The winner of the Cinematik International Film Festival Audience Award was decided by the festival visitors themselves. Out of more than 100 films shown in the programme of the 21st edition, the highest audience rating was achieved by the Slovak film Flood directed by Martin Gonda. Second place goes to the French drama The Abandonment directed by Vincenta Garenqa and in third place finished a Slovak film Lover, not a fighter female directors Martina Buchel.
The Audience Award is annually one of the most important prizes of the festival, because it is not decided by an expert jury, but directly by the Cinematik audience. Visitors rated individual films throughout the entire festival, and the resulting ranking was created on the basis of their ratings.
The winning film The Flood Martin Gond's film captivated audiences so much that it achieved the highest average rating among all the films at the 21st edition of Cinematik. The film thus became not only one of the standout titles of the Slovak film programme, but also the most successful film of the entire festival from the audience rating perspective.
Well second place the film ranked The Abandonment French director's Vincenta Garenqa, which received an exceptionally positive response from the festival audience. Third place belongs to the Slovak film Lover, not a fighter female directors Martina Buchel.
The top three spots were thus taken by three films that differ in genre and theme, yet are united by a strong audience response. The Flood, Abandoned and Lover, Not a Fighter they achieved the best ratings of all the films featured in the programme of the 21st Cinematik festival.
Cinematik 2026 Audience Award – final ranking:
1st place – The Flood (SK / CZ / Poland, Belgium)
directed by Martin Gonda
2nd place – The Abandoned (L’Abandon) (France)
Director: Vincent Garenq
3rd place – Lover, not a fighter (SR / CR)
director: Martina Buchelová
All three films received the highest audience ratings among the entire programme of the 21st Cinematik International Film Festival.