Three questions for the artistic director of Cinematik Vladimír Štric on the 20th anniversary year

What are your expectations for the 20th anniversary edition? What would you like to see for the festival the most?

For every new edition of Cinematik, regardless of the anniversaries, I always wish a smooth running of the festival, a lot of visitors and if I have to say it in one word, I would say success, of course. More importantly, what I wish for the future of the festival is stability, a predictable audiovisual environment in general and, if I had to be more specific, another standard cinema hall with professional projection equipment.

Your most intense moment in the history of the festival that you won’t forget?

This question inspired me to think about what my memories of the previous 19 editions of the festival actually are. I don’t see the history of the festival so far as a separate relay of individual editions, but as a continuous and positive sequence of colourful sensations, sounds and music, in short, as a permanent celebration, and that’s probably a good thing, because that’s exactly what every film festival should be. And I can never get enough of the sight of more than 600 spectators in the packed hall of the House of Arts.

The organisation of the festival has changed significantly over two decades – what have been the biggest challenges and what do you consider the biggest success in the history of Cinematik so far?

Compared to the 1st edition, the festival has reached a completely different level in terms of organisation and technical aspects. Cinematik has dealt with some major changes, for example the digitalization and transformation of the House of Arts and the Kino Fontána into modern cinema halls and screening spaces of the 21st century, we didn’t do it alone, of course, but we have contributed significantly to it. Another major challenge was covid restrictions, and I have to say that the festival was lucky because it was the only international film festival in Slovakia to be held in physical form during all three of those years. We are currently dealing with a very pleasant problem for us – how to satisfy our visitors so that they get to see all the films they would like to see. And I consider it a major achievement that Cinematik has become one of the most important film festivals in Slovakia and one of the most respected festivals internationally, and that we have managed to build up, I dare to say, the best audience base.