Las Acacias is the winning picture of the 13th IFF Bratislava

Grand Prix for the best picture of the 13^th edition of the International Film Festival Bratislava was awarded to Las Acacias, a minimalistic road movie by Argentinean director Pablo Giorgelli, for “unusual cinematic experience in which acting and cinematography are wedded into a unique film. Sparse dialogues reveal so much, depicting human warmth seldom seen in directing debuts.” This extraordinary and excellent Argentinean–Spanish debut also clinched the FIPRESCI award in Bratislava.

The Bratislava marathon of motion pictures rolled down the home stretch during the final gala ceremony at which jurors awarded Grand Prix for the best film and other statutory awards. Once again, the International Film Festival Bratislava (IFF Bratislava) presented a thematically diverse collection of high-quality motion pictures in competitive as well as non-competitive program sections. In the former, festival laurels were awarded to feature, documentary and short films. The festival’s program structure was put together by a team led by Chief Dramaturge Nenad Dukić of Serbia who picked films for the Competition of Feature Films; he collaborated with Czech film journalist Radovan Holub who programmed non-competitive sections Stories and Antidepressants, Slovak film critic Pavel Smejkal who selected pictures for the Competition of Documentary Films and Dutch art and film historian Erwin Houtenbrink who chose movies for the Competition of Short Films.

The 13^th edition of IFF Bratislava took place in seven cinemas around Bratislava downtown, including the Mladosť cinema, the projection room at the Slovak National Gallery, the Municipal Theatre of P.O.Hviezdoslav and the recently reopened Lumière cinema (formerly known as Charlie Centre). For the first time, the IFF Bratislava visited the Cinema City multiplex at the Eurovea shopping centre whose three projection rooms guaranteed perfect quality of presented festival films. The onset of digital technologies and the overall decline of 35mm copies required festival organizers to react flexibly to this trend and gradually shift toward digital film projections.

Like in previous years, the Bratislava festival ventured outside the capital city limits; this year’s Festival Days took place in Banská Bystrica and the nearby Brusno spa. During the six days, the main festival program consisting of 140 feature-length, medium-length and short films was viewed by 18,200 cinemagoers. Together with Festival Days and other side events, the total number of visitors reached almost 21,000.

The films vying for the Best First and Second Feature Film award were evaluated by the Grand Jury comprising screenwriter and professor of film at Boston University John Bernstein of the United States, film critic and journalist Francesco Di Pace of Italy, film and theatre actress Zuzana Kanócz of Slovakia, film producer Simon Perry of England and Daniella Tourgeman of Israel who works for the Jerusalem Cinematheque film archive. Besides the already mentioned Grand Prix for the best picture, the Grand Jury also awarded the Best Director Award to French director Vincent Garenq for his picture Guilty [Présumé Coupable]. The jury praised Garenq for “directing virtuosity ensuing from a skilful combination of intense camera movement and austere editing that makes for an almost perfectly uncompromising and daringly dramatic expression”.

The Best Female Performance award went to Iben Hjejle who played the main character in Swedish drama Stockholm East [Stockholm Östra]. The jury appreciated Hjejle’s “vivid portrayal of a mourning mother’s tormented soul enslaved amidst denial through her masterful expression of depth and nuances that combined for an unforgettable acting performance”. The Best Male Performance award was claimed by Czech actor Ivan Trojan who appeared in Slovak film Visible World [Viditeľný svet] and appealed to Grand Jury by his “unforgettable portrayal of a character we love to hate and despise while at the same time being seduced by the pure force of its imaginary and perverse universe”. On behalf of Trojan, the award was received by director Peter Krištúfek.

The jury of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) comprising Sunčica Unevska of Macedonia, Nanna Frank Rasmussen of Denmark and Miroslav Ulman of Slovakia followed suit of the Grand Jury and bestowed the FIPRESCI award to Argentinean-Spanish picture Las Acacias. The students’ jury consisting of Lenka Šturmankinová, Simona Schurdáková and Teodor Kuhn preferred 17 Girls [17 Filles], a French picture by the sisterly tandem of Delphine and Muriel Coulin, praising them for “a refreshing cocktail mixed of a sweet teenage girl revolt with a bitterly aftertaste. C’est la vie”.

The Competition of Documentary Films was decided by a jury comprising Alberto Herskovits of Argentina (winner of the last year’s documentary film competition), Miroslav Janek of the Czech Republic and Boris Mitić of Serbia. The Best Documentary award went to The Night Watchman [El Velador], a Mexican-American film by director Natalie Almada. The jury appreciated the winning film for its ability “to show us how long it takes to sprinkle the dusty path to heaven with holy water”.

