Slovak films gain success in March

Slovak films received several interesting awards during March: successful were Mira Fornay's My Dog Killer, Marek Mackovič's Okhwan: Mission Impossible and The Exhibition by Peter Begányi and Andrej Kolenčík.

18th KINO PAVASARIS VILNIUS IFF / LITHUANIA
(20. 3. - 3. 4. 2013)
The second film by Mira Fornay My Dog Killer was presented in the Competition Programme "New Europe - New Names" and received the award for the Best Director. The film made a strong impression on the Jury consisting of Ali Suliman (actor, Palestine), Ada Condeescu (actress, Romania), Yeşim Ustaoglu (director / scriptwriter, Turkey), Giovanni Ottone (film critic / curator, Italy) and Leon Lučev (actor, Croatia), according to Jury member Yeşim Ustaoglu, the director: "... did a really impressive work. It is a very strong, powerful film with rich cinema language and convincing acting."
The film received the Hivos Tiger Award at the prestigious Rotterdam IFF in January, where it was screened in a world premiere. The film entered Slovak cinemas on March 21, it will arrive to Czech cinemas on April 11.

4th ASIAN SIDE OF THE DOC KUALA LUMPUR / MALAYSIA
(19. - 22. 4. 2013)
The documentary by Marek Mackovič entitled Okhwan: Mission Impossible, currently in post-production, was presented at the Asian film market. The Jury including Charlotte Gry Madsen (DR TV, Denmark), Ann Julienne (France Télévisions, France), Paul Lewis (Discovery Channel, Canada), Joseph Maxwell (SBS TV, Australia), Choy Lin Mok (Mediacorp Pte Ltd, Singapore), Sakura Ono (NHK, Japan), Prof. Dr. Asiah Sarji (Finas, Malaysia) and Ganesan Sudheer (AETN 18, India) decided the projects was the best video-presented film and decided to award it with the Best Video Pitch.
Parts from the documentary were used in the documentary by the Oscar-winning director Kevin MacDonald Life in a Day, screened at Sundance and Berlinale, among others.

20th FEBIOFEST PRAGUE IFF / CZECH REPUBLIC - 20th FEBIOFEST BRATISLAVA IFF / SLOVAK REPUBLIC
(14. - 22. 3. 2013) / (15. - 21. 3. 2013)
Double success was noted for the directorial duo of Peter Begányi and Andrej Kolenčík for their mid-length film The Exhibition (2013). At both "branches" of Febiofest it was included in competition sections (Film Novellas Competition and Competition of V4 Short Films) and at both it was awarded. The Jury of the Prague Febiofest headed by the Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, in the company of the Swedish director and cinematographer Jan Troell, Romanian director and producer Tudor Giurgiu, Iranian actress and director Niki Karimi and Czech director Saša Gedeon decided the film should receive the award "... for its sense of humor and empathy. The chamber tragicomedy of a provincial Slovak town features one day in the life of five characters working in the Museum of Natural History. The film is full of grotesque, absurd scenes, which well describe the sad situation of the current financing of culture.." Other two film novellas were also awarded.

The Jury of the Slovak Febiofest consisting of Marian Urban (producer, ALEF Film&Media Group / SR), Macej Gil (artistic director, Kino na Hranici / PL), Vít Janeček (director, ČR) gave two Special Mentions to Moon (2012) by Andrej Rudavský and Cagey Tigers (2010) by Aramisova, The Exhibition (2013) by Peter Begányi and Andrej Kolenčík received the Audience Award.

Congratulations to all winners!

More information at:
www.kinopavasaris.lt
www.okhwan.com
www.sunnysideofthedoc.com
www.febiofest.cz
www.febiofest.sk

published: 02.04.2013
updated: 17.03.2014