We Are in the Middle of Europe

Slovakia is in the middle of Europe, not only in geographical terms, but also based on the preliminary distribution results for 2012. This conclusion derives from a press release issued by the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) during the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. We have not achieved the top positions with regard to year-on-year indicators, as we did in 2009; nevertheless it is pleasing that, even in a crisis, we are keeping close to the European average.

In 2012, 3,436,269 viewers visited Slovak cinemas. That was 4.64% fewer than in 2011, but it should be noted that, according to the preliminary results, the year-on-year decline in admissions was 2.2% across the European Union (EU). For instance, Italy (9.9%) or France (6.3%) recorded a more dramatic drop than Slovakia. Moreover, these were the fourth highest admission figures in Slovak cinemas since 1998. As the number of screenings remained approximately the same as in 2011 – 114,900 screenings even represents a year-on-year increase of 0.10% – the average admission per screening fell from 31.39 viewers in 2011 to 29.91 in 2012. That means a drop of 4.74% and the historically lowest average admission per screening in the era of independent Slovakia. But the average admission fee increased from EUR 4.79 in 2011 to a record EUR 5.11, which resulted in an increase in revenues of 1.71%. In all, audiences paid EUR 17,548,181 for admission.

In 2012, twenty-one Slovak and co-production full-length films were made, and only seven of these were minority co-productions. Last year seventeen Slovak films, including five minority co-productions, were released in Slovak cinemas. However, the fact of many films does not automatically mean many viewers. While in 2011 the domestic films share in total admissions was 10.06%, including minority co-productions, and after subtracting them the share dropped to 4.76%, in 2012, a total of 103,759 viewers went to see Slovak films, which represents only 3.02% of the total admissions. After subtracting the results of minority co-productions, this number falls to 81,852 viewers, being 2.38%. This is a huge drop, especially for minority co-productions, as 21,907 viewers represents only 8.7% of the admissions to minority co-productions in 2011. Only in 2010 were fewer viewers (9,297) curious to view this part of local production in the past few years. But in 2011 over 100,000 people saw Jakub Kroner’s film Lóve within seven weeks and the minority co-production Identity Card (Občiansky preukaz, dir. Ondřej Trojan) was even more successful. Last year’s fall in admissions to domestic releases was due, especially, to the lack of a hit, but also due to the related decline in the number of screenings by almost a half (from 8,074 in 2011 to 4,876 in 2012) and the drop in average attendance per screening. While in 2011, 37.59 viewers, on average, went to see a 100% Slovak film or majority co-production, last year it was only 21.86 viewers. This drop was even more marked for minority co-productions. Compared with the excellent average admission of 53.32 viewers per screening in 2011, last year’s minority co-productions attracted only 12.19 viewers on average. And these included, for instance, the holder of the European Film Award for Animation Alois Nebel (dir. Tomáš Luňák) and the Czech Academy Awards candidate In the Shadow (V tieni, dir. David Ondříček).

Just for comparison, based on the share of admissions to domestic productions of the total admissions, in 2012, France was the most successful among the EU countries with a 40.5% share. Outside of the EU, the highest admissions to domestic productions were recorded in Turkey (46.6%).

226 New Releases

While in 2012 we only came close to the record for the number of premières of Slovak titles (the highest number, eighteen, was recorded in 2009), the total number of new films in Slovak cinemas was historically the highest (since 1945). Sixteen distribution companies (on 1 August 2012 Bontonfilm started operating on the Slovak market and it took over film distribution from Tatrafilm which now only operates cinemas) released 226 films in our cinemas, which represents twenty-six more than the previous maximum in 2010. Out of the total number of films, thirty-eight were released in film clubs. The highest number of premières was recorded in September (27) also thanks to Project 100 – 2012; by contrast, the lowest number (ten) were released in December. Distributors released films from 24 countries: most of the premièred films came from the USA (93), while France and the Czech Republic ranked second with 23 premières.

Most Viewers Saw Ice Age 4: Continental Drift

In 2012, Tatrafilm/Bontonfilm was the most successful distribution company. It is the clear leader with 48 premières, 79 films screened in 2012, with a 37.77% audience share and 38.74% share of gross box office. The company had three out of the four most viewed films of the year: Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. Continental Film was ranked second (admissions share – 23.10%, gross box office share – 23.29%); it had the following films in the TOP 10: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Dark Knight Rises and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Forum Film was ranked third (viewer share – 12.69%, gross box office share – 12.39%), it distributed the James Bond movie, Skyfall. The film with the highest attendance for 2012 was Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. It was viewed by 244,567 people (in 2011 the equivalent was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 with 212,214 viewers).

