The day after Friday’s opening ceremony of the 32nd IFF Art Film, Saturday 20 June 2026 in Košice belonged to Anna Šišková, the public and the media. She gave a press conference, a series of interviews and, above all, the symbolic public presentation of the Actor’s Mission Award at Kulturpark, where she posed on the iconic festival chair. The press conference was opened by the festival’s artistic director Martin Palúch and moderated by film publicist Juraj Čurný.
“Anna Šišková was honoured here with the Actor’s Mission Award and needs no special introduction. She has appeared in a great many significant films, her subtle acting is very truthful. She has worked with directors such as Dušan Hanák in Tichá radosť, Martin Šulík in Krajinka or Slnečný štát, with Jan Hřebejk in Divided We Fall, and from recent years let me mention the film by her daughter Tereza Nvotová, Filthy. We are very glad that she is here and accepted our award,“ said the festival’s artistic director Martin Palúch at the opening of the press conference.
Anna Šišková reflected on her first feature film — the Dušan Hanák drama Tichá radosť. “Hanák himself asked me for a smaller role, and as Hanák’s films were and are among the best films Slovak cinema has, I was deeply honoured,” she said. Her path to Jan Hřebejk’s Divided We Fall she attributed to sheer coincidence: “We used to travel with Astorka to Prague to perform Kazimír and Karolína. Hřebejk came to see my then-partner, whom he wanted to cast, and during the performance he decided to cast me instead.”
The film Divided We Fall later went on to be among the films nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, and Anna Šišková together with the crew made it to the very Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles. “It felt like I was dreaming. On the same day I had a theatre premiere — T. S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party — and three days later was the Oscars. I had nothing to cover the trip or the stay. Slovak entrepreneurs I did not know at all heard about it, came to see me at the theatre, and paid for it so I could fly to represent Slovakia,” the actress recalled.
From the more recent period the interview did not avoid the film Filthy directed by her daughter Tereza Nvotová. “Tereza is grown up and in many ways, I think, wiser than me, so I really listen to her. As a director she sometimes had me do the same shot ten or eleven times — but that is her habit with other actors too, for example with Milan Ondrík,” Anna Šišková noted with a smile. The mother-and-daughter cooperation will, in her words, continue in the future: “Tereza said we will do something together again. And even Jitka Schneiderová, who presented the award to me, joined in saying she also wants to make something. I hope the three of us will come up with something — and that it will be a beautiful story.”
Friday’s acceptance speech contained an extensive, partly autobiographical address, inspired by Tereza Nvotová. “Tereza told me: speak to the young. Imagine you are speaking to young Anička. There is no point in speaking to those who have already lived through much. Speak to the young, so they have the courage to follow their dreams,” Šiškovásaid about the speech’s origin. In it she also mentioned the title Človek obojživelník, the 1962 Soviet film that had moved her most as a child. “It was an incredible experience, the first time I saw something like that underwater. I passed on the message to my daughters. Years later Tereza called me saying that the Americans had made a new, award-winning film based on the same story. So my childhood feeling was correct,” she added.
In an interview for the festival’s TV station, Anna Šišková shared her relationship to IFF Art Film: “I have a very warm relationship to this festival, I have been here a few times. It is an international film festival, so let us keep it and I hope those who have the funds will realise this and help it.” She has been to many world festivals in Germany, Belgium, the USA and Italy and gives the neighbouring Karlovy Vary as an example: “The Czechs are proud of their festival, for them it is a flagship; people come from across the country. It saddens me that this festival does not mean the same for Slovakia — for ordinary people and for those up there in politics. I really wish this would change.”
The theme of “making the world a better place”, which Šišková in her acceptance speech called an actor’s mission, carried over into Saturday’s interviews. “I easily put myself in the shoes of a hero who goes through something and somehow transforms and becomes a better person. My words on stage or in front of the camera are from the script, but they are such wise words that I learn from them as a human being. And if I learn from them, then I think I pass that message on to viewers — to be better to their surroundings, to themselves, to their children and to Slovakia too,” the actress explained.
After the press conference and a series of one-on-one interviews, Anna Šišková received the Actor’s Mission Award also before the public — outside Kulturpark, on the iconic festival chair. On Saturday evening she returned to Bratislava, where she performs in Strindberg’s play To Damascus. “Right now I mainly have beautiful theatre roles,” she said.
To the audiences of the 32nd IFF Art Film, Anna Šišková addressed a personal message: “I wish you wonderful experiences with film. When a person sees a good film and really enjoys it, they can live in it for several more days — the thoughts and situations come back, the performances go straight to the heart. I love films that show me how people live in Africa or India, that draw me into the everyday life of places I have never been. These are things we should value. Enjoy it fully and go to the movies.”
The 32nd IFF Art Film Košice continues until Thursday, 25 June 2026. The complete festival programme, the competition and non-competition sections, and festival Cinepasses can be found at aff.cinepass.sk.
The 32nd IFF ART FILM is being held with the support of:
Main organizer: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.
Co-organizers: City of Košice, K13 – Košice Cultural Centres, Visit Košice, ART FILM FEST, n.o.
With the financial support of: the Slovak Audiovisual Fund
The project was co-financed by the Košice Self-governing Region from the Terra Incognita program
Main partners: CODES Brand House, H2O FUND SICAV, Forstav
Automotive partner: AUTO-VALAS
Official hotel: Hotel Yasmin
Main media partners: TV JOJ, Pravda, Eurotelevízia
Sponsors: U. S. Steel Košice, ANTIK Telecom, Kino Úsmev, LOKO TRANS Media, CORE Labs, Technical University of Košice
Technological partners: NOV, ZEBRA, Deutsche Telekom Systems Solutions Slovakia, DELTA OnLine, ARICOMA, Datacomp
Official suppliers: DKC Veritas, PLOOM, DOMOS SLOVAKIA, Reštaurácia Contessa, Natura, Kinley, Budweiser Budvar, Julius Meinl
Official wine: KubBo Select, Ostrožovič
Media partners: JOJ play, JOJ 24, Film Europe Media Company, Rádio KOŠICE, Aktuality.sk, Forbes, Startitup.sk, Korzár, Slovenka, SITA, TASR, Mediaboard, AHOJ TV, See & Go, BigMedia, Kino Sterio, Košice City Guide, Košice V Skratke, MOJAkultura.sk, Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze – ČSFD, Filmsk.sk, diva.sk, koktejl.sk, zenskyweb.sk, Naše Košice
Partners: JOJ Cinema, Jojko, Slovak Film Institute, WITKOWITZ SLOVAKIA, DDDental, CK TUI ReiseCenter Slovensko, Taper, ECO Technologies, Aupark Shopping Center Košice, Košice Public Transport Company, Košice Airport, YumEarth, Rent2Eat, CPK Transport, iWish.sk, Kvety Garomi, Hair Factory Košice, Face up! Studio by Michaela Petroci, Panta Rhei, ARTFORUM, LOCAL NOMAD, East-Slovak Museum in Košice, MIHYRING
