Sunday is tailor-made for squeezing every last drop of pleasure from the festival weekend and recharging with experiences you won’t soon forget. The closing day of the weekend once again serves up a selection of outstanding films, inspiring guests and side-events that will set the tone for the coming festival days packed with great programming.
You can top up your energy for the whole week first thing in the morning with a yoga session led by Jaiwanti, a Slovak yoga ambassador of Indian descent. Practice starts at 8:30 a.m. in the relaxing surroundings of Kulturpark. Jaiwanti offers festivalgoers a harmonious blend of movement, breath and inner balance, allowing them to slow down for a moment amid the festival bustle.
At 10:00 a.m. in Kulturpark’s JOJ CINEMA, our youngest – and most attentive – viewers can enjoy the animated tale The Glassworker (2024), which follows the talented violinist Alliz and young master glassblower Vincent. Their friendship and love are tested by war and strict fathers. Pakistan’s first anime enchants with its gorgeous animation, music and a story about the power of art and love that also won hearts at the prestigious Annecy festival.
After this magical animation, the International Competition of Central and Eastern European Films offers, in the same cinema at 1:00 p.m., the feature Honeymoon (2024), also nominated for the FIPRESCI Award. The film tells the topical story of a married couple trapped in Kyiv during Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Newlyweds Taras and Olya have just moved into their new flat, invited friends over and are enjoying a peaceful evening. But before dawn explosions erupt and the situation changes from one second to the next. They listen to the news, call family, and Olya’s acquaintance from Austria urges her to leave while there’s still time, offering a grant and accommodation – but Olya refuses. Ukrainian director Zhanna Ozirna will attend the screening in person.
At the same hour, AFF Industry in the Kulturpark gallery ALFA features editor Peter Harum’s presentation on the use of artificial intelligence in documentary film – its potential and its risks. Using concrete examples, he will focus on ethical questions, creative approaches and the changes AI is bringing to film reality. Harum studied editing at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, works as an editor of award-winning documentaries and features, has taught at VŠMU and PEVŠ, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts of the Academy of Arts.
On Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in Kino Úsmev, the Colours, Flavours & Songs of India strand screens the moving 12th Fail(2023). The story follows Manoj, a boy from a poor family who fights doggedly to fulfil his dream of becoming a police officer despite poverty and obstacles. The film realistically depicts the arduous path to education and the existential struggle of millions of Indians yearning for a better life, and it won Filmfare Awards for direction, screenplay and acting.
Photographer, cinematographer and director Martin Kollar will personally present his latest film Chronicle (2025) in Kulturpark. In this visual essay he captures the state of the landscape and the people within it, observing ordinary scenes that his subtly surreal, gently ironic eye turns into images full of symbolism and unexpected humour: between village houses we suddenly see a gigantic snow sculpture of Christ being carefully sawed apart by a man on a ladder; elsewhere polluted rivers or absurd structures that people are demolishing or rescuing. Chronicle is a poetic, at times philosophical meditation on how humans relate to the land – altering, destroying and renewing it – and how together they form one ever-changing organism. The film has been nominated for the FIPRESCI Prize.
In a festival preview at 5:30 p.m. in Kino Úsmev, audiences have the chance to see Michel Franco’s newest film Dangerous Dreams (2025) starring the incomparable Jessica Chastain. The celebrated Mexican director has long explored the status of Mexicans in the United States, and in his latest work he returns to the theme via the art world. Chastain plays a wealthy, educated philanthropist from San Francisco who supports ballet talent – in particular a young Mexican soloist. Their relationship shifts from patronage to passionate affair, yet the heroine fails to see that she treats him more as a possession than an equal partner. Franco sensitively exposes the hidden superiority and power dynamics that often manifest subtly yet cut all the deeper.
After the successful feature film MIKI (2024), viewers can look forward to the four-part miniseries MIKI, which IFF Art Film will premiere exclusively at 8:00 p.m. in the Garden Cinema. The series about former Slovak underworld boss Mikuláš Černák will be introduced by director Jakub Kroner, editor Michal Kondrla and producer Zuzana Mistríková.