The winner of the Competition of Short Films became Sundays [Dimanches] by Belgian director Valéry Rosier who clinched the award for “the strange film rhythm and framing of each shot that shrewdly captured people and their ways of spending ordinary Sundays through a style balancing between humour and melancholy”. This year the jury consisted of director of Curtas Vila do Conde short film festival Miguel Días of Portugal, editor-in-chief of the Kino-Ikon film magazine Martin Kaňuch of Slovakia and visual artist Mels van Zutphen of the Netherlands. The award was received on behalf of director by the film’s producer Nicolas Guiot.

The festival’s special World Cinema Artistic Singularity award was received in person by the family tandem of Czech filmmakers Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák who jointly presented Tatínek [Daddy], a documentary about screenwriter and actor Zdeněk shot by his son Jan.

There were two more awards bestowed at the 13^th IFF Bratislava. The UniCreditBank Award for the Most Popular Slovak Film along with a financial bonus of €3,000 was shared by two pictures – Dust and Glitter [Prach a ligot], an animated film by Michaela Čopíková that had its world premiere at the festival, and House [Dom], a feature debut by Zuzana Liová. For the second time, the festival also awarded the Film Europe Award that went to music composer Michal Novinski for his successful presentation of Slovak cinema abroad.

The International Film Festival Bratislava in cooperation with the Bratislava City Hall continued in the tradition to acknowledge important Slovak film and theatre artists, creators and professionals. This year it was actor Jozef Adamovič to whom a commemorative paving stone on the Walk of Film Fame was dedicated.

The best film of the entire program of the 13^th IFF Bratislava according to viewers was British film by director David Mackenzie Perfect Sense, a story of two young people who fell in love just at the point when the world began to fall apart.

The 13^th IFF Bratislava welcomed over 40 filmmakers from around the world who arrived to present their films in person, for instance Israeli cinematographer and photographer Yael Shachar (Melissa, Mom and Me), British director Daniel Whitney and cinematographer Russel Nabb (Kandahar Break), Romanian director Alexandru Maftei and actress Daniela Voicu (“antidepressant” comedy Hello! How Are You?), Estonian director Kullar Viimne (Breath), Argentinean director Santiago Amigorena (Another Silence), Serbian producer Dragan Pesikan (documentary Cinema Komunisto), Icelandic director Gaukur Ulfarsson (Gnarr), Polish director Ryszard Brylski (Wonderful Summer), Czech director Martin Mareček (Solar Eclipse), Bulgarian director Ilian Djevelekov accompanied by screenwriter and producer Matey Konstantinov (Love.net), American director Peter Monro (Days Together) and many others. Led by director Tomáš Luňák, actors Miroslav Krobot, Tereza Voříšková and Marie Ludvíková and producer Petra Kocmanová, the largest delegation arrived to introduce Alois Nebel, a Czech film selected to compete for this year’s Academy Award for best foreign language film.

Besides filmmakers, the festival was also attended by a number of foreign journalists, including Gideon Orsher with Israeli IDF Radio, Ronald Bergan with Swiss Guardian, Austrian journalist Otto Reiter, Tomáš Pilát with the Czech Radio, American journalist Cathy Meils (Film New Europe) or Serbian film journalist Vladan Petković (Screen International).

Apart from three competitive sections, this year’s IFF Bratislava also featured non-competitive sections Panorama, Cutting Edge, Antidepressants, Stories, Red Westerns, Tribute (to Eduard Grečner and Pavel Branko) and Asylum. The section Made in Slovakia presented 15 Slovak films, including four that had world premieres at the festival. Most Slovak pictures were introduced by their creators. The world premiere of Prach a ligot [Dust and Glitter], an animated film inspired by the City of San Francisco was introduced by director Michaela Čopíková along with her collaborator, animator Veronika Obertová. Other world premieres included Interview and Monsterproces by Peter Magát and Milan Balog, respectively, two horror stories that form part of the currently prepared omnibus Strach [Fear] and …a já, Katarína Kolníková […and Me, Katarína Kolníková], an artistic documentary about one of the icons of Radošina Naive Theatre (RND) Katarína Kolníková that was presented by a delegation led by director Juraj Štepka and another RND legend and impresario Stanislav Štepka. The section also featured Trou de Fer – Železná diera [Trou de fer – Iron Hole], the latest film by Slovak filmmaker/adventurer Pavol Barabáš; two films by the leading female Slovak documentarian Zuzana Piussi, a controversial documentary Nemoc tretej moci [Disease of the Third Power] and a funny road movie Kuracia láska [Chicken Love]; two films by Peter Bebjak, his feature debut Marhuľový ostrov [Apricot Island] and a short dance film Voices; two films that have already received international acclaim, Dom [House] by Zuzana Liová and Nickyho rodina [Nicky’s Family] by Matej Mináč; a Czech-Slovak war film Lidice or Luník IX, British documentarian Michelle Coomber’s look at the largest Romani housing project in Central Europe. Last but not least, the 13^th IFFB marked a comeback by director Stanislav Párnický whose latest film Čerešňový chlapec [Cherry Boy] was presented by a sizeable delegation of creators led by Zuzana Kanócz, the main female protagonist who also represented Slovakia as member of the Feature Film Jury.

