Art Film Fest

Festival named ART FILM was sounded in Jun 1993 in Trenčianske Teplice, Slovak Republik, as narrowly specialized presentation that introduced only short documentaries about the art. In 1995, films about art and artists were added to the program and the Actor´s Mission Award was given for the first time. Two years later, some films appeared and festival, thanks to some projections, took place in Trenčín as well. City became the regular part of the festival in 1999. In 2005, production company Forza started to take care of festival and it stabilised its regressing reputation. One of the most respected slovak actors Milan Lasica became the president of the festival.

Important and from the point of view of festival´s further progress necessary change came after the 23th ART FILM FEST in 2015. Long-term and practically unchanging unsatisfactory cinema and socio-cultural infrastructure in Trenčianske Teplice and not very suitable complicate combination of coproduction in two different cities have definitely shown that if there is any change for festival to develop in its natural way, there has to be change in place of its organization.

Since June 2016, Košice is becoming a venue of festival because it offers the most suitable and most natural background for organization of such demanding socio-cultural event. Rudolf Biermann, who has valuable experience with organization of international film festival in Karlove Vary, accepted the offer to become part of organising team. In ART FILM FEST he will be at the position of Producer and General Manager.

Actor's Mission Award is given for special contributions to the art of film acting as a prize for longtime achievements. The premiere award's holder became Franco Nero, and to date numerous other internationally acclaimed artists (such as Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, Liv Ullmann, Omar Sharif, Geraldine Chaplin, Gina Lollobrigida, Ornella Muti, Lazar Ristovski) were honored during the next fifteen years of the film festival.

In 1995, Art Film Fest expanded statutory prizes by The Golden Camera Award in addition. Notable winners are for example Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda, Jiří Menzel.

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Wikipedia