More than half of the 31st edition of IFF Art Film is already behind us, and today we’ll look at what awaits us on the festival’s sixth day. Like the previous ones, it offers a host of exceptional films, inspiring discussions, intriguing masterclasses and a rich accompanying programme. The festival buzz is in full swing, and visitors can look forward to a colourful line-up of events that are definitely worth seeing and experiencing.
Last year’s IFF Art Film was marked by the Romanian New Wave, with Cristi Puiu receiving the honorary Golden Camera. The Romanian New Wave is not missing from this year’s programme either. In the Love & Anarchy section, dedicated to unconventional and experimental cinema, we will screen at 10:00 in Kino Úsmev the latest film by Radu Jude and Christian Ferencz-Flatza, EIGHT POSTCARDS FROM UTOPIA (2024). This extraordinarily witty archival compilation film documents in eight chapters, through period commercials, the dynamic transition from a totalitarian system to free-market consumerism. The uncommented footage shows how ideas and fantasies changed and evolved, how old stereotypes disappeared and new ones emerged. Period TV ads tried to “sell” a new lifestyle in often absurd ways, meeting with ridicule, incomprehension, but also enthusiasm.
At 10:00 in the Alpha Gallery of Kulturpark, the Industry Programme continues, and on Wednesday it will feature American film producer and director Alexandre O. Philippe. In his masterclass he will analyse landmark works of world cinema through his internationally acclaimed documentaries. Philippe has served on juries at the London Film Festival and the Rome International Film Festival. In 2024 he won the Venezia Classici Award at the Venice IFF for his documentary CHAIN REACTIONS (2024) about the cult classic THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974).
We move to contemporary Russia with the documentary MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN (2025) at 12:00 in Kino Úsmev. Shot by the courageous Pasha, who after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine decides to document day-to-day life in Russia and fight the best way he knows how, the film captures not only state-mandated activities but also everyday life at school and beyond, aiming to show the world the impact of war and authoritarian rule on ordinary people. Mr Nobody Against Putin offers a unique insight into Russian propaganda and tells the gripping story of a man who risks everything rather than betray his values.
At 13:30 in Kulturpark you can look forward to the latest Slovak-Austrian film PERLA (2025) by director Alexandra Makarová. In the spring of 1981, Perla—an émigré and impulsive painter—must return from Vienna to communist Czechoslovakia to repay an old debt. Years ago she fled the country, and on both sides of the Iron Curtain she is unwelcome. She embarks on a risky journey to Košice, where she must confront the secrets of her past that she has kept under lock and key. The film portrays a vibrant, strong-willed woman and mother who strives to live on her own terms despite the losses she has endured. Lead actress Rebeka Poláková and producer Tomáš Krupa will attend the screening.
The Slovak Season section, dedicated to the latest Slovak films, brings to Kino Úsmev at 14:30 the documentary VARSO (2025), capturing the life and work of Peter Varsavík—an idiosyncratic musician active from the late 1980s to the present. Varsavík’s lifestyle and creative approach fall outside standard musical and social frameworks. His lyrics, music and above all who he is today bear witness to this. His intermittent activity has long been linked mainly to the Kysuce region, but thanks to his exceptional expressive and performative qualities he briefly reached beyond regional borders, collaborating for instance with Marián Varga. The story of Peter Varsavík carries a message about creativity as a potential lifeline for someone long struggling with severe mental states, opening an important space for reflection on the relationship between art, mental health and the social environment in which his legacy is created and slowly fades.
If you’d like to dive into contemporary Chinese cinema, we recommend the new strand A New Hope in Contemporary Chinese Cinema. Within it, at 15:30 in Kino Veritas, we will screen A BRANCH TO ROOST (2024). Zhi Fang, an elderly woman living alone in the countryside who is diagnosed with an incurable disease, is coping with the loss of her husband and son. Worried about where she will ultimately rest, she boldly dismantles the family tomb, takes the ashes to the city and seeks a shared resting place with lifelong care. This decision—her final wish—unexpectedly brings new energy to the autumn of her life.
At 16:30 in Kunsthalle we will present, in its Slovak pre-premiere, the latest film by world-renowned director Ferzan Özpetek—DIAMONDS (2024). It is 1974, and in a tailoring atelier that makes costumes for film and theatre works a diverse group of women. At work they all have to contend with a frantic pace, demanding quality standards, the whims of clients, the rivalry of the sisters who run the atelier, and a lack of time for lunch. In private, each lives her own novel—which in no case belongs to a romance series. They all secretly struggle with something—a man, violence, poverty, fear—and each with her own weapons. What unites them is resilience, strength and solidarity. The film won the David di Donatello Audience Award.
In Tabačka Kulturfabrik at 18:30, the festival will premiere the brand-new discussion format Slow Talk s Havranom. The new talk show hosted by Michal Havran brings respected guests to Tabačka to explore topics that shed light on the deeper causes of social phenomena. The evening’s topic is: What Are We Playing At? Film in the Age of Modern Populism. Guests include actor Noël Czuczor, director Marko Škop, and theatre theorist, translator and manager Sylvia Huszár.
If you want to be among the first audiences in Slovakia to see the film that won this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, don’t miss the 20:30 screening in Kino Úsmev of IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (2025) by Iranian director Jafar Panahi. Vahid, a former political prisoner who works as a car mechanic, recognises the distinctive sound of a customer’s leg prosthesis one evening and believes the man to be his former torturer. He kidnaps him, intending to bury him alive in the desert. Soon, however, he begins to doubt the man’s identity, and so he gathers other torture victims to decide the fate of the man they believe to be their tormentor. The film explores moral dilemmas such as revenge, forgiveness and justice in a repressive society. Jafar Panahi—imprisoned several times in Iran—shot the film in secret, without government permission. And although it addresses the trauma suffered by political dissidents and other opponents of power, Panahi also employs compassion, satire and black humour to criticise the social system.
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
