The Blue Angel for Best Short Film of the International Short Film Competition at the 32nd IFF Art Film Košice (19 – 25 June 2026) was decided by a three-member international jury: Palestinian director based in Poland Mohammed Almughanni, graduate of the legendary Łódź Film School (alma mater of Polanski, Wajda and Kieślowski), whose short An Orange from Jaffa (2024) was shortlisted for the Oscars in December 2024 in the Best Live Action Short Film category and won the Grand Prix at the 46th edition of the most prestigious short film festival in Clermont-Ferrand; Polish film historian Maciej Gil, two-time recipient of the Polish Film Institute (PISF) award and from 2005 to 2015 programme director of the Polish-Czech festival Kino na hranici in the Slovak-Polish-Czech border region; and Slovak documentary filmmaker Barbora Sliepková. The winner will be announced at the festival’s closing ceremony on Wednesday, 24 June 2026.
Slovak documentary filmmaker Barbora Sliepková valued that the short films in this year’s selection managed to hold their own format. “With a short film it is important that even on a shorter canvas it tells some coherent story or carries some message, so that I take a feeling away from it. In this section there were plenty of films that delivered exactly that. With feature films we sometimes say that the idea could just as well have been told in thirty minutes and would have been more striking. You could see that these films were dramaturgically precise and beautifully captured atmosphere,” said Sliepková.
An exceptional quality of the selection for Sliepková were the authentic acting performances, especially by children. “I really admired the way the actors were directed; children are not professional actors after all, even though they often act, but the ability to enter another world and the psychology of a character is one of the most important things. In a documentary we believe directly, we assume the story is true; in fiction we have to work with this consciously and achieve the effect. In this section there were a lot of perfect child actors with whom I identified at once; authenticity radiated from these films,” the director explained. The common denominator of the genre-diverse titles (fiction, documentary, animation, experimental) was, in her view, the honesty of the statement. “What connects the films is the authenticity of their statement. The makers know their subjects and go to the bone in honesty,” she summed up.
On the dynamics of decision-making of the three-member jury, Sliepková speaks as of a creative process. “After every block we sat down and said who was struck by what. In our choice we focused on the quality of cinematic storytelling – that was the most important thing for us. It was enriching to talk with colleagues about dramaturgy, screenwriting, the approach to actors. These are long debates, and in the end we agreed on the film we decided to award,” she said. Without revealing the winner’s name she briefly characterised the film: “It is a unique perspective on a subject that concerns many. The way of telling and the authentic acting performances convinced us immediately; we were all left with a strong feeling from this film. The subject is very important today, as it has always been: it concerns women, and therefore all of us,” said Sliepková. From her time on the jury she also wants to take away an impulse for her own directing work. “I studied documentary directing and mainly do that, but I would very much like to try directing a short fiction film. I have several subjects I have been carrying for a while; I really studied various approaches and learned a lot from these films,” added Barbora Sliepková.
Polish film historian Maciej Gil, in addition to working at the Kraków-based Cyrk Edison foundation, which runs the arthouse cinemas Agrafka and Kika, has long been selecting programmes for festivals including Kino na hranici. He is clear about how a juror’s perspective differs from that of a selector. “The biggest part of the work is already done by the time I am on the jury – the films have been selected. And it is very important that I can see the films in a cinema with an audience, not at home during selection. It is a completely different way of perceiving them. When you select films from three or five hundred submissions, you also come across a lot of low-quality titles. In competition you can be sure they are at least decent or close to it; it was a great pleasure for me to see these films in Košice, the quality and diversity were excellent,” said Gil.
His judging criteria are simple, says Gil. “A good story, good filmmaking craft and a message that stays with me. It is that simple,” he said. The role of festivals for short film he considers irreplaceable. “Where else can you see a short film? Only at festivals. Sometimes on television, on platforms, but mainly at festivals. And there you can meet the filmmakers, talk with them, celebrate with them. Maybe it isn’t the only way, but it certainly is the best,” he summed up.
To young filmmakers Gil recommends authenticity. “Find your own language, your own stories, but ones that have to be understandable all over the world. In this crazy world be brave, be yourselves and don’t be afraid of it,” said Maciej Gil. He also added a film tip: “Yesterday we saw, in one film, a short excerpt from a wonderful film that I love. It is called Ten Minutes Older and was directed by the Latvian filmmaker Herz Frank. I really recommend watching it, and perhaps more than once; it is all about how to create an impression on an audience,” he added.
The closing ceremony of the 32nd IFF Art Film Košice, at which the jury of the International Short Film Competition will award the Blue Angel for Best Short Film, takes place on Wednesday, 24 June 2026. The full programme of the festival (19 – 25 June 2026), including the International Short Film Competition and its six thematic blocks, is available at aff.cinepass.sk.
The 32nd IFF ART FILM is made possible thanks to 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: 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, Fors – stav
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, Wallonie-Bruxelles International.be, Taper, ECO Technologies, Aupark Shopping Center Košice, Košice Public Transport Company, Košice International 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
