary on the funeral of Jan Palach, a university student who immolated himself in response to the 1968 invasion.

The second block Masaryk, Štefánik and the birth of Czechoslovakia consists of rare archive footage and short newsreels from 1921 – 1990 namely Masaryk in Slovakia / President Masaryk´s visit to Slovakia, The Czechoslovak Week in Film 19/1947, TheWeek in Film 15/1968 (d. Štefan Ondrkal), Newsreel 13/1990 (d. Emil Fornay), Newsreel 20/1990: Štefánik´s Ressurrection (d. Vladimír Mináč) and Probe 4/1990: Lost History? (d. Rudolf Ferko).

Web:
https://www.artfilmfest.sk/en/

For more on the films visit our online database: http://www.aic.sk/slovakfilms

Related AIC Articles:
ART FILM FEST 2017
ART FILM FEST 2016

published: 14.06.2018
updated: 15.06.2023