The 42nd Warsaw International Film Festival (9–18 October 2026) kicks off today, screening four Slovak feature films. The festival’s industry programme will showcase two Slovak projects.
The Competition 1–2 section, dedicated to first and second feature films, will present the fiction film Lover, Not a Fighter by Martina Buchelová, which won the Proxima Grand Prix at its premiere in Karlovy Vary and the main Golden Kingfisher Award at the Finále Plzeň festival. The minority co-production Backwoods (d. Evženie Brabcová) also premiered in Plzeň and will compete in the same section in Warsaw.
The Documentary Competition includes Ester Geislerová’s debut The Pint of Ink. The Special Screenings section will present the acclaimed Slovak fiction feature Nepela, directed by Gregor Valentovič.
Two upcoming Slovak projects will be presented at the Warsaw Co-Production Forum (15–16 October 2026), the centrepiece of the festival’s industry programme. The minority The Theory of Strangeness (d. Tereza Kopáčová, Slovak co-prod. PubRes) has been selected among ten projects in development from Central and Eastern Europe. The Slovak majority Panna Sofia (d. Václav Kadrnka, prod. Silverart) is among the six selected projects within the Works in Progress section.
