On Sunday, September 15, the 19th edition of the Cinematik International Film Festival came to a close in the evening hours. Seven festival cinemas screened almost 100 feature-length and short films, often to fully sold-out theaters. The festival set new attendance records.
The international competition, titled Meeting Point Europe, showcases the best of European feature films from the past year. The winners are chosen by a jury of 15 film critics from the FIPRESCI federation.
Among the nominees were several prestigious award recipients from world festivals and notable national representatives. This year, the Cinematik jury awarded the Meeting Point Europe prize to the British co-production The Substance (2024), directed by Coralie Fargeat. The film follows aging television star Elisabeth Sparkle (played by Demi Moore), who is given the opportunity to try a miraculous substance that can make her younger, more beautiful, and perfect. However, there is a catch – she must share her time with her new self, Sue (played by Margaret Qualley), alternating weeks between the two. This extraordinary piece of modern cinema was seen by nearly a thousand viewers at the festival.
Festival audiences also selected their own favorite film through voting and ratings. The Audience Award of the 19th Cinematik festival went to the American-British-Georgian film Tatami (2023), co-directed by Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv. The film tells the story of Iranian judoka Leila (played by Arienne Mandi) and her coach Maryam (played by Zar Amir Ebrahimi) as they travel to the World Judo Championships, aiming to bring home Iran's first gold medal. Midway through the tournament, they receive an order from the Islamic Republic for Leila to fake an injury and lose, or else she will be branded a traitor to the state. With her freedom and that of her family at stake, Leila faces an impossible choice: obey her regime, as her coach urges, or fight for gold.
The second competition at Cinematik, Cinematik.doc, focuses on domestic filmmakers, with Slovak documentarians competing for awards. The Cinematik.doc Literary Fund Award went to Daniela Meressa Rusnoková for her film Grey Zone (2024). The film is a cinematic essay, a personal story, and a tribute to mothers and families of prematurely born children, high-risk newborns, and vulnerable, disadvantaged individuals. The jury praised the film for its “extraordinarily convincing, sensitive, and personal portrayal of motherhood and the care of premature infants, a topic whose everyday aspects are mostly socially invisible.”
The Mayor of Piešťany Award was given to director Paula Ďurinová for her documentary Lapilli (2024). The film is an intimate journey that delves deep into the solid matter of the earth. Traveling through diverse rocky landscapes, the director comes to terms with the sudden loss of her grandparents. The jury’s statement: “We honor the film for pushing the boundaries of audiovisual storytelling towards poetry and philosophy, and for its inventive portrayal of the grieving process, in which human time is compared with the geological time of the Earth.”
The 20th edition of the Cinematik International Film Festival will take place from September 10 to 15, 2025, in Piešťany.
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