BRATISLAVA: Admissions at the Slovak box office made major gains in 2019 over the previous year. Although official statistics are not available according to preliminary information 3,056,019 tickets were sold in Slovak cinemas in the first six months of 2019, representing an average of 32 tickets per screening, compared to 27 tickets in the similar period in 2018. The number of domestic films released also increased in 2019 compared to the previous year.

BRATISLAVA: We spoke with Slovak producer Wanda Adamík Hrycová about the series Slavs / Slovania, a Slovak/Ukrainian coproduction she is producing through Wandal Production, and also about her activity as the new Head of the Slovak Film and TV Academy (SFTA).

BRATISLAVA: The epic historical TV series Slavs / Slovania by Jozef Koleják, Veronika Kolejáková and Ján Luterán is currently in final postproduction with the first six of its 12 episodes in final cut stage. This Slovak/Ukrainian coproduction between Wanda Hrycová´s Wandal Production and Andrey Yermak´s European Partnership Media Group will premiere on TV JOJ in Slovakia and 1+1 channel in the Ukraine in the autumn of 2020.

BRATISLAVA: Jakub Kroner‘s romantic comedy The New Year´s Kiss / Šťastný nový rok topped the Slovak weekend box office during its opening (5-8 December 2019), with 56,555 admissions and 337,680 EUR gross.

BRATISLAVA: The Bratislava International Film Festival has cancelled its 2019 edition, which was due in December, but it plans to develop into a modern and larger film event next year.

SLOVAKIA: The mystery/psychological thriller Faces / Chehre directed by Rumi Jaffery and starring Amitabh Bachchan will start shooting in the High Tatras in Slovakia on 10 December 2019. This is the first Indian film to be shot in Slovakia. The eight shooting days in Europe are divided between Slovakia and Poland.

BRATISLAVA: The main prize at CAMERA 2019, awarded by the Association of Slovak Cinematographers, went to Denisa Buranová for the feature film By a Sharp Knife directed by Teodor Kuhn, while Juraj Mravec received the award in the documentary category for Lost Home, that he also directed.

BRATISLAVA: FNE spoke with Zuzana Bieliková, head of the Slovak Film Commission, about foreign film productions coming to Slovakia and the increase in Slovak film incentives. Bieliková was appointed to her post when the Slovak Film Commission was launched on 1 June 2018. Slovakia introduced film incentives of 20 percent in 2015. The incentives are due to increase to 33 percent on 1 January 2020.

BRATISLAVA: Slovak director Marek Kuboš is in production with documentary +/-90, and is working on his debut feature The Secret / Tajomstvo. Both films are produced by Kuboš‘s own production company PSYCHÉ film, which produced his recent film The Last Self-Portrait, which was a successful return after several years of creative pause.

BRATISLAVA: The acclaimed Slovak documentary director Peter Kerekes is in postproduction with Censor / Cenzorka, a Slovak/Czech/Ukrainian coproduction, which is the first fiction film of the filmmaker known for his documentaries Cooking History and 66 Seasons.