The International Film Festival for Children and Youth Zlín Film Festival (May 29 – June 4, 2025), the oldest festival of its kind in the world, consistently features a strong Slovak presence in its program, and it is therefore no surprise that the 60th anniversary of Slovak animation will be celebrated here.
During the festival’s 65th edition, the history and development of Slovak animated film will be showcased through a selection of 16 classic short films produced by the Slovenská filmová tvorba studio, now held in the Film Archive of the Slovak Film Institute (SFI). The films are divided into two blocks within a joint section titled 60 Years of Slovak Animation, curated by animation film theorist Eva Šošková in collaboration with Lea Pagáčová from the Presentation department of the SFI. The screening block Tom Thumb and Other Animated Films, intended for children, will be personally introduced by animator and director Štefan Martauz. One of the six films in this section is Cock-a-doodle-do (dir. František Jurišič, 1985), on which Martauz worked as an animator. Other films in the program include The Magician and the Flower Girl (dir. Vlastimil Herold, 1986), The Daub (dir. Vladimír Lehký, 1972), Joey’s Space Adventure (dir. Vladimír Pikalík, 1990), Tom Thumb at the Magician’s (dir. Viktor Kubal, 1973), What Happened to Johnny on the Road (dir. Viktor Kubal, 1981).
The second block, titled The World of Viktor Kubal, is aimed at an adult audience, will be presented in Zlín by Eva Šošková. She selected ten films for this program, which will be screened in the following order: We’re Entering the Nuclear Age (1963), Earth (1966), The Microscope (1981), The Mysterious Old Man (1944), Chess (1974), Cinema (1977), Selection (1982), Only Child (1979), The Ladder (1978), Promotion (1968). The selection reflects key themes in Slovak animation — mechanization, labor, and ecology. The first three films highlight Kubal’s skeptical view of progress, the next four explore the gender roles of women, and the final three focus on work and meaningless careerism.
In both competitive and non-competitive sections, the festival will also present a total of 18 new Slovak films, including majority and minority co-productions, both feature-length and short films, as well as student works.
Three Slovak films made it into the selection of fifry titles for the International Competition of Student Films Zlín Dog. Two dramas were selected from fiction works – Hot Flush (dir. Hana Hančinová) and The Bus by Daniela Sláviková. The trio is completed by the biographical documentary Confession (dir. Rebeka Bizubová), which won the newly introduced category Best Short Fiction or Documentary Film at this year’s Sun in a Net national awards.
In the related non-competitive section Zlín Dog – Another Take, two Slovak short films will be presented: the sci-fi Shedding the Mist (dir. Kateřina Hroníková) and the adventurous fiction film The Wayfarer (dir. Veronika Jelšíková), previously screened for Slovak audiences at this year’s Febiofest, and which will have its official world premiere at the Zlín festival.
The International Competition of Short Animated Films for Children up to 12 years, intended for the youngest viewers from the age of 3, will feature two domestic titles. Hello Summer (dir. Martin Smatana, Veronika Zacharová), which premiered at Animafest Zagreb in 2024 and has since toured festivals worldwide, and the student film How the Bear Composed a Song (dir. Kristína Bajaníková), created using the technique of cut-out animation and just beginning its festival journey.
The International Competition of Feature Films in the Children´s Category will showcase the puppet anthology film Tales from the Magic Garden (dirs. David Súkup, Patrik Pašš, Leon Vidmar, Jean-Claude Rozec), a creatively equal co-production between the Czech Republic, France, Slovakia, and Slovenia, which had its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale. The Zlín Film Festival will present the title in a Czech distribution pre-premiere.
The documentary film A Question of the Future (dir. Maroš Brázda), tackling the pressing issue of youth emigration from Slovakia, is included in the section Beyond the Horizon of Childhood, dedicated to teenage and adult audiences.
The showcase of the latest Czech productions for children and youth, titled New Czech Film and TV, will include several Slovak co-productions: Living Large (dir. Kristina Dufková), Princess Goldenhair (dir. Jan Těšitel), Waves (dir. Jiří Mádl) and Secret Delivery (dir. Ján Sebechlebský). World premieres in this section include two Czech-Slovak co-productions Fichtelberg (dir. Šimon Koudela and Cukrkandl (dir. Pavel Jandourek).
The Evening with Animation program will present three short Slovak co-productions that have attracted attention from international festival curators since their premieres last year: Free the Chickens (dir. Matúš Vizár), Hurikan (dir. Jan Saska) and I Died in Irpin (dir. Anastasiia Falileieva).
On Children’s Day, Sunday, there will be a discussion with Slovak actress Emília Vášáryová and actor Michal Pospíšil about the film When the Cat Comes (dir. Vojtěch Jasný, 1963). The event is organized in honor of director and screenwriter Vojtěch Jasný, who frequently and fondly visited the Zlín Film Festival, and also to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the birth of actor Jan Werich, who played an unforgettable dual role in the film. The discussion will be followed by a screening of the mentioned film.
Slovakia’s presence at this year’s Zlín Film Festival concludes with a lecture by producer Katarína Tomková titled The Package Service: How to Present Your Project Effectively?. In this hour-long session, Tomková will focus on preparing creative teams to present their film projects effectively on the international stage.