Unlike previous years, no Slovak films were ranked in the TOP 10, nor TOP 20. The best attended domestic film Confidant (eŠteBák) with 25,310 viewers was ranked 39th. Pavol Janík’s début So Fine (Tak fajn) also managed to exceed the 10,000 mark (13,502 viewers) as well as the first film made by Marek Ťapák Dancing on Broken Glass (Tanec medzi črepinami, 10,281 viewers). With regard to minority co-productions, The Blue Tiger (Modrý tiger) was the most successful title in 2012 with 6,716 viewers. For comparison, in 2011 the previously mentioned Lóve attracted more than 20,000 viewers in the first three weeks – 26,811, 22,424 and 20,905 viewers.

The final part of the vampire series The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 entered Slovak distribution history last year – 94,197 viewers during the opening weekend is a new Slovak record. In addition, during the same weekend commencing 15 November, Slovak cinemas recorded the highest weekend box office ever, i.e. over EUR 630,000.

While in 2011, 155 premièred films were still available on 35mm film, i.e. 78.28%, the figure for 2012 was only 61 films (27.23%). It is interesting to note that, in 2012 , after unsuccessful negotiations with distributors, the new film by Zuzana Piussi The Grasp of the State (Od Fica do Fica) was made available on the Internet. From 20 November to the end of the year, 12,834 viewers from 65 countries (including India, Bahrain, Tanzania and Barbados) saw the film via the Piano system, which enables website operators to charge for on-line content. This film was seen by more viewers than last year’s third most attended domestic film in cinemas. In 2012, only two Slovak films were also released in 35mm copies (minority co-productions Alois Nebel and The Blue Tiger) and all the premièred films except for two films by director Zuzana Piussi (Men of Revolution, The Grasp of the State) were available on DCP media.

Slovak Films in Czech Distribution

2012 was also an exceptional year with regard to the distribution of Slovak films in Czech cinemas. According to the Union of Film Distributors (UFD) of the Czech Republic, sixteen Slovak and co-production films were screened in the cinemas of our neighbour to the west (among them a record eleven premières), and these were viewed by 370,850 viewers. The Czech national candidate for the Academy Award In the Shadow was the most successful; from its première on 13 September the film was viewed by 190,106 people up to the end of the year (it was the second most successful minority co-production in Slovakia with 5,371 viewers). And how did other Slovak premières fare in the Czech Republic? Lóve was premièred on 12 January (14,225 viewers), The Blue Tiger on 23 February (97,203 viewers), Apricot Island on 22 March (1,559 viewers), Obscurantist and His Lineage or The Pyramids’ Tearful Valleys (Tmář a jeho rod aneb Slzavé údolí pyramid) on 3 May (388 viewers), Don’t Stop on 14 June (4,477 viewers), Confidant on 5 July (13,882 viewers), So Fine on 9 August (1,438 viewers), The Greatest Wish (Naj-väčšie prianie) on 20 September (7,443 viewers), 7 Days of Sin (7 dní hříchů) on 1 November (36,582 viewers) and Made in Ash (Až do mesta Aš) on 15 November (1,607 viewers). This was the first time that majority Slovak films had higher admissions in the Czech Republic (33,045 viewers) than all the minority co-productions in Slovakia (21,907 viewers).

Miro Ulman

TOP 10 SLOVAKIA

(1 January – 31 December 2012)

MOVIE TITLE / ADMISSION

1. Ice Age 4: Continental Drift / 244 567

2. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 / 180 766

3. Skyfall / 154 675

4. Madagascar 3: Europe´s Most Wanted / 133 436

5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey / 102 311

6. The Dark Knight Rises / 91 242

7. Hotel Transylvania / 91 216

8. American Pie: Reunion / 65 171

9. Brave / 64 704

10. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows / 61 570

Source: Union of Film Distributors of the SR

Under the Audiovisual Act, the main tasks of the Slovak Film Institute (SFI) in the areas of audiovision and cinema are the preservation, protection and restoration of the audiovisual heritage as part and parcel of the cultural wealth of the Slovak Republic. However, in the past few years, the SFI has found itself more and more frequently becoming a co-producer of audiovisual works also.

