Regional Competition

Peter Kerekes was born in Košice, Slovakia, and graduated from the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, earning a degree in film directing. In 2003, he directed and produced his debut feature documentary, 66 Seasons, which became a festival hit and won several awards, including the Best Film Award at DocAviv. His next feature documentary, Cooking History (2009), received the Prix Arte nomination for Best Documentary at the European Film Awards, among other plaudits. Kerekes's 2013 feature documentary, Velvet Terrorists (ZagrebDox 2014), co-directed by Pavol Pekarčík and Ivan Ostrochovský, won the FEDEORA Award at the Karlovy Vary IFF and celebrated its international premiere at the Berlinale Forum, winning the Tagesspiegel Readers’ Award. Kerekes also produced the omnibus documentary Occupation 1968 (2018), and co-produced The White World According to Daliborek (2017) and The Wind. A Documentary thriller (2019, ZagrebDox 2020).

Pavol Pekarčík (1972, Spišská Sobota) also studied at VŠMU, specifically under Dušan Hanák and Vlado Balco. He has collaborated with Ivan Ostrochovský on several films. His other works include several documentaries on mountain climbing, including Karakoram (2006) and Uli biaho (2007).

Ivan Ostrochovský (1972) graduated from the department of audio-visual studies and documentary fi lm at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU). His documentary work includes Lesser Evil (2004) and Ilja (2009).