Bratislava, March 2, 2026 – More than sixty films will be screened from March 11 to 17, 2026, at the Kino Lumière and Mladosť cinemas in Bratislava as part of the 33rd edition of the FEBIOFEST Bratislava International Film Festival. “The selection is once again diverse – from festival and distribution hits to more thoughtful documentaries reflecting current social issues,” says program director Ondrej Starinský. Audiences can also look forward to Czech-Slovak premieres, a rich accompanying program, and the personal participation of exceptional domestic and foreign guests, including a two-time Oscar winner.
The opening film of the FEBIOFEST Bratislava IFF will be the highly anticipated film about the phenomenal figure skater Ondrej Nepela. “Who from my generation would not know the figure skater and 1972 Olympic champion Ondrej Nepela and his lesser-known Austrian-born coach Hildegard Klimpelová or his married ‘aunt’ Hilda Múdra? It was an escalator of emotion, but also of amazing trust on the part of the director, who chose me. And I make no secret of the fact that I have had an affinity for figure skating since early childhood,” says Jana Nagyová Pulm, who plays Hilda Múdra. The film LAST ROUTINE, which had a special preview screening just a few days ago during the Winter Olympics in Milan – Cortina d’Ampezzo 2026, will be presented by FEBIOFEST in an exclusive preview screening on March 11 at the Lumière Cinema with the personal participation of the film delegation.
The festival’s dramaturgy team selected the twenty best titles from hundreds of films from Central Europe for the Short Film Competition. “Films of all genres – from feature films to animated and experimental films – will compete for the main prize. Domestic cinema will also be strongly represented,” explains Ondrej Starinský. The festival will present documentary and experimental films by female directors that have attracted attention at prestigious international festivals, such as How to Listen to Fountains by Eva Sajanová (Locarno), Seablindness by Tereza Smetanová (DocLisboa, Jihlava), and Greetings from Rhodes by Viera Čákanyová (Rotterdam). The Slovak selection will be complemented by a feature film from the Academy of Performing Arts,
This Room Is Impossible to Eat by Emília Ondriašová, inspired by the controversial book of the same name, which deals with the unequal relationship between a teenage student and her teacher.
The short films will be judged by a European jury consisting of Anna Catarina Ferreira, director and head of production at the Portuguese festival FEST – New Directors New Films Festival, Sigrid Hadenius-Ebner, director of the Swedish Uppsala Short Film Festival, and Philip Ilson, artistic director of the London Short Film Festival.
Thanks to cooperation with our partner event, the Visegrad Film Forum, exceptional foreign guests will once again visit Slovakia during the FEBIOFEST Bratislava International Film Festival. British sound engineer and two-time Oscar winner Chris Munro, who has worked with directors Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and Alfonso Cuarón, has confirmed his participation. Renowned special effects artist Shane Mahan, known for his work on the Terminator, Predator, and Iron Man series, as well as the Oscar-winning film The Shape of Water (2017), will also attend the festival. The festival will also welcome one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Lithuanian cinema – director and screenwriter Andrius Blaževičius, who won the award for best director at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for his latest film, How to Divorce During the War (2026), an intimate drama set in Vilnius during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, won the award for directing at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Other foreign guests will include set designer Uli Hanisch, whose distinctive visual style has shaped works such as Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), Cloud Atlas (2012), the series Babylon Berlin (2016), and The Queen’s Gambit (2020). German-Romanian documentary filmmaker Alexander Nanau will also visit Bratislava. His film Colectiv (2019) became the first Romanian title to be nominated for an Oscar in two categories – Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature Film. The FEBIOFEST Bratislava International Film Festival will also welcome Hungarian filmmaker György Pálfi, who will present his latest film Hen (2025), which had its world premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival. It is an original drama with elements of humor, told from an unconventional perspective – that of a hen. The main “heroine” of the story is a Leghorn hen, born in an industrial poultry farm, where her fate is clear from the outset – to become an anonymous part of the food chain. However, thanks to a stroke of luck, she manages to escape and sets off on a journey to freedom.
György Pálfi’s latest film will also compete for the award for best feature film in the competition section IN THE HEART OF EUROPE. Its Austrian “rival” will be White Snail, winner of two awards at the Locarno Film Festival, a visually captivating and atmospheric drama with a bold theme and an original connection between beauty and death. The directing duo Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter create a slow, meditative narrative that offers a powerful and disturbing viewing experience. The Czech representative in the competition is the film The Other Side of Summer by director Vojtěch Strakatý, a poetic coming-of-age story about adolescent friendship, unfulfilled expectations, and the uncertainty associated with the transition to adulthood, which premiered at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The Polish film Home Sweet Home by director Wojciech Smarzowski is a psychological drama reflecting on the issues of domestic violence and toxic relationships. The film became the second most-watched film of 2025 in Poland, surpassed only by Minecraft. Slovakia will be represented in the competition section by the film Last Routine by director Jakub Červenka, a Czech-Slovak sports drama biopic about the legendary figure skater Ondrej Nepela and his inner conflict at the peak of his career. The film To The Victory! by director Valentyna Vasyanovych is a dramatic film set in a fictional near post-war future in Ukraine. At the center of the story is filmmaker Roman, played by the director himself, who is trying to find meaning in life and work in a country where the fighting has ended, but everyday reality remains marked by loss, trauma, and broken relationships. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Platform Prize – an award for a distinctive auteur film with a unique style and vision.
The winner of the feature film competition In the Heart of Europe will be decided by a three-member international jury consisting of Federico Schembri, representative of the Zurich Film Festival, Ariane Buhl, independent festival consultant, and Katharina Stumm, representing the Connecting Cottbus platform.
In addition to festival premieres, the program will also feature classic films by renowned European and international filmmakers. Viewers will be able to see two films by Polish giant Andrzej Wajda – The Promised Land (1974) and Chronicle of Amorous Accidents (1986), Stanley Kubrick’s most controversial film A Clockwork Orange (1971) and the legendary Rose Tinted Dreams (1976). The festival will commemorate the 50th anniversary of their release with the personal participation of director Dušan Hanák and other filmmakers. Families with children will enjoy the classic Disney animated film Alice in Wonderland (1951) and the film Arco (2025), currently nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
There will also be a genre-diverse section called Midnight Temptation, curated by director, animator, and long-time creator of the FEBIOFEST jingle Andrej Kolenčík. Horror lovers can look forward to cult titles such as Sam Raimi’s debut The Evil Dead, John Carpenter’s The Thing, and the famous slasher Friday the 13th, which the festival will symbolically premiere on Friday, March 13.
This special program is designed for film professionals. Bratislava Industry Days, a platform for presenting upcoming film projects, will be held for the tenth year running. This year, 17 projects from the Central European region will be presented, including feature films, documentaries, and animated films.
The 33rd FEBIOFEST Bratislava International Film Festival will officially close on March 16 with the participation of a film delegation and the exclusive Slovak premiere of the crime comedy Poberta by director Ondřej Hudeček – the first Czech director ever to win at the world-renowned Sundance Film Festival. He set his new film in his native Moravian town of Strážnice, and alongside Lupyn, played by Matyáš Řezníček, the film also features Czech Lion award winners Václav Neužil and Stanislav Majer. Slovak audiences can also look forward to seeing Milan Mikulčík, Martin Nahálka, and Ján Jackuliak. “Poberta means thief, petty thief. The film is set during the Covid pandemic, so viewers have something to look forward to,” says Ján Jackuliak.
