31st IFF ART FILM (20 – 27 June 2025, Košice) invites audiences on a bold journey across the cinema of five continents. Programmer Kristína Kúdelová has curated Panorama from eighteen titles that blur genre lines and tackle challenging issues with the lightness only film can muster. New this year is a sub-section, Panorama Documentaries, marking the 130th anniversary of the birth of cinema.
Panorama – Feature Films
It Was Just An Accident – The Cannes-winning story of Vahid, a former political prisoner-turned-mechanic whose chance encounter with a limping stranger reopens an old wound, forcing a reckoning with revenge, forgiveness and justice. Director Jafar Panahi shot the film in secret after multiple imprisonments in Iran.
Two Prosecutors – In 1937, amid Stalin’s Great Purge, a young Soviet prosecutor follows a single burning letter all the way to Moscow, exposing the machinery of a regime that dares not speak its name. From last year’s IFF Art Film Caméra d’Or laureate Sergei Loznitsa.
Diamonds – Ferzan Özpetek whisks us into a vibrant Roman couture atelier in 1974, where female solidarity gleams as brightly as the haute-couture fabrics.
Festival film partner: Puella Vône – Puellavone.sk
Dreams – Michel Franco probes the fine line between philanthropy and power when a wealthy patron from San Francisco opens both her home and her heart to a Mexican dancer—only to reveal her own demons.
Dreams (Sex Love) – Norwegian writer-surgeon Dag Johan Haugerud views first love through 17-year-old Johanne, whose secret crush on her teacher sparks a cross-generational conversation about desire and consent.
Love (Sex, Dreams) – Haugerud’s intimate follow-up finds a pragmatic doctor learning that no dating-app algorithm can guarantee lasting affection—sometimes only vulnerability can.
The Blue Trail – In a near-future Brazil where the state exiles the elderly, 77-year-old Tereza embarks on an illegal Amazon odyssey to fulfil her dream of flying, rendered in Gabriel Mascaro’s lyrical, dystopian poetry.
Marco – Aitor Arregi & Jon Garaño reconstruct the astonishing real-life hoax of Enric Marco, whose fabricated Holocaust survival raises unsettling questions about memory and blind faith.
Being Maria – Jessica Palud restores dignity to Last Tango in Paris star Maria Schneider, exposing the personal cost of cinematic myth-making.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin – A Russian primary-school teacher documents how his classroom becomes a propaganda weapon after the invasion of Ukraine, risking everything to keep faith with his values.
We Believe You – Charlotte Devillers & Arnaud Dufeys transform the courtroom into a whispering theatre of horror, questioning how justice treats domestic violence and the voices of women and children.
Queer – Luca Guadagnino adapts William S. Burroughs’ novella with seductive irony as Daniel Craig teeters between erotic longing and darkness.
Quiet Life – In Alexandros Avranas’ Greek drama, buried wartime guilt shatters the fragile peace of a family, turning a home’s quiet wing into a battleground of dignity.
Saint-Exupéry – Pablo Agüero crafts a lyrical expedition where rescuing a downed pilot in the Andes plants the seed of The Little Prince.
Vermiglio – Maura Delpero weaves a blood-stained family myth in an Alpine valley as WWII ends, where snow-laden silence muffles secrets that scream too loudly.
Panorama Documentaries – 130 Years of Film
Garbo: Where Did You Go? – Lorna Tucker unravels the mystique of Hollywood’s Sphinx, Greta Garbo, through lush archives and intimate letters.
François Truffaut: My Life, a Screenplay – David Teboul turns the director’s unfinished autobiography into an affectionate portrait of the Nouvelle Vague icon.
Like Tears in Rain – Sanna Fabery de Jonge crafts a unique home-movie elegy to Rutger Hauer, revealing unexpected vulnerability behind the Blade Runner legend.
Lumière, The Adventure Continues – Thierry Frémaux restores 108 shorts by cinema’s pioneers, proving the miracle of moving images still outpaces digital algorithms.
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger – Martin Scorsese’s heartfelt tribute shows how Technicolor dreams migrated into today’s multiplexes.
Panorama 2025 confirms that cinema is not about geography but about the courage to tell stories differently. From a luxury fashion studio to the Amazon jungle and the dusty archives of the Lumière brothers, this tapestry of images widens our field of vision—and perhaps our empathy for the world beyond the screen.
Cinepass is your personal key to every screening of the 31st IFF ART FILM. Get yours at https://iffartfilm.com/info/vstupenky/ and join us in Košice cinemas from 20 June!
31st IFF ART FILM is made possible thanks to:
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 supporters: Audiovizuálny fond, Nadácia SPP
The festival is 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, 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
Gastronomic partners: Pub u Kohúta, El Nacional, OhniskO Fire Dining & Brew Bar, Maiko Sushi, Macarons Košice, Café de Paris, šum vináreň, Casa Trade – Casablanca cafe, TATRATEA, Moritz Eis
