The Cinematik International Film Festival in Piešťany will present at its 21st edition another collection of films that rank among the most interesting works of contemporary world and European cinematography. Among the 21 selected titles, there is also the Palme d'Or-winning film by Cristian Mungiu Fjord, the new film by Paweł Pawlikowski Fatherland, Goldený Berlin Bear Yellow letters or the acclaimed Slovak debut Lover, not a fighter.
The twenty-first edition of Cinematik, which will take place in Piešťany from 8th to 13th September 2026, continues with a programming strategy that brings films from the world's most prominent festivals, while also giving space to works that can be a genuine discovery for Slovak audiences.
Peter Konečný: It's not just about festival brands
„When selecting the films, we didn't want to create a collection of festival stamps. It was more important for us whether a film has its own signature style, whether it can surprise the viewer, and whether it stays with them even after leaving the cinema. This selection is therefore deliberately very diverse – from major auteur films awarded in Cannes and Berlin, through new Slovak and Czech releases, to works that experiment with form, genre, or the very way of storytelling. The common denominator, however, is the ambition to offer cinema experiences, which are not sú indifferent to the world around us,“ this is Peter Konečný speaking, member of the Cinematik IFF programme team.
Among the most prominent titles of the selection belongs to Fjord by a Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, who returned to the main competition in Cannes after nearly twenty years and won his second Palme d'Or. The story of a Romanian-Norwegian family living in a remote community begins with the question of child-rearing, but gradually develops into a complex drama about cultural differences, social norms, and the boundaries beyond which care can take the form of control. The meticulously constructed story without clear answers leaves the viewer in an uncomfortable uncertainty as to who and what can actually be trusted.
Cannes also honoured Paweł Pawlikowski, who won the best director award for the film Fatherland. In the summer of 1949, Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika set out on a journey through war-torn Germany, from the American zone in Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar. Pawlikowski returns to themes familiar from the films Ida and Cold War. It creates an oppressive, visually captivating portrait of a landscape divided by war, in which the return to one's homeland turns into a painful exploration of what remains after exile, fascism, and family tragedies.
The drama complements a pair of distinctive auteur films Forsaken (L'Abandon) by director Vincent Garenq, which returns to the final eleven days of the teacher Samuel Paty's life and the mechanism that led to his murder. The film meticulously follows a system in which an innocent lie turns into a threat and silence ceases to be a neutral stance.
From Berlin through Cannes to Piešťany
A film comes from the Berlinale Yellow letters (Yellow letters) by a German-Turkish director İlker Çatak, the creator of the award-winning film Das Lehrerzimmer. The film follows a Turkish artist couple who, as a result of political persecution, find themselves out of work and gradually without the security they once took for granted. The personal story of the couple and their daughter turns into a drama about the price of civic stance and the boundary between silence and resistance. The film won this year at Berlinale, a Golden Bear.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's new film is also coming to Piešťany All of a sudden (Soudain), which premiered in the main Cannes competition. The director of the film jewel Drive My Car, this time talks of the meeting of two women from different cultures and their conversations about life, illness, care and death. The nearly three-and-a-quarter-hour work won the best actress award in Cannes for Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto.
Another film from the Cannes main competition is Gentle Monster (Gentle Monster) by Austrian director Marie Kreutzer, featuring Léa Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve. Kreutzer explores the fragile boundary between what we know about our nearest and dearest and what we merely think we know about them.
Slovak cinematography among the world competition
Slovak films also have a prominent place in the programme. One of them is the debut by Martina Buchelová Lover, not a fighter, which took home the Proxima Grand Prix from Karlovy Vary. The romantic tragicomedy about first love, coming of age and finding courage was one of the festival's biggest Slovak surprises. The film is not lacking in specific humour, inventive style nor narrative freedom.
A historical Slovak theme is brought by General Golian director Juraj Štepka, which will simultaneously serve as the opening film of the 21st edition of Cinematik. The picture returns to the figure of General Ján Golian and the events of the Slovak National Uprising, but does not focus solely on military decisions – it is interested in the man who has to bear the responsibility for the lives of thousands of other people. The film will have its world premiere in Piešťany.
