36th Ljubljana International Film Festival - LIFFe

2025 marks the 36th edition of Liffe – the Ljubljana International Film Festival. For a number of years, the festival has featured the finest specimens of world cinema and winners of the most prominent festivals (Cannes, Rotterdam, Berlin, Venice, etc.) while bringing into spotlight the greatest achievements of national cinema. 

The festival’s aim is to encourage and promote young and emerging artists, predominantly European filmmakers, and bring them into dialogue with Slovenian audiences. Several awards are presented every year (Kingfisher Award for best young filmmaker; Best Short Film; Audience Award; FIPRESCI Prize, etc.). In recent years, introducing digital innovation and educational programmes for young audiences have been important components of the festival whose mission includes the education of different age groups.

Liffe takes place at six venues in Ljubljana (Cankarjev dom’s Linhart and Kosovel Halls, Kinodvor Cinema, the Slovenian Cinematheque, Kino Bežigrad, Kino Šiška and AGRFT Hall). With venues across Slovenia (Maribox Maribor, Anton Podbevšek Teater Novo mesto and Kino Union Celje), the festival addresses and remains accessible to audiences outside the Slovenian capital. 

In 1992, the International Association of Film Producers – FIAPF granted a licence to Film Art Fest, which was renamed the International Film Festival in 1996, and in 1998 acquired its current name, Liffe (Ljubljana International Film Festival). This license confirms that the festival has fulfilled all the conditions for its inclusion on the official list of global film festivals. 

Since its beginning, the festival’s producer has been Cankarjev dom, Cultural and Congress Centre Ljubljana, whose programme is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. 

Stories on Both Sides of the Ocean
Yuliya Solntseva – Kelly Reichardt 

This year, Liffe pays tribute to two female directors who visualized a unique political and cultural environment, developing an image of their respective countries from the perspective of cinematic characters. If the films of the Ukrainian director Yuliya Solntseva are "voices from the past", depicting melancholic and visually stunning images of the Dnieper Ukraine, the works of Kelly Reichardt, who presented her new film The Mastermind in competition at Cannes this year, are set in the stark environment of the Pacific Northwest, which is diametrically opposed to the sun-drenched landscape of her native Florida, where she made her 1994 debut film, River of Grass. As though jinxed in her native country, Reichardt struggled for a full dozen years to make her next film, Old Joy; since then, she has set most of her features in the rainy, grey and sparsely populated regions of Oregon and Montana, which have made her name as synonymous with the region as, say, Faulkner’s is with Mississippi.

For Yuliya Solntseva, such deviations never existed; she worked with her husband Alexander Dovzhenko, a luminary of Soviet silent cinema, until his death in 1956, also starring in his Earth (1930), one of the most beautiful films about the Ukrainian land ever made. After that, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, she adapted her late husband’s unfinished screenplays and written material, and completed “The Ukrainian trilogy” herself, films depicting the region along the Dnieper and Desna rivers. These virtuosic “intimate spectaculars” par excellence (in colour and 70mm) combine social aspects with the deep intimacy of the Ukrainian people. The features deal with WWII, the Nazi invasion of the Ukraine, liberation and the post-war reconstruction along with the region’s increasing industrialisation. Her debut film, Poem of the Sea (1958), documents the construction of a huge hydroelectric dam on the Dnieper during this era of industrialization, only to be destructed during the current Russian invasion. Yuliya Solntseva's films are poems about life along the river where – as the protagonist of The Enchanted Desna (1964) explains – “we were cold in winter, sun-scorched in summer, only to be killed by rising waters in spring and deep mud in autumn”.

Simon Popek
Film Programme Director 

Festival sections
Perspectives, the official competitive section of young filmmakers competing for the Kingfisher Award sponsored by Telekom Slovenije, d.d. 
Avant-premieres, a selection of the world’s finest films purchased for Slovenian distribution
Kings and Queens, films by notable and award-winning contemporary cinema virtuosos 
World Cinema Panorama, five-continent festival favourites 
Extravaganza, so-called late-night cinema of daring artists addressing idiosyncratic or sensual topics 
Kinobalon, a selection of films for audiences aged between 5 and 14; in cooperation with the Kinodvor Cinema 
Tribute, Yuliya Solntseva; in cooperation with the Slovenian Cinematheque 
Retrospective, Kelly Reichardt; in cooperation with the Slovenian Cinematheque
The Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region; a joint project of eight regional festivals.
Europe in Short, competitive programme of short films 

Accompanying programme
Talks with festival guests and filmmakers 
Round tables and workshops 

Awards
Kingfisher, international jury award presented by the general sponsor, Telekom Slovenije, d.d., to the best film of the Perspectives section.
FIPRESCI Prize, presented by the jury of the International Federation of Film Critics.
Best Short Film Award 
Kinotrip Young Jury Award 
Slovenian Art Cinema Association Award
Dragon Audience Award to best-rated film

Voting
The Dragon Audience Award is presented to best-rated film that has not yet been purchased for Slovenian distribution. Votes are cast when exiting the cinema or via text-messaging at the 36th Liffe venues, at Cankarjev dom, Kinodvor Cinema, Bežigrad Cinema, Šiška Cinema and AGRFT Hall. The film with the highest average rating receives the Dragon Audience Award. 

Festival venues
Cankarjev dom (Linhart and Kosovel Halls), Kinodvor Cinema, Bežigrad Cinema, Slovenian Cinematheque, AGRFT Hall, Šiška Cinema, Maribox, Union Cinema Celje and Anton Podbevšek Teater Novo mesto