The festival has also announced two recipients of special awards at the festival. Czech actor Ivan Trojan will receive the Actor’s Mission Award for a career that includes numerous awards for films including In the Shadow and Burning Bush. Slovak screenwriter and rector of the Bratislava Academy of Performing Arts Ondrej Sulaj, known for his work with director Martin Sulik on The Garden and Orbis Pictus, will receive the festival’s Golden Camera award.

The 2014 international competition brings together a selection of films from countries normally underrepresented at CEE festivals, stretching from the United Arab Emirates to Tanzania, and from Somalia to Australia. The festival will hold a second competition for short films, and once again will put a spotlight on domestic films in the Slovak Season section.

This year the MIDPOINT training programme focusing on young professionals in the areas of dramaturgy and scriptwriting will expand its activities at Art Film Fest to two programmes: a residency workshop and a workshop in dramaturgy.

The list of films in the international competition follows:

Still Life, dir. Umberto Pasolini (UK/Italy)

Calvary, dir. John Michael McDonough (Ireland/UK)

To Kill a Man, dir. Alejandro Fernández Almendras (France/Chile)

Club Sandwich dir. Fernando Eimbcke (Mexico)

Letter to the King dir. Hisham Zamam (Norway/UAE)

White Shadow, dir. Noaz Deshe (Tanzania/Germany/Italy)

52 Tuesdays, Sophie Hyde (Australia)

Fishing Without Nets, dir. Cutter Hodierne (USA/Kenya/Somalia)