57 documents by authors from 19 world countries in the main contest  

BANSKÁ BYSTRICA (10. 2. 2012)
– In recent days the Selection Committee met in Banská Bystrica  to choose films for the main competition of the International Festival of Environmental Film ENVIROFILM 2012. It was a difficult task because they were selecting from 179 films by authors from 31 countries worldwide. Already after a few hours of watching the films, the Committee members stated that it seemed that this year would be “a strong” one not only as for the quantity but also as for the quality. The number of films is the highest in the festival’s history. The Selection Committee, whose members were Kateřina Javorská (a scriptwriter and dramaturgist), Jana Mesiariková (dramaturg 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. These films will be assessed by the International Film Jury that will meet in April. For the Children Jury, that will meet during the festival, the Selection Committee chose 9 films. This year the largest number of films for the competition were submitted by Slovakia (9) and Germany, Czech Republic and France (8). The countries Great Britain, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Australia, Austria, China, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Serbia, Estonia, Brazil, Turkey will also participate in the competition, as well as Palestine, which sent a film to ENVIROFILM for the first time. Also films submitted by the European Union and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) will compete. Traditionally, the most numerous is the B category (documentaries).

“I was lucky enough to see registered films. In some cases they are true cinematic titbits.  Visitors of ENVIROFILM can look forward to them," said Jana Mesiariková, the Selection Committee member. "Participation in the Selection Committee of ENVIROFILM 2012 was my premiere; it was very inspiring and surprising. Firstly, I was surprised by filmmakers´ interest in this festival, which, by its message and contents, has crossed long ago the border of the region and Slovakia. Finally, it can also be proved by the number of films sent for the competition, which this year reached the number close to 180. And from the whole world! With my colleagues, therefore, we had not an easy task at all. To go carefully through all the films and choose such that have the greatest chance to score in the international competition. The responsibility for a proper selection as well as subjects of films was so strong that in many cases they provoked creative debates among the members of the Selection Committee.

But I believe that for the "top group" we have selected the most interesting films of the highest quality. In some cases, alongside the diversity of works, I was particularly surprised by the range of topics related to environment protection: still occuring consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, genetically modified products, poaching and an alarming lack of water in African countries, illegal mining of mineral resources, impacts of global warming, ecosystem preservation. .. etc. The most numerous, as traditionally, has been the group of documentaries and journalistic programmes and films, where I have several favourites. I will just mention the Czech documentary Seeking Asylum on Ecological Grounds, the film of Australian production bringing an insight into the symbol of Australia – kangaroos - from quite different angle, the Austrian movie about "radioactive wolves" and I have to mention also several high-quality animated films, which jokingly refer to our "ecological" behaviour. My favourite I have also in the group of amateur and student films ... But, let's see which films will impress the international jury the most... "

The International Environmental Film Festival ENVIROFILM was established in 1995 and is held annually in May. The centre of festival events is Banská Bystrica. Other festival cities: Zvolen, Banská Štiavnica, Kremnica, Krupina, Poltár, Skalica, Košice.

The Ministry of the Environment is the promulgator and the Slovak Environmental Agency (SEA) and the non-profit organisation Envirofilm, n. o.  are the organisers of the festival.  The leitmotif of the 18th Envirofilm, which will be held from 14th to 19th May 2012, are environmental risks.

www.envirofilm.sk