The cinema lights have gone down, the last conversations along Hlavná ulica have faded and the 32nd edition of IFF Art Film Košice is slowly settling into memory. As the organising team eases back into its everyday rhythm, we would like to look back at a week that was not, for us, a sum of screenings and events, but above all a meeting with you.
Seven days in Košice showed why IFF Art Film, after more than three decades, remains the oldest and largest film festival in Slovakia and a place where world cinema meets a Slovak curatorial selection. The Blue Angel for Best Feature Film and Best Direction was won at the closing ceremony in Kunsthalle by Austrian director Sandra Wollner for the Austrian-German drama Forever. The Blue Angel for Best Male Performance went to Sir Tom Courtenay, one of the legends of British acting, for his role in Queen at Sea by American director Lance Hammer. The Blue Angel for Best Female Performance went to British actress Imogen Poots for The Chronology of Water, the feature-length directorial debut of American actress Kristen Stewart. In the International Competition of Films from Central and Eastern Europe the Blue Angel went to Georgian director Ana Urushadze for the drama Supporting Role; in short film, to Kazakh director Camila Sagyntkan for What Have You Done, Zarina? The Bulgarian film Made in EU by Stephan Komandarev left Košice twice honoured: with a Special Mention of the jury of the International Competition of Films from Central and Eastern Europe for its acting performances, and with the separate FIPRESCI Award. The Golden Camera for outstanding contribution to cinema was presented twice: to the general director of the Slovak Film Institute Peter Dubecký and to German-Turkish director Fatih Akin. The Actor’s Mission went to Anna Šišková and with the Milan Lasica Award in memoriam we honoured the memory of Vlado Müller. At the opening ceremony we world-premiered the mysterious feature debut Wirbel by Tomáš Hubáček. The Slovak Season welcomed further world premieres: the hybrid puppet comedy Still Standing, Still Stuffed by Andrej Kolenčík and Juraj Šlauka, the feature debut The Last Season by Pavol Hirjak, and the documentary Everest: A Mother’s Peak by Paul Diffley. And on top of that another few dozen films which Košice audiences were among the first in the world to see.
Behind all of it stood you. Every single viewer who took a seat in a cinema. Everyone who came to an accompanying event, to the Open-Air Cinema or to a masterclass. Everyone who stopped by us in front of Kunsthalle, on Hlavná ulica at an autograph signing, who found a break or a programme in Kulturpark, or who simply glanced at a poster in the city. Everyone who smiled at us in passing. For seven days, together with us in Košice, you lived through something that cannot be planned in a spreadsheet: an atmosphere that only comes into being when people decide to show up. That is why we want to thank you today from the bottom of our hearts. For your time, for your curiosity, for your patience with everything a festival brings, and for the fact that you like our work enough to come back. Without you those seven days would have been an empty calendar.
And there were nearly 22,000 of you, slightly more than last year. It is a number that makes us happy, and yet an even greater commitment: to bring again next year the best film from Slovakia and from the world to Košice and, together with it, a programme worth showing up for.
Behind the festival stands each year a wide group of people: organisers, producers, volunteers, collaborators, media and commercial partners. To them too, to each and every one, our thanks belong. Without their work, energy and readiness those seven June days would simply not have existed.
And if, in the end, you would still ask us for the figures: in Kunsthalle, Kulturpark (in the JOJ Cinema and JOJ Play halls), in Kino Úsmev (in the Úsmev and Impulz halls), in Kino Veritas and in the Open-Air Cinema we played over seven days 200 screenings of 128 films across 15 curatorial sections. Filmmakers and guests from 42 countries brought their stories to Košice. In parallel there ran the Art Film Industry programme with ten events for film professionals. Behind each of those figures is a specific film, a specific conversation after a screening, a specific viewer who stayed on even after the closing credits. That is what we take away from this edition.
The 33rd edition of IFF Art Film Košice will take place a year from now, again in June. If you would like our first news to reach you directly, sign up for our newsletter at iffartfilm.com, or follow us on social media, where we are already gathering the first images and memories from Košice 2026. The film summer in Slovakia has borne its name for 32 years now, and we want it to bear it for many years more.
Andrea Čurná
PR Manager of the festival
The 32nd IFF ART FILM was 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