Outside the Made in Slovakia section, the festival presented two more Slovak films: the Slovak premiere of the feature debut by Peter Krištúfek Viditeľný svet [Visible World] that competed in the international competition of first and second feature films was introduced by a whole delegation of filmmakers including director Peter Krištúfek, actors Ivan Trojan, Kristína Turjanová and Martin Mňahončák, producer Milan Stráňava and others; the latest film by the leading Slovak director Martin Šulík Cigán [Gypsy] was part of the Panorama section.

This year’s Tribute was dedicated to director Eduard Grečner, one of the most outstanding personalities of the golden generation of Slovak cinema in the 1960s who personally presented his principal film Drak sa vracia [Dragon’s Return].

This year, the IFF Bratislava was one of only five European film festivals to feature the cinematic titbit Red Westerns, an overview of westerns produced between 1924 and 1980 in the former East Bloc. The section had its premiere in January at the Rotterdam International Film Festival where it met with immense viewer response. Red Westerns were subsequently presented at the Göteborg film festival, the Crossing Europe festival in Linz, Austria, the ERA New Horizons festival in Wrocław, Poland, and finished their tour across Europe in Bratislava. Bratislava cinemagoers saw five “red westerns”: a Czechoslovak parody Lemonade Joe; At Home among Strangers, a Stranger at Home by Nikita Michalkov; a Romanian film with a telling title The Actress, the Dollars and the Transylvanians; one of the best “sauerkraut” westerns Chingachgook, the Great Snake and another Russian western White Sun of the Desert. All the films were personally presented at the festival by renowned Russian film critic Sergey Lavrentyev.

The program structure of the IFF Bratislava traditionally included an evening dedicated to Asylum, a festival of short films that presented 40 one-minute and five-minute films and simultaneously announced a new topic for the next year’s festival: Advertising Life.

For the second time in a row, the Bratislava festival presented Tibor Vichta awards. The main award went to Anežka Guziarová for her screenplay Rubikon. “It is about crossing the Rubicon by the main female hero Hana who has everything at home but is unhappy nevertheless because she has never tried to live on her own; therefore she leaves for Berlin to give it a try,” Guziarová said for TASR news agency. A special award went to Pavel Knapko for his screenplay Vrabce v popolníku [Sparrows in the Ashtray]. The jury decided not to award any film in the category of Internet serial shorter than five minutes. The winner in the category of feature comedy serial was Miro Šifra with his screenplay Moji drahí pozostalí [My Beloved Bereaved]. Part of the gala evening was Tribute to Pavel Branko dedicated to a doyen among Slovak film critics that featured screening a documentary from the GEN.sk cycle, Pavel Branko očami Jara Riháka [Pavel Branko through the Eyes of Jaro Rihák].

This year’s surprise screening presented on the final day of the festival was the latest screen adaptation of a famous novel by Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, by progressive British director Andrea Arnold. The film had its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September and won the Osello award for the best cinematography to Robbie Ryan.

During the weekend, the festival threw in a special cinematic treat in the form of open air screenings of two documentary music films dedicated to two legendary rock bands, The Doors (When You’re Strange by Tom DiCillo) and The Rolling Stones (Shine a Light by Martin Scorsese). Traditionally, the festival featured a popular Slippers Night with Zlatý Bažant; this year, the three-films-in-a-row marathons took place in Cinema City at Eurovea (Cracks in the Shell, Hanna and American Translation) as well as in the Mladosť cinema (Mr. Nice, Lemonade Joe and All that I Love).

The festival’s ample film schedule was accompanied by interesting side events. The Faculty of Film and Television at the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) hosted an international seminar by Julian Friedmann titled How to Sell a Screenplay; Grand Jury Chairman John Bernstein met with young filmmakers and students at his Master Classes at VŠMU and at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica. Each night there were after-parties at Nu Spirit Bar and Nu Spirit Club where film buffs could discuss their latest experiences to the tones of acid house techno legend Hardfloor, jazz musicians David Sanborn, Joey DeFrancesco and Byron Landham; there was also a screening of a film Flatlight Films personally presented by its creators – producer Miikka Niemi and actors Mikko Kunnari, Arto Koivuniemi and Pekka Kumpulainen.

The 13^th International Film Festival Bratislava took place between November 4 and 9 in Bratislava and continued in the form of Festival Days in Banská Bystrica and the Brusno spa (November 10–12) during which avid cinephiles could see both documentaries by Zuzana Piussi, film Mr. Nice or the latest documentary by Pavol Barabáš as well as ...a já, Katarína Kolníková that was introduced in person by director Juraj Štepka and other creators.

For further information, please see www.iffbratislava.sk and www.facebook.com/bratislavaiff.