The 18th edition of Cinematik starts tomorrow! Nearly 100 films from 26 countries will be brought to Piešt’any

Preparations for the 18th edition of the Cinematik International Film Festival are reaching their peak these days. It will open its doors on Tuesday, 12 September 2023. During the six days of the festival, visitors can look forward to nearly 100 films from 26 countries around the world. For example, the opening ceremony will include the Czech-Slovak drama We Have Never Been Modern by Matěj Chlupáček.

This crime drama from the inter-war period, set in the Svit region below the Tatra Mountains, was a hit at the Karlovy Vary festival in June. Slovak audiences will be able to see the film in its home premiere on 12 September at Cinematik, with the personal participation of the filmmakers and protagonists. This will be the very first screening of the film in Slovakia.

In the almost week-long programme of Cinematik, however, many other premieres await festival visitors. For example, they will be the first in Slovakia to see Club Zero (2023), a new film by Austrian director Jessica Hausner, which competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. Mia Wasikovska plays the main character in this drama about the destructive power of authority and the fragility of growing up. The festival is dedicating a profile section to the director, entitled Respect, in which it will screen a retrospective of her work. However, Cinematik will also give space to great Austrian films in the Magnified section.

Attractive films are also waiting for the audience in the main festival competition Meeting Point Europe, where the jury under the auspices of FIPRESCI will award the best European feature film of the past year. Among them will be Aki Kaurismäki’s newcomer Karaoke Blues (Fallen Leaves, 2023) or the award-winning title by the acclaimed Christian Petzold, Afire (Roter Himmel, 2023).

Lovers of quality foreign cinema will also find pleasure in the Artistic Director’s Choice section, which will offer Wim Wenders’ new film Perfect Days (2023) as well as the comedy The Miracle Club (2023) by Irish director Thaddeus O’Sullivan, starring the great Kathy Bates in the lead role.

The Paths of Glory section, which brings a varied selection of new films awarded at prestigious international festivals, attracts the current Palme d’Or winner from Cannes – Anatomie d’une chute (Anatomy of a Fall, 2023) by French director Justine Triet, as well as the winner of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival – Blaga’s Lessons (Blaga’s Lessons, 2023).

The best of new domestic filmmaking is offered by the In The House section, which will include the Slovak premiere of Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavel Pekarčík’s new film Photophobia (2023), which was awarded the Europa Cinemas Label Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Cinematik traditionally gives generous space to documentary films. New titles by local filmmakers will be presented in the Cimenatik.doc competition section, while a diverse selection of foreign documentaries will be concentrated in the DokMa showcase.

Those who crave unusual cinematic experiences should not miss the Cult and Beyond section, subtitled Kids Are Not Alright, which will offer original perspectives on the topic of childhood and parenthood, or the Other Spaces section, which will also present, for example, a complete screening of Lars Von Trier’s five-part series The Kingdom: Exodus (Riget Exodus, 2022), or Ulrich Seidl’s controversial film Sparta (2022).

However, the programme of this year’s Cinematik is far from ending here. An integral part of the festival are also the varied accompanying events in the form of lectures, masterclasses, discussions, concerts, live recording of the Vertigo film podcast, broadcasts of Radio Devín and Radio Slovakia, or another year of the successful international seminar DOX IN VITRO.

Saturday’s festival awards ceremony will include a screening of the extraordinary Past Lives (2023) by American-Korean director Celine Song, which the Cinematik festival will present in an exclusive Slovak premiere.