Envirofilm 2012 in brief

Environmental hazards are the leitmotif of the International Environmental Film Festival ENVIROFILM, which will be held for the 18th time already from 14th to 19th May 2012 in eight Slovak cities. Poltár, Skalica and Košice join this year officially the festival cities Banska Bystrica, Zvolen, Banská Štiavnica, Kremnica and Krupina. This year for the first time the CFC Cinemas (Cultural Facilities of Petržalka, Bratislava) join the festival. They will be projecting, during the festival week, competing films of ENVIROFILM 2012.

This year filmmakers from 32 countries all over the world sent for the competition 179 films, which is a record in the history of the festival. German filmmakers also created a record with 43 films. Slovakia competes with 31 films and the Czech Republic with 26. France submitted 13 films, Austria 10, Italy 7, Belgium and Hungary 4 films each. Estonia, China, Canada, Poland, Great Britain and USA sent 3 films each, 2 films were sent by Brazil, Iran, Japan, Portugal and Spain and 1 film by Serbia, Montenegro, Australia, Finland, The Netherlands, Croatia, Israel, Lebanon, Malta, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and Palestine that participates in ENVIROFILM for the first time. Altogether, during 18 years of the festival filmmakers sent almost 2 thousand films to the competition.

At the beginning of March the Selection Committee met in Banská Bystrica to choose films for the main competition of the International Festival of Environmental Film ENVIROFILM 2012. The Selection Committee, whose members were Kateřina Javorská (a scriptwriter and dramaturgist), Jana Mesiariková (a dramaturgist of the Regional Broadcasting Department of Radio and Television of Slovakia) and Peter Dimitrov (film director and scriptwriter), selected 57 films by authors from 19 world countries for the main competition. For the Children Jury, that will meet during the festival, the Selection Committee chose 9 films. The International Film Jury will meet on 12th to 15th April in Banská Bystrica. Its members are Kateřina Javorská (Slovak Republic), Iwona Siekierzynska (Poland), Janka Mesiariková (Slovak Republic), František Palonder (Slovak Republic) and Ferenc Varga (Hungary).

The largest number of films in this year’s film competition has Slovakia – 9, Germany and Czech Republic have 8 films each and France 7. The countries Great Britain, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Australia, Austria, China, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, Estonia, Brazil, Turkey and Palestine will also participate in the competition. Films submitted by the European Union and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) will compete, too. Traditionally, the most numerous is the B category (documentaries).

The shortest competing film is the Estonian one Birdwatching (category Free Production and Films for Children and Youth). The name of the longest film is We, the Cork Men, but it was not selected for the main competition. The longest film of the main competition is 99-minute documentary Just Do It – A Tale of Modern-Day Outlaws (Great Britain). It competes in the category of documentaries. Some authors bet on the power of visual expression, with no words. Such are, for example, Serbian documentaries Requiem for Nature and Life and Trials (Montenegro), Tribulations & Sustainable Growth of a Cock (category Free Production and Films for Children and Youth).

The theme of the 17th international contest of children’s artistic creativity Green World is My Footprint on Planet Earth. This year, 2 774 young authors from 354 Slovak schools (2 620 works) participate in the contest. 98 authors from abroad (Latvia, Serbia and China) sent 98 works. The professional jury composed of three members – Ladislav Vojtuš, Eva Beňačková and Miroslav Zaťko – was thus evaluating more than 2 700 works in four categories: Drawing, Painting, Graphics and Combined Techniques; Animated Cartoon; and Black-and-White and Colour Photography. The vernissage and the awarding ceremony will take place on Monday 14th May at 1:00 p.m. at the SNP Museum in Banská Bystrica.

Accompanying events traditionally enrich the film part of the festival in all festival cities. Besides the above mentioned Green World and an attempt for a new Slovak record creation, the festival participants can enjoy various debates, meetings with interesting people, outstanding personalities, many exhibitions and, of course, events for children. Right on the first day of the festival the vernissage of the exhibition of paintings and photographs The High Tatras by a Brush and a Camera (the academic painter Miroslav Bárdi and the photographer Karol Demuth) will take place, as well as a discussion with the Dutch film director Jan van de Berg. Within the films from the Slovak Film Institute’s archives, the film The Man Who Planted Trees by the director Martin Šulík will be screened. It is about the outstanding Slovak documentarist Martin Slivka. Undoubtedly, the discussion on the theme of eco-crimes with Ladislav Hanniker, an expert on crime against the environment, and Mikuláš Huba, who was appointed an Environmental Ambassador, will draw attention, as well as a discussion about national parks, which will be attended also by David Barna (U.S. National Park Service), who was in 2010 the member of ENVIROFILM´s international jury.

The International Environmental Film Festival ENVIROFILM was established in 1995 and is held annually in May. The centre of festival events is Banská Bystrica. The Ministry of the Environment is the promulgator and the Slovak Environmental Agency and the non-profit organisation Envirofilm, n.o. are the organisers of the festival.

Anna Gudzová

www.envirofilm.sk