The SFI could only have started with its co-production activities from 1991 when it was constituted as an independent legal entity. Until then it was just one of the organisational units of the Slovak Film Production (SFP). Management of the film archive was one of the activities taken over from the SFP. Quotations from archived materials are the main co-production input provided by the SFI to projects. But not every use of shots from the archives which increases the historical value and authenticity of documentaries means that the SFI is a co-producer of an audiovisual work. “Licensing of quotations for a certain period of time for an agreed fee is one of the three most important sources of income of our institution. The co-production activities of the SFI mainly concern those projects which in some way refer to the history of Slovak cinema or deal with significant Slovak filmmakers, such as Golden Sixties or documentaries about Martin Slivka or Vincent Rosinec. I am glad that our archive collections find a place in such a context and participate in the creation, I might claim, of milestone audiovisual works that are broadcast on TV, issued on DVD and can serve for various educational projects,” says the General Director of the SFI, Peter Dubecký.

In its twenty-two years of independent existence, the SFI has participated, as co-producer, in the making of documentaries, but also feature films and also in the mapping of the history of domestic animated production.

1991 – 1999: Feature Film, Paper Heads and Michael York

Everything started in a grand style. In 1992, Peter Patzak made the political thriller Rochade (Rošáda) with Michael York in the title role in a Slovak-Austrian co-production in Slovakia with financial support from the SFI. Two years later, Štefan Semjan’s crazy comedy On the Beautiful, Blue Danube (Na krásnom modrom Dunaji) was premièred in cinemas. It tells the story of three bohemian friends who, in seeking excitement from adventures on the fringes of the law, exuberant fun and with no worries about the future, are brought into collaboration in the theft of a famous Andy Warhol picture from an exhibition in Bratislava. This was the first and, to date, the last full-length feature film for cinemas that the SFI has co-produced. With 57,006 viewers, in 2010 the film was still in the TOP 10 most-attended domestic films in the era of independent Slovakia.

In 1995, the SFI co-produced Paper Heads (Papierové hlavy), the first Slovak project supported by the Council of Europe cinematographic fund Eurimages. “We were glad that the SFI was able to provide its archive for such an important project. Paper Heads is still one of the best-attended Slovak documentaries since 1992, and the film was sold to virtually the whole world,” says Peter Dubecký. In addition to the three cinema films mentioned, the SFI participated only in the production of Ján Fúzik’s mid-length documentary The Mother Is Calling I – II (Mať volá I – II, 1996) about the relocation of 73,000 Slovaks from Hungary after World War 2.

2000 – 2008: Slivka, Ursiny, Rosinec and Winter

Eight years passed before the SFI co-produced another project, the first majority foreign project. The thirteen-part Czech-Greek-Slovak documentary series The Olympic Games with the subtitle …in the Same River Thrice (Olympiáda …po tretíkrát do tej istej rieky) talks about the birth of the Olympic Games, their history, politics, symbols and about the preparations for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. A year later the SFI and the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava co-produced Maroš Berák’s student film Obedient to the President of the Republic (Poslušní prezidentovi republiky, 2005). The SFI also co-produced in tandem with the Academy Robert Šulák’s There were Horné Opatovce (Tam boli Horné Opatovce, 2009) and About Bachelors (O starých mládencoch, 2010). And in 2005, the tribute to director Elo Havetta, Celebration of a Lonely Palm (Slávnosť osamelej palmy), was made by directors Marko Škop and Juraj Johanides. In the same year and subsequent years the SFI continued the collaboration in the production of news films Chronicles (Letopisy).

The fourth full-length film for cinemas that was co-produced by the SFI was Martin Šulík’s documentary Martin Slivka – the Man Who Planted Trees (Martin Slivka – muž, ktorý sadil stromy, 2007) which is a tribute to Martin Slivka, one of the most prominent figures of Slovak cinema and culture.

A further four films were made in 2008. The portrait of the Slovak music legend Dežo Ursiny entitled Snapshots (Momentky) was distributed to cinemas. The Optimist (Optimista) by Dušan Trančík, the portrait of Ľudovít Winter, who modernised the spa town of Piešťany despite the envy and resentment of several political regimes, was premièred at the IFF Bratislava and later issued on DVD. The mid-length film by Marek Šulík The Journey of Magdalena Robinson (Cesta Magdalény Robinsonovej, 2008) about a prominent Slovak photographer who lost both parents during World War 2, suffered in concentration camps and after decades observes with horror the renewed interest of part of the Slovak public in fascist ideas and the veneration of representatives of the First Slovak Republic, was shown with great success at festivals. The mid-length documentary by Vlado Balco Between 4 – 5.6 (Medzi 4 – 5,6) was the last project in 2008. Thefilm is a personal lifetime summary of the works by cinematographer Vincent Rosinec.

