Yesterday, the 21st edition of the Cinematik International Film Festival in Piešťany came to an end. During the festival, audiences could see a total of 111 feature and short films. Audience interest was exceptional and Cinematik maintains its position as the largest Slovak film event.
This year's festival also offered two main competitive sections – Meeting Point Europe, which represents a selection of notable European films and Cinematic.doc, dedicated to Slovak documentary film-making. In addition to the competition awards, prominent figures of domestic and foreign cinema also took home prizes from Piešťany.
International competition Meeting Point Europe dominated the film Fatherland directed by Pawel Pawlikowski's. Film director Ida and Cold War In his latest film, he follows the writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika as they embark on a journey across war-torn Germany in 1949. The journey between the Western and Soviet occupation zones gradually turns into an intimate confrontation between father and daughter, as well as a reflection on identity, exile, guilt, and a divided Europe.
Pawlikowski once again uses minimalist storytelling, black-and-white visual composition and a fragmentary structure. He leaves enough space between the individual frames for the viewer's interpretation. Dinner Meeting Point Europe thus it travels to one of the most prominent contemporary European filmmakers.
In the domestic documentary competition, it won Cinematik.doc Literary Fund Award document Igor and After directed by Ivana Ostrochovský. The film was created during the final months of the cinematographer Igor Luther's life and presents a portrait of an exceptional artist, while also offering a reflection on the fragile boundary between genius, artistic uncompromisingness and self-destruction.
Igor Luther was the cinematographer of Juraj Jakubisko's most important films of the late 1960s and later established himself in international cinema. His cinematography contributed, for example, to the film The Tin Drum Volker Schlöndorff, who won the Oscar for best foreign language film, or on Wajda's Danton's. Ostrochovský's film shows Luther's stubbornness as a trait that was both his gift and his curse.
Mayor's Award of the Town of Piešťany the director won Tomáš Krupa for the film We Have to Survive. A cinematic odyssey across four continents captures people trying to adapt to a world that is changing before their eyes. Krupa takes viewers to the fragile Outer Banks archipelago in the United States, into the Mongolian desert, beneath the scorching surface of Coober Pedy in Australia, and to the icy shores of Greenland.
The personal stories of the protagonists show various forms of life in a time of climate and social change. Despite the difficult conditions, however, the film finds in the individual stories primarily the human ability to adapt, endure and search for hope.
The 21st edition of Cinematik also included the award Respect Award, which the festival awards annually to a prominent figure in world cinema. This year's laureate is Danish film director Nils Malmros, one of the most prominent figures in Danish filmmaking. Cinematik paid tribute to him for his long-standing contribution to cinema and for his distinctive auteur style, which has established him among the ranks of significant European directors.
A Slovak actress also won a festival award Jana Kovalčíková, which carried away Cinematik Talent Award for the acting performance in the film Love directed by Mark Škop.
In the film, Kovalčiková plays Anna, who is looking for a firm anchor in relationships while simultaneously repeating her mother's manipulative behaviour. As an attending physician, she meets terminally ill Ján and his wife Mariana. She is fascinated by the purity of their relationship and, through their story, gradually comes to recognise what true love looks like—something she had previously never experienced. Her performance is one of the standout acting discoveries of this year's festival.
See you tomorrowhowever The Slovak Oscar contender won for the best-rated film of the entire festival programme Flood, directed by Martin Gonda.
The 22nd Cinematik International Film Festival will take place in September 2027.