This year, two Slovak films have been selected for the program of the 73rd edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival (September 19 – 27, 2025), which places a strong emphasis on connecting European and Ibero-American cinema while also focusing on discovering new talent.
The drama Ungrateful Beings, a six-country co-production between the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia and France, will celebrate its world premiere in the main competition. The fifth feature film by Olmo Omerzu, a Slovenian-born director based in Prague, will compete for the festival’s top award – the Golden Shell. The film tells the story of father David, who takes his two children on a seaside holiday in an attempt to prevent the family from falling apart. His daughter Klára, who suffers from an eating disorder, falls in love with a local boy who is accused of murder. After their return home, a chain of events unfolds that will test the cohesion of the family’s already fragile bonds. The Slovak co-producer of the film is Ivan Ostrochovský (Punkchart films), marking his fourth collaboration with Omerzu after Family Film (world premiere at the 63rd San Sebastián IFF in the New Directors section in 2015), Winter Flies (2018), and Bird Atlas (2021).
In the competitive Nest section, dedicated to student films, the short documentary How to Listen to Fountains by Eva Sajanová will also have its world premiere. The experimental film produced by the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, critiques the culture of public space through the metaphor of anthropomorphized fountains, which draw attention to their existence and demand remedy.
More information at: www.sansebastianfestival.com/in/
