The International Feature Film Competition at the 31st edition of the IFF Art Film places a strong focus on themes of adolescence and escape from grim reality, as well as reflections on current events beyond Slovakia’s borders. Curated by the festival’s artistic director Martin Palúch, the section primarily features debut works by European female and male directors, along with one American filmmaker.
Toxic is the feature debut of Lithuanian director Saulė Bliuvaitė, telling the story of 13-year-old Maria growing up in an industrial town steeped in toxic beauty standards. New to town and living only with her grandmother, Maria enrolls in a modeling school in an attempt to escape her bleak day-to-day life. However, the modeling world that promises glamour and escape instead subjects the girls to humiliation and extreme experiments with their bodies. The film won four awards at the Locarno Festival, including the Golden Leopard, and was nominated for the European Discovery – FIPRESCI Prize at the European Film Awards.
Christopher Andrews also makes his feature debut with Bring Them Down, a tense thriller set in rural Ireland where a fierce feud between two farming families spirals into violent tragedy. The director, previously recognized for his short films, brings together a powerful cast including Christopher Abbott, the popular Barry Keoghan, and Colm Meaney, delivering a story imbued with the fatalism of a Greek tragedy.
In the village of Yuruk, North Macedonia—where life has remained unchanged for decades—a young shepherd named Ahmet unexpectedly becomes a local celebrity. The 15-year-old finds an escape through electronic music and falls in love with his beautiful neighbor Aya, who has already been promised to another man. The conservative rural community offers no understanding for their love. Director Georgi M. Unkovski, a graduate of Prague’s renowned FAMU, earned both the Audience Award and the Special Jury Prize for Creative Vision at Sundance for his warm comedic drama DJ Ahmet.
Estonian film The Lioness by Liina Triškina-Vanhatalo is a thriller inspired by true events in Tallinn. Young Stefi descends into a world of violence, drugs, and cyberbullying, while her mother Helena fights to save her. Yet Helena also faces judgment from society branding her a bad mother. The film compellingly explores themes of family and generational trauma, examining the limits of maternal love and asking when it might be too late to change one’s parenting path.
In Little Trouble Girls, a quiet student at a Catholic school experiences her first emotional and sexual awakenings during a weekend retreat at a convent. Slovenian director Urška Djukić layers the story with religious and erotic symbolism, heightened by a powerful visual poetry. Djukić, known for her award-winning short The Granny’s Sexual Life, has been celebrated at the European Film Awards and won a César for her previous work.
Pearl by Alexandra Makarová, a Slovak director based in Vienna and Berlin, follows a fiery painter returning to communist Czechoslovakia in spring 1981 to settle a debt from her past. Unwanted on either side of the Iron Curtain, she embarks on a dangerous journey to Košice, confronting long-suppressed secrets. The film, starring Rebeka Poláková, won the Audience Award and honors for costume and production design at the Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film.
Under the Grey Sky is the feature debut of Polish-Belarusian director Mary Tamkovich. Based on real events surrounding the Belarusian protests after the rigged 2020 presidential election, the film follows Lena, a dissident journalist risking arrest simply for doing her job. Her husband Ilya tries to arrange her evacuation, but the regime hunts them both. The film builds on Tamkovich’s earlier short Live and won Best Directorial Debut at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.
Eva Victor wrote, directed, and starred in her first feature film Sorry, Baby, a sharply scripted dramedy about life after sexual assault. The story centers on Agnes, a New England college professor navigating trauma, relationships, and her career. The film explores how depression intertwines with joy and resilience. Sorry, Baby was honored by the jury at Sundance and nominated for the Caméra d’Or at Cannes.
The International Feature Film Competition—one of four competitive sections of the IFF Art Film—presents a thematically cohesive selection of powerful and inspiring stories. It focuses on the younger generation’s confrontations with the world of their elders and the personal battles of individuals facing political adversity.
31st IFF ART FILM is made possible through the support of:
Organizer: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.;
Co-organizers: City of Košice, K13 – Košice Cultural Centers, Visit Košice, ART FILM FEST, n.o., LGM, s.r.o., FORLIVE;
Financial Support: Audiovisual Fund;
Co-financed by the Košice Self-Governing Region through the Terra Incognita program;
Main Partners: TIPOS National Lottery Company, Slovak Electricity Transmission System, 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, CORE LABS, LOKO TRANS Media;
Technology Partners: NOV, ZEBRA, Deutsche Telekom Systems Solutions Slovakia, T4H, DELTA OnLine, ARICOMA, TelekomCLOUD;
Official Suppliers: DKC Veritas, Slávia Café, PLOOM, Krušovice BOHÉM, Lucka Spring Water, DOMOS SLOVAKIA, Contessa Restaurant;
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, ČSFD, BigMedia, Košice City Guide, Košice v skratke, Film.sk, diva.sk, koktejl.sk, zenskyweb.sk, MOJAkultúra, kino Sterio;
Partners: JOJ Cinema, Jojko, Indian Embassy in Bratislava, Carmeuse Slovakia, ECO Technologies, Košice Airport, Local Nomad Tours, Slovak Film Institute, Taper, YumEarth, Puella, Austrian Cultural Forum, TESCO Store SK, CPK Transport, Tabačka Kulturfabrik, Kvety Garomi, East Slovak Museum in Košice, KPK Reklama, MIHYRING, Zoberma taxi;
Gastronomy Partners: Pub u kohúta, El Nacional, Maiko Sushi, Café de Paris, Casa Trade – Casablanca cafe, TATRATEA.
