The 20th edition of the Cinematik International Film Festival concluded on Monday, 15th September. Seven festival cinemas screened nearly 100 feature-length and short films in total, often to sold-out audiences. The festival's attendance broke further records. Cinemas recorded 20,439 admissions, and together with accompanying events, the total attendance exceeded 22,000.
International competition titled Meeting point Europe represents a selection of the best feature-length European fiction films to have emerged over the past year. The winner was decided by a jury of 14 film critics from the FIPRESCI federation.
Award Meeting point Europe German drama won A look at the sun (Looking into the Sun), directed by Maschi Schilinski. Four girls – Alma, Erika, Angelika and Lenka – spend their youth on the same farm in northern Germany. As the house changes over the century, the echo of the past resounds within its walls. Although separated by time, their lives begin to mirror each other. Silvia Učňová Kapustová came to collect the main prize of the Cinematik International Film Festival on behalf of the distribution company Filmtopia.
Second competitive section Cinematik.doc, competing in domestic waters – in it, exclusively Slovak documentarians compete for prizes with their new works. The winner Literary Fund Cinematik Awards.doc, Martin Kollar became the champion Chronicle. The film captures everyday stories and creates a collective portrait of contemporary reality – not just as a documentation of the present, but also as an archive for the future. Through images, it reveals absurd routines and strange customs, as well as our tendency to rely on systems we simultaneously question. The chronicle offers a new way to perceive our choices, encouraging viewers to reflect on their actions now, before they forget them. The jury, consisting of Ester Geislerová (Czech Republic), Daniela Hanusová (Slovakia), and Daniel Rihák (Slovakia), awarded the prize for “exceptional visual sensitivity that invites one to slow down and shows how focused observation can reveal subtle links between the absurdity of everyday life and broader societal structures.”
The Mayor's Prize of Piešťany The director Miro Remo received for the documentary title I'd rather go mad in the wilderness. Franta and Ondra are inseparable twins, living off the beaten track in the deep embrace of nature. Their daily routine, steeped in peace and harmony with the world around them, begins to crack under the pressure of internal conflicts. Franta longs for freedom, change, and adventure, while Ondra clings to the safety of sameness. Their dual existence, however, shatters like a mirror, the same appearance, different desires. The jury awarded „an exceptionally free, playful and imaginative cinematic language that, like a roller coaster of emotions, presents the world of twins living outside civilisation in all their poetry, prose, gentle dreaming, as well as harsh brutality.“
The festival's audience also chose their winner from all the films through voting and ratings. The total number of ballot papers collected exceeded fifteen thousand. Audience Award The 20th edition of Cinematik was won by a Czech-Slovak documentary film Great Patriotic Trip, director Robin Kvapil. Do you think the war in Ukraine is a sham? That the media is lying about the number of casualties and the consequences of the „special military operation“ in Ukraine? This was the call from director Robin Kvapil, to which sixty people responded, questioning the Russian invasion. Three of them, who describe themselves as „desolates“ and supporters of Vladimir Putin, eventually travelled to Donbas with the crew.
