The 30th edition of the oldest and largest Slovak film festival, Art Film IFF, will bring to the screens of Košice cinemas a permanent star of the festival program, the film section Love & Anarchy, which has been compiled by the film theorist and critic Martin Ciel. This section traditionally brings unconventional films. It shows what innovative things have emerged in independent feature and documentary cinema in recent years, what is worth paying attention to and what defines today’s trends. There will also be new films by the legends of the European cinema Alexandre Kluge and Radu Jude, as well as less known and lower profile films that are not to be missed by festival audiences.
The program section called Love & Anarchy again maps the current trends in the field of so-called independent cinema and through a selection of films highlights the most interesting stylistic approaches and work with cinematic language. Audiences can look forward to several films that surprise with their form and content. “This year, Love & Anarchy section of the program will also include the mesmerising experimental essay by 91-year-old New German Cinema legend, writer and philosopher Alexander Kluge, Cosmic Miniatures (2024), or the archival film Brutalistic Moods (2022), an entertaining dramaturgic and montage play on the theme of the history of film. From the field of feature cinema we will present, among others, new films by Radu Juda and Lav Diaz, who are among the most important and acclaimed filmmakers of our time,” says Martin Ciel, the compiler of the section, about this year’s selection of films.
Audiences can also look forward to the new short film No Horses on Mars – Why Am I Me and Not You (2024) by Bei de Visser, which premiered in the main international competition at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2024 and also received a nomination for the Best Dutch Short Film of 2024. It is a remarkable 15-minute film experience in which the viewer becomes someone else through an authentic audiovisual representation of an animal’s subjective point of view.
The 2024 Art Film IFF will also present another of the spectacular projects of the master of slow cinema, Lav Diaz, who dances on the very edge of genres. The film Essential Truths of the Lake (2023) premiered in the main competition of the Locarno IFF and is a part of the Philippines Drug War Trilogy. It is shot on 16mm material and digital technology – two approaches to recording reality, documentary and stylized, which Diaz elevates to a principle. In this case, too, it represents a dramaturgical puzzle, where intertwined stories form a fresco of the contemporary Philippines and, metaphorically, the state of the contemporary world.
Equally interesting is the new film by Radu Jude, a well-known representative of the Romanian New Wave, Don’t Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023). This tragicomedy explores contemporary reality through the prism of social media and nostalgia, using a wide range of modern technologies and archive materials to create an original and provocative work.
The 30th anniversary edition of the Art Film IFF will take place thanks to the support of:
Organiser: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.;
Co-organizers: City of Košice, K13 – Košice cultural centers, ART FILM FEST, n.o., LGM, s.r.o., FORLIVE;
The festival is financially supported by: Audiovisual Fund
The festival is co-financed by the Košice self-governing region from the Terra Incognita program;
Major advertising partner: Slovenská elektrizačná prenosová sústava, a.s.;
Main advertising partners: Národná lotériová spoločnosť TIPOS, Východoslovenská energetika, CODES Brand House;
Automotive partner: PORSCHE; Official hotel: Hotel Yasmin;
Main media partners: TV JOJ, Pravda, Eurotelevízia;
Technological partners: NOV, ZEBRA, DELTA OnLine, ARICOMA, TelekomCLOUD;
Official contractors: DKC Veritas, East Slovak Museum in Košice, BARZZUZ, DOMOS SLOVAKIA; Official wine:Kubbo Select and Ostrožovič;
Media partners: JOJ PLAY, JOJ 24, Film Europe, Rádio KOŠICE, aktuality.sk, Forbes, Korzár, Slovenka, SITA, TASR, See & Go, BigMedia, Košice City Guide, Film.sk, Visit Košice, zenskyweb.sk, mojakultura.sk;
Partners: Východoslovenská vodárenská spoločnosť, Nadácia CEF, Slovnaft, AUPARK Košice, Carmeuse Slovakia, JOJ Cinema, cestovná kancelária Hydrotour, Taper, YumEarth, Letisko Košice, ECO Technologies, CPK Slovakia, Casa Trade – Casablanca cafe, DC MEDICAL, KPK Reklama;
Financial awards partners: CANON, Filmarina;
Catering partners: Ohnisko – Fire Dining & Brew Bar, Pub u kóhúta, El Nacional, Maiko Sushi, Café de Paris, Tabačka Kulturfabrik;