Also at 8:00 p.m., the Old Town Hall hosts an acoustic concert by Celeste Buckingham. For IFF Art Film she has prepared a special festival acoustic set with Matěj Vávra (producer, musician, singer) and Lukáš Vajda (drummer), featuring not only her biggest hits but also a selection of well-known movie songs.
As is traditional, the evening brings the Night Screening programme section. At 8:30 p.m. in Kino Úsmev, director Alexandre O. Philippe will present his latest film Chain Reactions (2024). Fifty years after Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) shocked the world and forever changed cinema and pop culture, Chain Reactions maps its profound impact on five major artists – Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King and Karyn Kusama – through their early memories, sensory experiences and childhood traumas. The film weaves dynamic dialogue between contemporary footage and never-before-seen clips, diving into personal impressions conveyed via various audiovisual formats (16 mm, 35 mm, VHS, digital). Chain Reactions reveals how an old independent low-budget horror burrowed into our collective nightmares and forever shifted the zeitgeist. A digitally restored version premiered in 2024 at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Venice Classics Award for Best Documentary on Cinema. Don’t miss it – the director will be present!
The 31st IFF ART FILM is made possible thanks to the support of:
Organizer: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.
Co-organizers: Mesto Košice · K13 – Košické kultúrne centrá · Visit Košice · ART FILM FEST, n.o. · LGM, s.r.o. · FORLIVE
Financial support: Audiovizuálny fond · Nadácia SPP
Co-financed by: Košický samosprávny kraj through the Terra Incognita programme
Main Partners: národná lotériová spoločnosť TIPOS · Slovenská elektrizačná prenosová sústava, a.s. · CODES Brand House
Main Media Partners: TV JOJ · Pravda · Eurotelevízia
Automotive Partner: Moris Slovakia
Advertising Partners: Best Press · U. S. Steel Košice · ANTIK telecom · Kino Úsmev · LOKO TRANS Media · CORE Labs · Technická univerzita v Košiciach
Technology Partners: NOV · ZEBRA · Deutsche Telekom Systems Solutions Slovakia · T4H · LEDGO · DELTA OnLine · ARICOMA · TelekomCLOUD
Official Suppliers: DKC Veritas · Kaviareň Slávia · PLOOM · Krušovice BOHÉM · pramenitá voda Lucka · DOMOS SLOVAKIA · Reštaurácia Contessa · Aupark Shopping Center Košice · Pierre Baguette · Julius Meinl · Red Fox Golf Club
Official wines: Kubbo Select · Ostrožovič
Media Partners: JOJ play · JOJ 24 · Film Europe · Rádio KOŠICE · Aktuality.sk · Forbes · Startitup.sk · Korzár · Slovenka · SITA · TASR · Mediaboard · See & Go · Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze – ČSFD · BigMedia · Košice City Guide · Košice v skratke · Film.sk · diva.sk · koktejl.sk · zenskyweb.sk · MOJAkultúra · Kino Sterio · Dopravný podnik mesta Košice · AHOJ TV
Partners: JOJ Cinema · Jojko · Veľvyslanectvo Indie v Bratislave · Carmeuse Slovakia · DDDental · TINY Houses · ECO Technologies · Letisko Košice · Local Nomad Tours · Slovenský filmový ústav · Taper · YumEarth · Puella vône · Kvety Garomi · čLOVEčina hra · Rakúske kultúrne fórum · TESCO Store SK · CPK Transport · Tabačka Kulturfabrik · King Media · Východoslovenské múzeum v Košiciach · Letní filmová škola · KPK Reklama · MIHYRING · Zoberma taxi · Hair Factory Košice · Veľvyslanectví České republiky v Bratislavě
Gastronomy Partners: Pub u Kohúta · El Nacional · OhniskO Fire Dining & Brew Bar · Maiko Sushi · Macarons Košice · šum vináreň · Café de Paris · Casa Trade – Casablanca cafe · TATRATEA · Moritz Eis
