“It was the idea of the festival to include Slovak films,” Alexandra Strelkova of the Slovak Film Institute told FNE. “They saw it as a natural expansion, and we are, of course, glad about it.”

The 2014 competition includes two films that are 100 percent Slovak productions: Fine, Thanks (MPhilms) by Mátyás Prikler and Love Me or Leave Me (JMB Film&TV Production) by Mariana Čengel Solčanská, along with several majority and minority Slovak coproductions, and five Slovak films or majority coproductions in the documentary competition.

Strelkova said that Slovak-Czech coproductions have been a staple for most of the two decades since Czechoslovakia split into two countries, but noted, “It’s even more so since the Czechs began minority coproduction funding. New partnerships are forming with a growing number of Czech minority participation in Slovak majority films.” Those include partnership such as the ones between Slovakia’s PubRes and the Czech company Bionaut or Slovakia’s Punkchart Films and endorfilm, a strong Czech coproduction partner. Previously, Slovaks had taken a back seat as minority coproducers to their Czech partners.

Some of the strengthened interest in Slovak filmmakers comes as its groundbreaking documentary directors make the move into feature fiction filmmaking. Strelkova told FNE that Marko Škop, Ivan Ostrochovský, Jaro Vojtek, and Juraj Lehotský are some of the documentary filmmakers now transitioning into fiction. They’ll be joining a bevy of Slovak directors whose fiction feature films are on the rise. “More Slovak fiction films are getting both international and domestic interest,” Strelkova said.