{"id":51476,"date":"2026-06-24T16:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffartfilm.com\/?p=51476"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:52:08","slug":"the-blue-angel-for-best-central-and-eastern-european-film-selected-by-golden-globe-winner-siddiq-barmak-oscar-nominated-author-of-a-monograph-on-skolimowski-ewa-mazierska-and-slovak-cinema-dramaturge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffartfilm.com\/en\/blog\/news\/2026\/06\/the-blue-angel-for-best-central-and-eastern-european-film-selected-by-golden-globe-winner-siddiq-barmak-oscar-nominated-author-of-a-monograph-on-skolimowski-ewa-mazierska-and-slovak-cinema-dramaturge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blue Angel for Best Central and Eastern European Film selected by Golden Globe winner Siddiq Barmak, Oscar-nominated author of a monograph on Skolimowski Ewa Mazierska and Slovak cinema dramaturge Martin Ko\u010di\u0161ko"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blue Angel for Best Film of the International Competition of Films from Central and Eastern Europe at the 32nd IFF Art Film Ko\u0161ice (19 \u2013 25 June 2026) will be announced at the closing ceremony on Wednesday, 24 June. The winner was decided by a three-member jury: Ewa Mazierska, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Central Lancashire, author of English-language monographs on Jerzy Skolimowski (director of EO<\/em>, 2022, Academy Award nominee) and Roman Polanski, and Principal Editor of the journal Studies in Eastern European Cinema<\/em>; Siddiq Barmak, Afghan director whose film Osama<\/em> (2003), the first Afghan feature film shot in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2004; and Slovak cinema dramaturge Martin Ko\u010di\u0161ko, head of the Artkino za zrkadlom cinema in the Zrkadlov\u00fd h\u00e1j Cultural Centre in Bratislava-Petr\u017ealka.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ewa Mazierska<\/strong> entered the screenings without preconceptions and gradually discovered a common theme. \u201cI didn’t come with special expectations. I was curious what these films would be about, given that they come from many different countries, and I was looking for connections and differences between them. The connections were there, as expected, but so were the surprises. One of them was that most of the films focused on family life. In the past we expected Eastern European cinema to be very political or openly political. I wouldn’t say politics has disappeared entirely, but most films in the selection were rather personal stories from a microhistorical perspective,\u201d<\/em> said Mazierska<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A move away from politics in film is not a negative signal for her. \u201cI don’t see it as good or bad \u2014 you can have a good or a bad film about politics, just as you can have a good or a bad film about family life. But I assume it says something about the political life of these countries. It suggests that life there is relatively stable. The only openly political film concerned the war in Ukraine; films from Hungary, Slovakia, Georgia or Romania didn’t tackle such big themes. Rather, it reflects that life there is reasonably calm,\u201d<\/em> she explained.<\/p>\n

When watching films, Mazierska<\/strong> follows above all emotion and rhythm, not analysis. \u201cI always watch films very emotionally \u2014 it is a kind of gut feeling, either you want to stay in the cinema or you want to leave. Only then do I think about why I liked the film. I like films that are like music; when I feel rhythm in them, I go with them,\u201d<\/em> said Mazierska<\/strong>. Among the formal innovations she noted a typical feature of recent years. \u201cMany scenes today are shot with a drone, bird’s-eye perspectives. In the past this required helicopters or cranes and very expensive equipment. Today it can be done substantially cheaper and filmmakers obviously use it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it is more of a gimmick, but it is one of the most visible innovations in cinema of the last decade,\u201d<\/em> she added.<\/p>\n

As an academic who writes about work, everyday life and gender, Mazierska<\/strong> also follows these themes in selection. \u201cThe theme of work always interests me. In this selection a lot of films were dedicated to work \u2014 manual as well as creative \u2014 including the work of filmmakers themselves. There was a meta-narrative element; filmmakers focused on the creative work of actors, painters, colleagues. The theme of social security was also interesting; that is quite a new aspect of Eastern European film,\u201d<\/em> she said. Her message to young filmmakers is clear: \u201cPay attention to the script. Even if you want to do everything yourself, it’s worth having someone who writes the script or works on it with you. The main problem we ran into in the selection was always the story. If the story was good, the film was good. If it was bad, a bad story cannot be saved,\u201d<\/em> summed up Ewa Mazierska<\/strong>.<\/p>\n