The 29th edition of Art Film Fest is approaching every day, with a total of 150 film screenings taking place in 7 cinema halls in Košice. In addition to Cinema Úsmev, Cinema Veritas and the cultural centre Kasárne/Kulturpark, festival visitors will once again be able to enjoy films in one of the city’s iconic spaces – Košice Amphitheatre.
“In U. S. Steel Košice, we live together with our city and region and support many areas that are important for community life. Culture is one of them. We look forward to enriching the cultural and social life with the diverse menu of Art Film Fest,” says James Bruno, President of U. S. Steel Košice, which is one of the advertising partners of the event.
During the eight days of the festival, an open-air screening will take place every evening after dark. The largest “natural” cinema in Slovakia will be open between 16th and 23rd June 2023, and it will feature films from various program sections. Art Film Fest in the cinema under the stars will kick off with an extremely successful retro comedy about organised crime and corruption in the 1990s named Invalid, which is included in the festival’s Slovak Season section.
The Panorama section will offer a total of four films from three different continents. The Spanish horror drama named 13 Exorcisms was inspired by actual accounts of exorcism in modern-day Spain. The effects, for which the film was nominated for the prestigious Goya Film Award, will be shown on the big screen on June 18th. American cinema will be represented by a horror film at Art Film Fest as well. However, it will be a much lighter piece. The members of the world-famous rock band Foo Fighters play themselves in the film Studio 666 and bring to the screen their artistic crisis during the making of their 10th album. As a subgenre of the horror film, the theme of the slasher comedy is a metaphorical comparison of the principles of the music industry to the devil’s laws. The musicians’ difficult life on the throne was later on sadly confirmed by the tragic death of band member drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died in his hotel room exactly one month after the release of Studio 666 in cinemas. It was the second tragic experience for band leader Dave Grohl after the 1994 death of Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, in which Grohl was the drummer.
In U.S. Steel Košice Amphitheatre, Panorama will also introduce the Panamanian teenage drama Sister & Sister (Las Hijas) about the sisters Marine and Luna, who come to Panama to find their father who abandoned them years ago, and the Serbian film Working Class Heroes about the exploitation of construction site workers, who will have to stand up to their callous management.
The program of the amphitheatre will also include two films from our southern and northern neighbours. The Hungarian narrative costume film Hadik tells a story of a Slovak-born Hussar field marshal Andrej Hadik, who in the service of Empress Maria Theresa succeeded in capturing Berlin in 1757 and thus gained the favour and trust of the Empress. The Polish historical crime comedy Dangerous Gentlemen, on the other hand, takes the audience to the Tatra town of Zakopane, where the personalities of the Polish cultural and artistic scene used to gather and entertain around 1914. The main characters – intellectuals – have to solve the mystery of a dead man they have just discovered after an extravagant night, which is not easy at all in the politically turbulent time and space of pre-war Poland.
Aretha Franklin concert film: Amazing Grace (1972), which lay unedited in the archives for decades, came to life under the hands of composer and director Alan Elliott, and in 2019 he brought to the world a live gospel album by the world-famous singer. The long-standing problems with editing and releasing a unique film from the environment of an American Baptist church into world distribution only underscore the characteristic name of the programme section – Love & Anarchy, which has always brought original films that are difficult to classify among regular film categories or genres.
Košice Amphitheatre, known under the festival name U.S. Steel Košice Amphitheatre, is one of the iconic venues of the eastern capital of Slovakia. The tradition of film projection in this location dates back to the 1960s, when the building boasted the largest film screen in Czechoslovakia. In addition to a number of events, the Amphitheatre has hosted the oldest and largest film festival in Slovakia for several years – Art Film Fest.
The program of films shown in U.S. Steel Košice Amphitheatre during Art Film Fest:
June 16th Invalid (Slovakia)
June 17th Studio 666 (USA)
June 18th 13 Exorcisms (Spain)
June 19th Hadik (Hungary)
June 20th Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace (USA)
June 21st Dangerous Gentlemen (Poland)
June 22nd Sister & Sister (Las Hijas) (Panama, Chile)
June 23rd Working Class Heroes (Serbia)
All screenings start at 9:30 p.m.
You can learn more about the program of the 29th edition of Art Film Fest on the festival website https://aff.cinepass.sk/
Organisation: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.;
Co-organizers: City of Košice, K13 – Košice Cultural Centres, ART FILM FEST, n.o., LGM, s.r.o.;
The festival was financially supported by: Audiovisual Fund and SPP Foundation;
The festival is co-financed by the Košice self-governing region from the Terra Incognita program;
Main advertising partners: CODES Brand House, FORLIVE, Lucka spring water;
Official vehicles: Auto Gábriel;
Official hotel: Hotel Yasmin;
Advertising partners: construction company Adefex, Jadrová a vyraďovacia spoločnosť, a.s., Oxyworld, U.S. Steel Košice, ANTIK Telecom, BARZZUZ, Cinema Úsmev, Aupark Košice, Fors-stav, R-media, Okno mé lásky;
Official contractors: NOV, ZEBRA, Best Press, SLOVNAFT, Central European Foundation, Spoločnosť pre skladovanie, a.s., DKC Veritas, Slávia Café, Tabačka Kulturfabrik, Ohnisko – Fire Dining & Brew Bar, Pub u Kohúta, El Nacional, Café de Paris, Maiko Sushi, DOMOS Slovakia, Pilsner Urquell, Macarons; Official wine: Kubbo Select and Ostrožovič;
Main media partners: TV JOJ, zregionu.sk, Pravda, Eurotelevision;
Media partners: Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska, Kinosála, JOJ 24, Film Europe, TV spolok LOToS, Rádio KOŠICE, Korzár, Slovenka, Forbes, SITA, TASR, BigMedia, HomeMedia Production, Film.sk, Košice City Guide, aktuality.sk, csfd.cz, Visit Košice, Košice v Skratke;
Partners: JOJ Cinema, Millor – your partner in the energy sector, Košice Airport, Autocont, TelekomCLOUD, ECO Technologies, DELTA OnLine, MIHYRING, KAIFER law firm, Taper, Brother, GROTTO, CELIMED authorized OMRON representation, NR-holding, CPK Slovakia, Casa Trade – Casablanca cafe, easylog transport&logistic, Flowers Victor, Slovak Film Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics TUKE, Private Secondary Art School in Košice, Košice Transport Company, Tesco Stores SK, DEMI sport, CANON, SPI International, Arténa audiovisual workshop by RTVS, Creative Europe, KPK Reklama, HAIR FACTORY Košice
Festival restaurants and bars: JAZZ Club Café Restaurant, Hostinec Brewery, Papa Café, Camelot Restaurant, Veritas Café