From the history
The international environmental film festival ENVIROFILM originated in 1995. In May 2000, the director of the Royal Award Foundation from Denmark gave personally, at the festival in Banská Bystrica, the award for raising of public environmental awareness through films and other media to its organisers.
On 10th May 2002, within the 8th ENVIROFILM in Banská Bystrica, the international non-profit organisation Ecomove International was established by representatives of the festivals: ENVIROFILM Slovakia, EKOFILM Czech Republic, ÖKOMEDIA Germany, EARTH VISION Japan, AMBIENTE Portugal and GREEN VISION Russia, with the objective to support the international cooperation in the field of audio-visual production focused on environmental protection.
ENVIROFILM, as a member of ECOMOVE International, presented itself in the environmental festival during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002 and at the environmental film festival Sense of Wonder World in Japan within EXPO 2005 world exhibition. The ECOMOVE association organised two international festivals of environmental festivals ECOMOVE in Berlin.
In January 2005, ENVIROFILM won the Mayor of Banska Bystrica Award for2004.
In May 2006, some more foreign environmental festivals – International Documentary Film Festival on Parks, Italy and Włodzimierz Puchalski Nature Film Festival, Poland - joined ECOMOVE International.
ENVIROFILM has been cooperating with the Slovak Film Institute and the Slovak Film Union that have been organising each year screening of films from the Golden Fund of the Slovak cinematography from their archives, as well as with the non-profit Union of Slovak Television Programme Makers. Professional workshops for TV and film makers are organised every year during the festival. ENVIROFILM cooperates also with colleges and universities – Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Technical University in Zvolen, University of Central Europe in Skalica.
Within the festival, the International Contest of Children’s and Youth’s Artistic Creativity Green World(painting, drawing, photography, animated film) is being organised. Children are involved in evaluation of competing film, and various competitions, games and ecological activities have been organised for them. The winner of the Green World contest is being awarded the Prize of CH. B. Parker´s Foundation (USA). The prize comprises a stay in the Water World Camp.
The Union of Slovak Television Programme Makers and the Literature Fund award the Prize for a young filmmaker in the field of Slovak audiovisual production with environmental theme, at the festival.
Every year, significant Slovak and foreign film makers and documentarians participate in ENVIROFILM. The public shows a big interest in meetings and discussions with these authors.
ENVIROFILM has been organising screening of its competition films within accompanying events of other festivals: Czech Republic (Český Krumlov), Poland (Lódž, Warsaw), Japan (Tokyo) and Germany (Berlín, Freiburg).
Festival organisers established in October 2011 the non-profit organisation Envirofilm, n.o., the main objective of which is to preserve this reputable international event supporting environmental awareness raising of the Slovak population and to obtain, through the non-profit organisation financial support from various sources – sponsors, governmental and private funds, European funds and own sources.
During the 19 years of the festival existence, filmmakers from all over the world sent to the competition 2 229 films. The Grand Prix of Envirofilm went three times to India, twice to Denmark, Italy and twice it remained at home in Slovakia. Once the Grand Prix was awarded to Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Poland , The Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and Australia. In 2013 the Grand Prix again went to Germany and Switzerland (co production) for film Raising Resistance.
Numbers of competitive films, countries and holders of Grand Prix 1995 – 2013
1995 73 films from 18 countries
Grand Prix: White Stork, E. Martinez, Spain
1996 79 films from 20 countries + UN
Grand Prix: Sofrosyne, P. Ekwall, Sweden
1997 72 films from 19 countries
Grand Prix: A Smelly Kettle of Fish, S. Jensen, Denmark
1998 83 films from 26 countries
Grand Prix: The War of the Ants, J. Hamming, The Netherlands
1999 73 films from 20 countries
Grand Prix: Willing to Sacrifice, B. V. D. Rao, India
2000 54 films from 13 countries
Grand Prix: Arctic Meltdown: Rising Seas, Greenpeace
2001 101 films from 23 countries
Grand Prix: Mysterious Mamberamo, P. Barabáš, Slovakia
2002 94 films from 21 countries
Grand Prix: Freedom...!, A. Kanwar, India
2003 109 films from 20 countries
Grand Prix: With Beak and Claw, K. Matysek, Poland
2004 108 films from 20 countries
Grand Prix: The Water Thinking, T. Škrdlant, Czech Republic
2005 125 films from 27 countries
Grand Prix: New Eldorado, Tibor Kocsis, Hungary
2006 109 films from 27 countries
Grand Prix: Umbrella, Nandita Das, India
2007 157 films from 27 countries
Grand Prix: A Killer Bargain, Tom Heinemann, Denmark
2008 165 films from 32 countries
Grand Prix: Greina, Willi Hermann, Switzerland
2009 141 films from 33 countries
Grand Prix: Eco-Crimes – trilogy, Germany
2010 165 films from 31 countries
Grand Prix: Garbage Warrior, Oliver Hodge, Great Britain
2011 156 films from 33 countries
Grand Prix: Penguin Island, Simon Target, Australia
2012 179 films from 33 countries
Grand Prix: The Well – Water Voices from Ethiopia, Paolo Barberi, Riccardo Russo, Italy
2013 186 films from 30 countries
Grand Prix: The Dead from Alos, Daniel Atzeni, Italy a Raising Resistance, Germany, Switzerland co production