– The event spotlighted a slate of Slovak projects, underscoring both the industry’s growing reliance on international co-productions and a new generation of filmmakers tackling urgent themes
The pitch for Animal by Milada Těšitelová (© Robo Tappert/International Film Festival Febiofest Bratislava)
The 11th edition of Work in Progress (16-17 March), held within International Film Festival Febiofest Bratislava’s industry strand, Bratislava Industry Days, continued to broaden the profile of Slovakia’s key platform for upcoming regional cinema by presenting a line-up that reached well beyond its domestic base. This year’s selection brought together projects from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France, confirming the event’s growing territorial range across Central and Eastern Europe. Alongside a strong Slovak presence, the showcase featured an increasing number of co-productions and internationally orientated titles in development, production and post-production, spanning fiction, documentary, animation and hybrid forms. The programme also reflected a notable generational shift, with many debuting and early-career filmmakers using the platform to introduce formally ambitious works tackling motherhood, care, migration, war, historical trauma, radicalisation and minority experience.
We outline the Slovak feature-length projects below:
Producer Valeria Borkovcová (left) and director Alica Bednáriková during the pitch for Attention Whores (© Robo Tappert/International Film Festival Febiofest Bratislava)
Attention Whores – Alica Bednáriková
Alica Bednáriková’s Attention Whores is a volatile, genre-bending debut that uses the grammar of teen comedy to probe a far darker social reality. Bednáriková is the first Slovak filmmaker who was chosen for the Résidence of the Cannes Film Festival, which she attended with this very project. Set in a secondary school, the Czech-Slovak project being produced by nutprodukcia and nutprodukce follows two 16-year-old girls whose friendship, built on rivalry and provocation, escalates into a competition over who can seduce a teacher first. Bednáriková described the film as “very loosely based on my high-school experience”, noting, “A lot of the teachers dated the students, [and] for us, it was normal, especially because the adults didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.” Rather than moralise, the filmmaker wants “to subvert the expectations of who is the victim and who’s the perpetrator”, framing the film less as a conventional coming-of-age title than as a movie that “starts off as a teenage comedy” and “veers into something much darker and deeper”. The crew is aiming to shoot in summer 2027, with post-production expected to follow thereafter, depending on financing and the final production setup. The filmmakers are currently seeking a third European co-producer, as well as partners for sales and potential collaboration across production and post-production.
RAW – Veronika Kováč
RAW is shaping up as a layered and character-driven documentary by Veronika Kováč, being produced by Maia Martiniak, of Slovak outfit Mediapulz. It revolves around surrogacy and deliberately avoids reductive argument in favour of emotional and ethical complexity. “How much would you pay for having a baby?” the director asked, before reframing surrogacy as something “first and foremost someone’s life”, rather than an abstract political issue. The film follows three women situated differently within the experience: a Czech surrogate mother, a French lady born through surrogacy, and another woman who wants to be a mum but is struggling to conceive. Kováč argued that the common thread lies in “the pressure of carrying someone else’s desires”, while stressing that the film “doesn’t offer any verdicts” and seeks instead “to give those women a voice and let them speak for themselves.” Formally, the project also leans into poetic associations with the landscape and natural elements, using waves, forests and fields to compile what the filmmaker called a “collective experience of women”. The project is currently in development, with further shooting planned this year alongside continued work with its protagonists as the film moves towards pre-production. The team is seeking co-producers and additional financing to advance production and secure the next stages.
Producer Natália Pavlove (left) and director Terézia Halamová during the pitch for The Hour Between Dog and Wolf (© Robo Tappert/International Film Festival Febiofest Bratislava)
The Hour Between Dog and Wolf – Terézia Halamová
Terézia Halamová, who has just won two Czech Lion Awards for her short film Dog and Wolf (see the news), is already expanding the story into a feature-length format for her debut. The road movie, about masculine performance, emotional drift and self-sabotage, is centred on a 25-year-old male stripper touring small towns across the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The director described stripping as “a good metaphor for a film that is essentially about this search for identity”, since the protagonist’s “daily routine is to change costumes, to pretend and to fulfil other people’s fantasies”. As casual sex, drugs and insomnia deepen his sense of dislocation, the film turns towards the idea of loneliness beneath the spectacle, examining a young man who seeks belonging everywhere while undermining every bond he forms. Halamová called it “an emotional journey” about “embracing the solitude and letting go of this fantasy of being someone else”, while also highlighting her fascination with the contradiction of a milieu built on both seduction and fragility. The project, which is being produced by Czech outfit Other Stories and Slovak company guča films, is currently in late development, with the team aiming to move into pre-production soon and shoot in autumn 2026. They are seeking co-producers for gap financing, as well as sales agents and festival partners.
The Zone – Michal Baláž
Produced by escadra and Czech company IN Film Praha, Michal Baláž’s The Zone is pitched as an “Eastern, Central European variation on the western”, transplanting frontier mythology into the militarised borderlands of the early 1950s. Set along the Iron Curtain, the film follows three fugitives – a former priest-turned-smuggler, a disillusioned intellectual and a young Jewish woman from Denmark – as they attempt to cross a deadly strip of land where “wild nature, heavy weather, heavy defence mechanisms” and ideological violence combine into what the director called “kind of a lethal environment”. Baláž emphasised that the journey is both physical and psychological, shaped by mistrust and surveillance in a world where “trust becomes the most dangerous risk of all”. While grounded in historical research, the project is also aiming for a more abstract, timeless resonance, ultimately asking, in the filmmaker’s words, “What does it truly mean to cross to the other side?” The project is currently in development, with a near-final draft of the script ready, and with plans to lock financing by summer 2027 and shoot in autumn 2027. The team is seeking TV co-producers, sales agents and additional financing partners, including a potential third co-producer from Denmark.
Director Kristína Leidenfrostová (left) and producer Jürgen Karasek during the pitch for Raid (© Robo Tappert/International Film Festival Febiofest Bratislava)
Raid – Kristína Leidenfrostová
Kristína Leidenfrostová’s Raid is an observational documentary that examines the long-term impact of police violence in a segregated Roma community in eastern Slovakia. Anchored by the figure of Igor, a survivor who now supports others, the film explores “what it means to grow up […] in a reality shaped by police brutality”, while foregrounding intergenerational trauma and resilience. The filmmakers stress their refusal of sensationalism, instead building a “very tender movie” where everyday life, children’s play and recurring memories intersect. The project, produced by Austrian outfit Soleil Film and Slovak company guča films, is currently in late post-production, with completion expected in summer 2026. The team is primarily seeking festival exposure and is open to discussions with partners for distribution and sales.
Animal – Milada Těšitelová
Czech scriptwriter and director Milada Těšitelová’s feature debut, Animal, is a Czech-Slovak co-production between NOCHI film and HITCHHIKER Cinema, with Czech Television also on board. It merges body horror, satire and maternal anxiety into what the filmmaker herself describes as “a mixture of horror and comedy”. The picture follows a young woman negotiating the suburban ideals of perfect motherhood after giving birth to a cat, an absurd premise that becomes a vehicle for examining “the pressure of irreversible decisions, authenticity or conformity”. Presented as a rough cut, the project already demonstrates a strong tonal identity, with Slovak producer Barbara Janišová Feglová emphasising its “bold emotional, slightly wild” voice and distinctly female perspective. Animal appears poised to resonate with festivals seeking formally daring, genre-fluid debut features. The project has completed shooting and is currently in post-production, with completion planned for September 2026, potentially aligned with a festival premiere. The team is seeking festival partners, sales agents and distributors interested in strong debut features with audience potential.
