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The program of the 13th edition of the Bratislava International Film Festival Bratislava (IFFB) has just included another cinematic titbit. The feature film competition will present Alois Nebel, a Czech-German coproduction with minor Slovak participation. An impressive adaptation of a comic novel of the same name, the film is a feature debut by Czech director Tomáš Luňák who will come to present his film in person. In other news: one of the most important guests of this year’s festival will be screenwriter and actor Zdeněk Svěrák who will arrive to accept the Award for Artistic Excellence in World Cinematography. His personality and creation will be presented to avid cinemagoers by his son, Academy Award-winning director Jan Svěrák who joined forces with his colleague Martin Dostál to make Tatínek, an intimate documentary on Zdeněk Svěrák. The picture will be presented in person by both the father and the son.
In the festival’s limelight this year will be the Oscar-winning family tandem of Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák who will jointly present a biographic feature-length documentary Tatínek. The portrait of screenwriter and cimrmanologist Zdeněk Svěrák is kind and slightly confrontational at the same time. It does not merely focus on his creative life through personal testimonies and interviews with his lifelong colleagues but also peeks behind the scenes into private lives of these strong individualities. Very successful artistically as well as commercially, the creative tandem of Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák won the Academy Award for the best foreign language film in 1997 with Kolya. Their Elementary School has become a classic of the Czech cinema and their most recent joint project, Empties, was a big box office blockbuster in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
A feature debut by Tomáš Luňák, Alois Nebel is technologically the most remarkable Czech picture in years. Adapting a comic novel of the same name, its creators used a unique technology, so-called rotoscopy, which has never been used in a Czech film before. Through black-and-white drawings, the story of a lonesome train dispatcher drags the viewer into an almost surrealistic world where Nebel’s hallucinations mingle with reality. Very suggestive image-wise and atmosphere-wise, the film has earned praise at several international film festivals. It will be put to an international perspective again at the IFFB where it vies for the best feature film.
The films competing in the International Competition of First and Second Feature Films will be evaluated by a jury chaired by John Bernstein, American screenwriter and professor of film at the Boston University. The jury will award the Grand Prix for Best Film as well as Best Director, Best Actress and Best Actor awards. Other members of the jury include a film critic and journalist Francesco Di Pace of Italy, a respected drama and film actress Zuzana Kanócz of Slovakia, a film producer Simon Perry of England and Daniella Tourgeman who works for the Israeli film archive Jerusalem Cinematheque. The feature films will also be assessed by the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Jury that will award the FIPRESCI award and the Students Jury that will present the Students Award. The FIPRESCI Jury comprises Nanna Frank Rasmussen of Denmark, Suncica Unevska of Macedonia and Miro Ulman of Slovakia; the Students Jury comprises Teo Kuhn who studies film directing at VŠMU in Bratislava, Lenka Šturmankinová who attends Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava and Simona Schurdáková from the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica.
The jury that will present the Best Documentary Film award consists of Alberto Herskovits, director and cinematographer from Argentina, Miroslav Janek, director, cinematographer and editor from the Czech Republic and Boris Mitić, documentarist from Serbia. Finally, the jury that will bestow the Best Short Film award will include Miguel Días, Director of the Curtas Vila do Conde film festival from Portugal, Martin Kaňuch, Editor-in-Chief of the Kino-Ikon magazine from Slovakia and visual artist Mels van Zutphen from the Netherlands.
As usually, the visitors of this year’s IFFB will decide on the best film of the festival that will carry away the Audience Award.
Each year, the Bratislava IFF welcomes a number of attractive guests who personally present their work. This year, the festival will roll out its red carpet for Argentinean screenwriter and director Santiago Amigorena who will present his film Another Silence, Turkish director Tolga Karaçelik and his film Toll Booth, Romanian director Alexandru Maftei and actress Daniela Voica from the “antidepressant” comedy Hello! How Are You?, British director Daniel Whitney with his Kandahar Break, American director and screenwriter Peter Monro who will present Days Together or Estonian director Kullar Viimne with his film Breath. Last but not least, the IFFB will also welcome Sergey Lavrentiev, a respected film critic from Russia who will personally present films from the Red Westerns section.
Part and parcel of the festival program are traditional side events. On November 4, the first day of the festival, literary agent Julian Friedmann will lead an international seminar titled How to Sell a Script. The popular Slipper Night will take place on November 5 while Master Class with John Bernstein is on the program on November 7. The IFFB will again present the Tibor Vichta Award (November 7). Plus, the festival visitors may conclude each night’s cinematic marathon at festival after-parties at Nu Spirit Club and Nu Spirit Bar.
All news and program updates of the 13th Bratislava International Film Festival will be gradually posted at our official website (www.iffbratislava.sk) as well as on Facebook (www.facebook.com/bratislavaiff).