Contemporary Slovak documentary filmmaking is also represented with Igor and After by Ivana Ostrochovský and Life or Film from Marek Šulík and Juraj Johanides. Two portraits of prominent Slovak filmmakers share a common theme of stock-taking, but each approaches it in a completely different cinematic way. Ivan Ostrochovský offers an intimate portrait of legendary cinematographer Igor Luther, while the duo of Šulík and Johanides bring a film dialogue with Dušan Hanák, in which the author returns to the questions he once posed to his heroes, and through his own films, memories and archives, reflects on creativity, freedom and ageing.
Along with the film Love directed by Marko Škop are presented through differing perspectives on the individual, relationships and society, with each choosing a different path between intimacy, observation and auteur storytelling. The main character in Love is 30-year-old neurologist Anna (Jana Kovalčiková). She has never experienced enough love and acceptance from her mother, and therefore spends her whole life searching for them elsewhere. At the same time, however, she unconsciously repeats the manipulative patterns she knows from her own family – transferring her need to be needed into her relationship with her patients as well.
A Czecho-Slovak documentary If Pigeons Turned to Gold directed by Pepa Lubojacki ranks among the most formally daring titles in the selection. The author films on an iPhone her older brother and two cousins who are struggling with homelessness and addiction. Diary footage, stylised memories, AI-animated photographs and graphic interventions create an unusual cinematic form where personal memory meets experiment.
Denmark: from crime fiction to intimate dramas
Danish cinema will be one of the prominent strands of the 21st edition of Cinematik. The programme will also feature The Quiet Ones(De lydløse) directed by Frederik Louis Hviid, an action crime film inspired by a true case and set during the 2008 financial crisis. A group of professional robbers are planning one of the biggest robberies in the history of Denmark. The energy-packed film combines genre suspense with a look at the cost of ambition, loyalty and decisions from which there is no turning back.
Way Home (Vejen hjem) directed by Charlotte Sieling follows a father who sets out for war-torn Syria to find his son. The journey to rescue him turns into a test of one's own limits, values and willingness to sacrifice everything for the person he loves.
The programme also features Hercules Falling(Herkules falder) by Christiana Bonkeho, a drama about a war veteran who, following a violent family incident, finds himself on an isolated island and tries to find his way back to himself and his loved ones. This is the feature film debut of the director, who previously made award-winning documentaries.
Return to Nils Malmros
Part of the Danish focus is also a pair of films by the renowned director Nils Malmros – The Tree of Knowledge (Kundskabens træ) and Let us Know the truth (Let us know the truth). Malmros is one of the most prominent figures in Danish cinema and his films are known for their exceptionally sensitive portrayal of coming of age, family relationships and everyday life. Cinematik is also dedicating a special retrospective and a masterclass to him, and he will be one of the main guests of the festival.
Genre surprises and unexpected film forms
However, the selection of 21 films is not just a showcase of major festival dramas. Saccharine (Saccharine) Australian director Natalie Erika James, creator of the film Relic, sits on the borderline between horror, body horror and black comedy. The story of a young woman who succumbs to an extreme diet based on consuming human ash uses the genre framework to explore body obsession, desire and self-destruction. The film premiered in the Midnight section at Sundance and was subsequently presented at the Berlinale.
An even more radical experiment brings Good boy (Good Boy) by the director Ben Leonberg. The entire supernatural story is told from the perspective of Indy the dog, who is played by the director's own pet. Instead of a traditional hero, the film thus places canine perception of space, sound and unseen danger at the centre of attention.
The selection is concluded by two titles that work with memory, time and film narration itself. The first of these is The Match (The Match) coming from the directorial duo Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco, who bring a documentary treatment of the legendary football match between Argentina and England from the 1986 World Cup. Following its world premiere in Cannes, this creative documentary successfully opened this year's 60th KVIFF. And the second title A Little Grey Wolf Will Come directed by a journalist Zhanna Agalakova, who in 2022 left the state television channel, Channel One in protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This personal and piercing journey through the country also becomes a journey into her own past.
Twenty-one films of the 21st edition of Cinematik thus create a diverse map of contemporary cinema – from major festival premieres through Slovak and Czech new releases to genre and formal experiments. Their common denominator is not a uniform style, but the conviction that film can be simultaneously a story, an artistic gesture and a way of looking at the world a little differently.
International Film Festival Cinematik will take place from 8th to 13th September 2026. Over six days, it will offer more than a hundred exceptional feature and short films, meetings with filmmakers, and one of the most comprehensive film programmes in Slovakia.