Slovak cinema experiences a slowdown after the second year of the pandemic, braces for a comeback
- The national funding body, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, has responded with a special scheme to support cinemas and has transferred funds into scholarships
The second year of the pandemic had an even more dire impact on the Slovakian film industry than the annus horribilis of 2020. Indeed, the country’s audiovisual industry produced 26 feature-length films in total in 2021, compared to 28 in 2020. Ten movies were directed by first-time filmmakers. Of the 14 live-action fiction features, four were made as 100% Slovak or Slovak majority co-productions: Peter Kerekes’ award-winning docudrama 107 Mothers [+see also:
film review
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interview: Peter Kerekes
film profile], the period drama Kryštof [+see also:
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film profile], and two romantic comedies, Jakub Kroner’s And a Happy New Year 2 and Perfect Strangers by Zuzana Marianková. The Czech Republic was the most frequent partner in terms of co-producing, involved in 57% of the total number of films, including Jan Prušinovský’s Emma in Love, Olmo Omerzu’s Bird Atlas [+see also:
film review
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interview: Olmo Omerzu
film profile], Václav Kadrnka’s Saving One Who Was Dead [+see also:
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interview: Václav Kadrnka
film profile] and David Ondříček’s Zátopek [+see also:
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interview: David Ondříček
film profile]. Regarding documentary films, seven out of the total of ten completed movies were made as 100% Slovak or Slovak majority co-productions, including the personal essay on the Roma Holocaust by Vera Lacková How I Became a Partisan [+see also:
interview: Vera Lacková
film profile], Miro Remo’s high-octane probe into the life of two car-racing enthusiasts At Full Throttle [+see also:
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interview: Miro Remo
film profile], Barbora Sliepková’s visual urban sonata Lines [+see also:
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interview: Barbora Sliepková
film profile] and Lucia Kašová’s portrait of a lonely mariner, The Sailor [+see also:
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film profile]. Despite only participating in two animated projects, both of these proved very successful. In addition to raking in festival laurels, My Sunny Maad [+see also:
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interview: Michaela Pavlátová
film profile] was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film, the first nomination for a Slovak-Czech film since the category was added in 2006, and Even Mice Belong in Heaven [+see also:
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film profile], the biggest and most expensive stop-motion film in Czech history, was nominated for a César Award.
Slovak theatres were closed for 173 days – ie, 47.4% of the year – and sold 2,037,942 tickets (down 13.82% on last year), with box-office takings declining by 11.56% (€12,351,764). Domestic theatres hosted the same number of films as in 2020: 648 movies, with premieres accounting for 171 of them. The films were handled by 13 domestic distribution companies. CinemArt SK (39), Continental Film (23), the Association of Slovak Film Clubs and Film Europe (both 20) brought the most premieres into local dark rooms. The most-visited film by the domestic audience was the animated flick Paw Patrol: The Movie (107,306 admissions), followed by the Slovak romcom Perfect Strangers (106,252 admissions) and the latest James Bond instalment No Time to Die [+see also:
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film profile] (104,292 admissions), while the second-most-visited domestic film turned out to be The Auschwitz Report [+see also:
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interview: Peter Bebjak
film profile] (39,063 admissions). In total, Slovak films were seen by 201,629 viewers (as against 775,487 in 2020 and 1,075,129 in 2019) in 160 cinemas with 273 screens (in 2020, these figures stood at 159 cinemas with 261 screens). US productions in Slovak theatres attracted 71.47% of theatre-goers, while the share of domestic films in cinemas fell from 31.79% (2020) to 9.89% (2021).
The Slovak Audiovisual Fund was compelled to respond to the crisis triggered by the pandemic. In collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, the fund provided a special support scheme for cinemas totalling €1,582,000 and also transferred money to scholarship funds (the support, worth €278,000, was the largest sum to date). Additionally, the fund provided €9.6 million to prop up audiovisual culture and €5.6 million in aid of the domestic audiovisual industry. In 2021, the fund registered 63 new projects, which will be completed between 2022 and 2024. The number of registered projects increased by 40%, while the number of supported projects grew by 116%. Among the projects that received backing of more than €100,000 are Jonáš Karásek’s Invalid, Iveta Grófová’s Emma and the Death’s Head (see the news), Zuzana Kirchnerová’s The Caravan (see the news), Matěj Chlupáček’s Dawn (see the news), Tomáš Klein’s A Sensitive Man [+see also:
film review
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interview: Tomáš Klein
film profile], Martina Buchelová’s Lover, Not a Fighter (see the news), Mira Fornay’s She - Hero [+see also:
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film profile], and Petr Kazda and Tomáš Weinreb’s Nobody Likes Me (see the news). In 2021, 12 Slovak projects vied for Eurimages support, with six of them receiving said backing, among them Emma and the Death’s Head, Of Unwanted Things and People (see the news), The Caravan and Cristina Grosan’s Ordinary Failures [+see also:
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interview: Cristina Grosan
film profile], which will have its premiere at the upcoming Venice Film Festival (see the news).
The full “Report on the Slovak Audiovisual Situation in 2021” can be accessed here.
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