The 4 živly Summer Film Festival will be held in Banská Štiavnica for the 28th time on August 6-9, 2026 with the main theme being Generations. Despite the shortened programme, the audience can look forward to many Slovak films.
Film historian Eva Filová has once again curated the traditional programme of short films from the collections of the Slovak Film Institute. The programme titled Generational Troubles takes a closer look at the lives of different generations from the 1960s to the 1980s. The 1963 film Graduates by Jaroslav Pogran portrays the preparations for and the excitement surrounding students’ graduation exams. Pavol Sýkora captured the lives of three orphans and a grandfather in the 1966 film Vlado Marienka Jojo Grandfather. Dušan Trančík’s 1968 film Photographing the House Dwellers is a look at the joyful and tragic events in one multi-generational family. Fero Fenič’s 1978 film Diadém tells the story of the problems of young people in an amateur music group. The last film in the programme is the 1980 health education film A Problem of Age directed by Kazimír Barlík about the principles of proper nutrition for older people.
Two contemporary Slovak short films can be seen as part of The Voice of the Young Generation – Award-Winning Films of the FilmEU Film Festival 2026 programme. It will present the successful documentary about public space How to Listen to Fountains by Eva Sajanová, which was awarded in San Sebastián and at many other festivals, and the fiction Hot Flush by Hana Hančinová, which thematizes explores a woman’s transition into menopause, representing a new stage in her life.
The festival programme also includes two feature films. Extraordinary is an adventure family film by Marina Andree Škop and Vanda Raýmanová, which premiered at this year’s BUFF festival in Malmö, Sweden. It is a heartwarming story about otherness , friendship, and the power of cooperation which reminds us that every generation has something to learn from another. Marek Kuboš’ documentary film ± 90 is a portrait of the influential generation of Slovak documentary filmmakers, the so-called Generation 90, whose leading figures include Kuboš himself, Peter Kerekes, Marko Škop, Jaro Vojtek, Zuzana Piussi, Juraj Lehotský, and Robert Kirchhoff
