This year, two Slovak directors with their latest films have been selected for the festival program, which focuses on experimental film form and the discovery of new talents.
Action Item, a feature-length documentary directed by Paula Ďurinová, was selected for the International Competition. The film will be shown in a world premiere shared with the Karlovy Vary IFF (July 4 – 12, 2025).
Bardo, a short animation directed by Viera Čákanyová, will be screened in world premiere in the Flash Competition.
Both directors, whose previous films have been shown at major festivals such as the Berlinale or the Karlovy Vary IFF, are presenting their work at the Marseille festival for the first time.
| International Competition |
Director: Paula Ďurinová
Production: guča films (SK), CLAW (CZ), STVR (SK), Universität der Künste Berlin (DE)
Slovak producer: Matej Sotník
Festivals and sales: Kino Rebelde, distribution@kinorebelde.com
Screenings:
July 9 | 16.00 | Artplexe Canebiére
July 11 | 16.00 | Artplexe Canebiére
July 13 | 13.30 | Artplexe Canebiére
In management, action items are tasks that must be performed to resolve an issue. But what if the issue is not individual, but systemic? In her second feature documentary, director Paula Ďurinová explores how personal experience of burnout shifts into collective sharing and awakening. Set in Berlin, Action Item transforms anxiety into resistance, reframing struggles through shared memory, found footage, and the politics of care. What if the real task is to unlearn, to pause, to reimagine?
Director: Viera Čákanyová
Production: Somatic films (CZ), guča films (SK)
Slovak producer: Matej Sotník
Festivals: Disco Sailing, alexandra@discosailing.com
Screenings:
July 9 | 13.30 | Artplexe Canebiére
July 11 | 16.00 | Artplexe Canebiére
July 12 | 11.00 | La Baleine
According to Tibetan tradition, Bardo is the state of existence after death before the next birth. In the eponymous film, director Viera Čákanyová visualizes the experience of being in darkness, where one can experience the continuous morphing of matter into surprising forms. This journey includes the consciousness of living and non-living entities. Neural network-generated images, crafted into subtle animation, depict transformations into a giant sequoia, the Earth’s core, or the eye of a hurricane.
