The 26^th edition of the International Film Clubs Festival Febiofest will this year be joining forces with the educational and networking platform Visegrad Film Forum (VFF – see the news). As both events aim to cater to the domestic film industry and to connect Slovakian film professionals with the international film industry, this partnership was a natural choice, according to Febiofest and VFF directors Přemysl Martínek and Jakub Viktorín. For the upcoming edition, Febiofest will also be extending its collaboration with international alternative distributor of documentaries KineDok. For the first time, the festival has picked a topic that will be reflected across its programming – “evil cannot hide in film” – in order to warn attendees about the evil and fear propagated by politics and the media. 

The world premiere of the Slovak-Czech film Punk Never Ends!, the directorial feature debut by Juraj Šlauka, who previously served as a co-writer on a couple of documentary projects by Miro Remo, will open the festival. Punk Never Ends!, “a film inspired by the meticulously observed life of punks on the periphery”, follows a 30-year-old drug addict whom the social services are threatening, saying that they will take away his small son. Other domestic projects will be introduced in the Slovakia – The Country of Film section, including Moments [+lee también:
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entrevista: Beata Parkanová
entrevista: Beata Parkanová
ficha de la película] by Beata Parkanová, Tomáš Krupa’s The Good Death [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tomáš Krupa
ficha de la película], Jan Jakub Kolski’s Pardon [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] and the latest documentary project by Zuzana Piussi and Vít Janeček, the time-lapse observation The Siege, about the fight against mining companies. The international competition for short films, In the Heart of Europe, will screen 20 titles from the Visegrad region and Austria. “This year’s selection has a specific, humanistic message and showcases original works hinging on topics perceived in a negative light by wider society,” said the festival’s artistic director, Přemysl Martinek.

As a film-club festival, Febiofest will also screen contemporary arthouse fare introduced at leading international film festivals, including Gyorgy Pálfi’s latest project His Master’s Voice [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], Radu Muntean’s Alice T. [+lee también:
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entrevista: Radu Muntean
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entrevista: Claire Denis
ficha de la película] by Claire Denis, Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro [+lee también:
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entrevista: Alice Rohrwacher
ficha de la película], Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers [+lee también:
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entrevista: Jacques Audiard
ficha de la película] and the Polish box-office hit Clergy [+lee también:
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entrevista: Wojciech Smarzowski
ficha de la película] by Wojtek Smarzowski. The programmers have prepared a special section dedicated to arthouse horror and “midnight” films, which will welcome Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (which is also the festival’s closing film), Luz [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Tilman Singer and Adrian Panek’s Werewolf [+lee también:
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entrevista: Adrian Panek
ficha de la película].

The International Film Clubs Festival Febiofest will take place from 20-26 March in Bratislava, Slovakia, and will subsequently travel to film clubs across the country. The full programme is available here.