Best Feature Film in 2012 and 2013, Best Director and Best Script – Mira Fornay won in these three categories with My Dog Killer (Môj pes Killer) at the National Sun in a Net Awards announced by the Slovak Film and Television Academy. The gala award-presentation ceremony took place on 26th April. “In addition to racism, for me this film is also about the effort to survive and to belong somewhere. At the same time, this is related to how important certainties, sometimes even a headstrong faith, are for us, what a big role pride plays and where fear of an eventual loss of position in society may lead,” said Mira Fornay for Film.sk. She also won the Hivos Tiger Award at the Rotterdam IFF for My Dog Killer. Normalisation (Kauza Cervanová) by director Robert Kirchhoff won the Sun in a Net Award for Best Documentary. Snow (Sneh, dir. I. Šebestová) became the Best Animated Film and The Exhibition (Výstava, dir. P. Begányi, A. Kolenčík) won among the short feature films. Since 2006, the Sun in a Net Awards have been awarded every two years.

The national creative awards in the area of audiovision, Igric, were awarded at the end of September last year. These were already the 25^th Annual Awards of the Slovak Film Union, Union of Slovak Television Creators and Literary Fund of the Slovak Republic. A jury comprising seven members evaluated 62 works and eventually awarded five Igric Awards – to cinematographer Tomáš Juríček for The Candidate (Kandidát), director Robert Kirchhoff for the documentary Normalisation, to Katarína Kerekesová for the idea, concept, directing and art direction of the TV series Mimi and Lisa (Mimi a Líza), to actress Zuzana Mauréry for her performances in Colette and Fine, Thanks (Ďakujem, dobre) and to actor Marek Majeský for his performance in the title role of The Candidate. In addition, Special Prizes for Creativity and the 22nd Slovak Film Critic Awards FIPRESCI 2014 were awarded (Best Feature Film: My Dog Killer, Best Documentary: Normalisation and Velvet Terrorists – Zamatoví teroristi, dir. P. Pekarčík, I. Ostrochovský, P. Kerekes).

The English DVD with the Slovak film Birds, Orphans and Fools (Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni, dir. J. Jakubisko), which was issued in June last year in Second Run, a London-based DVD company, ranked second in last year’s list of top Blu-rays and DVDs compiled by the DVD Beaver portal. The UK film magazine Little White Lies also entered the DVD in its TOP 25. Birds, Orphans and Fools is the second in the collection of films licensed by the Slovak Film Institute to be issued by Second Run. The first was The Sun in a Net (Slnko v sieti, dir. Š. Uher). At the end of February, Second Run will issue another Slovak film on DVD – Pictures of the Old World (Obrazy starého sveta, dir. D. Hanák).

Of the 1,182 cinemas in 69 countries associated in Europea Cinemas, last year two Slovak cinemas, both in Bratislava, won the Best Programming Award. These were Cinema Lumière operated by the Slovak Film Institute and the Mladosť Cinema which celebrated its centenary last year. “Both cinemas have their unique history and identity, and they set the cultural standard,” stated the representatives of Europa Cinemas, having the objective of stimulating the release of European films in cinemas. Last year, European films constituted up to 61 per cent of the programme of Cinema Lumière, without including Slovak films. The cinema attendance rate displays an upward tendency every year; last year the cinema attracted almost 66,000 viewers which represents a year-on-year increase of more than 25 per cent.

From the beginnings of cinema to the present day, for adults and for children. The Slovak Film Institute (SFI), in collaboration with the Association of Slovak Film Clubs, has been preparing an educational series entitled Film Cabinet for film fans for the last two years; it deals with the history of world and Slovak cinematography. The new semester of events started recently – on 29 January, and up to June it will offer ten lectures: the Birth of Film, David Wark Griffith and the Detail, Documentary and Reality, the Birth of Slovak Cinema, Charles Chaplin and Gesture, Soviet Avant-garde and Montage, Expressionism and Expression, Peaks of Silent Film and Film Language, Surrealism and Luis Buñuel, and Sound in Film. Each lecture is accompanied by the screening of a film. First- to fourth-graders at primary schools may also discover the mysteries of film art at screenings of Slovak animated films and lectures within the Film Cabinet for Children. In addition to these educational series, an annual showcase entitled A Train Named Film started in January on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the first projection of the Lumière Brothers’ cinematograph for which the public paid admission. In the course of the year the showcase will present approximately 60 films from various periods of the history of cinematography. All of them are linked by the theme of railways and trains.

Five years ago, in the Film.sk monthly, eight Slovak film theoreticians and critics started evaluating those Slovak or majority Slovak full-length films screened in cinemas in the given year. The assessors award films points on a scale of one to a maximum of five. Last year, they evaluated 19 Slovak films and the documentary All My Children (Všetky moje deti) by director Ladislav Kaboš scored the highest. It is a film about the priest, Marián Kuffa, and about the assistance he provides to socially disadvantaged people under harsh conditions. Documentary filmmakers also dominate other positions – Comeback (dir. M. Remo) ranked second followed by the documentary Wave vs. Shore (Vlna vs. breh, dir. M. Štrba).