2009 – 2011: from TV Series to TV Series

The period between 2009 and 2011 was very rich in co-production projects of the SFI. If we count the individual episodes, then the final figure amounted to 59! In 2009, the SFI co-produced two mid-length films by Zuzana Piussi: Hero of Our Time (Hrdina našich čias) about the significant Slovak film critic Pavel Branko, and her investigation into the destiny of the film studio entitled Koliba (Koliba). Tomáš Hučko’s documentary Before This Film Is Over (Kým sa skončí tento film, 2009) was dedicated to Tibor Vichta, a prominent screenwriter, dramaturge and teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts. Ilja (Ilja, 2010) by Ivan Ostrochovský was another mid-length documentary from this period; it is a film about the composer, Ilja Zeljenka.

The largest volume of co-productions was concentrated in three big projects. In 2009, Golden Sixties (Zlatá šedesátá) in co-production with the Czech Republic brought together twenty-six portraits of important personalities of Czechoslovak film, Albert Marenčin, Juraj Jakubisko, Eduard Grečner, Igor Luther, Ivan Balaďa and Dušan Hanák amongst others. Martin Šulík directed this series, and also a two-part full-length film for cinemas 25 from the Sixties, or the Czechoslovak New Wave (25 zo šesťdesiatych alebo Československá nova vlna, 2010). Unlike Golden Sixties, the film presents an overall view of the phenomenon of the Czechoslovak new wave by means of twenty-five key films with comments by their filmmakers and film historians.

In The Slovak Cinema young documentary filmmakers look at the history and present of Slovak cinematography. In 2010, six episodes were made (directed by Peter Kerekes, Robert Kirchhoff, Ivan Ostrochovský, Diana Fabiánová, Lenka Moravčíková-Chovanec, Dušan Bustin) and two years later a further four were made by Miro Remo, Zuzana Liová, Zuzana Karasová and Lenka Moravčíková. The thirteen-episode documentary The Magic World of Animated Film (Čarovný svet animovaného filmu) was made over a period of eight years. The screenwriter and co-director Rudolf Urc looks at the history of Slovak animated film in the series, its most remarkable, most distinctive works, the trends and the authors. Celluloid Country (Celluloid Country) in turn deals with the history of Slovak documentary. Martin Šulík and Ivan Ostrochovský were the directors of the series. According to Ostrochovský, “this is a series which seeks to draw a picture of Slovakia mainly through documentaries and news films. It attempts to answer the question of why, in a certain period of time, a given image was preferred and whether Slovak films show how we are or rather how we would like to be.” The whole project has nine episodes and so far five have been completed.

2012: We Are Carrying On

2012 was no exception to these activities. In the course of the year, the SFI concluded five co-production agreements. This led to the making of Igor Sivák’s film Shadows of the Barbarian Night (Tiene barbarskej noci) about the monks against whom Operation K was aimed in 1950, and Zuzana Piussi’s film Men of Revolution (Muži revolúcie) – a mosaic of subjective views of former revolutionaries from 1989. Both films together with The Woman Rabbi (Rabínka) by Anna Grusková – a film about the destiny of Gisi Fleischmannová with the agreement signed in 2011 – have already been released into distribution or at festivals. A further three projects with agreements signed in 2012 are now awaiting their première: Lyrik (Lyrik) by Arnold Kojnok, the full-length documentary Normalization (Kauza Cervanová) by Robert Kirchhoff and The Carlton Legend (Legenda Carlton) by director Peter Krištúfek. The Polish-Slovak project The Last Wave (Posledná vlna) by director Andrzej Titkow is in production; the agreement was signed in 2011.

Hence, it appears that the trend set by recent years is going to continue. As the General Director of the SFI, Peter Dubecký, says: “We will make decisions based on our possibilities and type of project, whether we are going to co-produce or not, because there are many projects related to cinematography that would probably never come into existence if the SFI did not contribute to their making as co-producer.”

Miro Ulman