Viera Čákanyová (b. 1980) studied scriptwriting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and documentary filmmaking at FAMU
in Prague. In her work she combines documentary, fiction and animation practices and explores the boundaries between these disciplines.
Her early student documentaries won a number of awards, such as Best First/Second film at Visions du Réel (Regard Neuf ) in 2010 and The Golden Key Award for the best documentary work of a director under the age of 35 at Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (2010).
Her feature debut FREM had its international premiere at the Berlinale 2020, and won the Award for Best Czech Debut at the ELBE DOCK IFF, the Special prize of International jury at the One World festival in Bratislava and one of the Czech Film Critics Awards. The film was screened at more than two dozen important international film festivals around the world.
Her subsequent film WHITE ON WHITE won the main prize at Ji.hlava IDFF in 2020. It also won the GreenDox Award at Dokufest in Kosovo, the Czech Competition at the One World festival in Prague and was selected for the main competitions at the Sheffield DocFest and ZagrebDox. Her last film NOTES FROM EREMOCENE had its world premiere at the Berlinale 2023, won the award for the Best director at the Mirage film festival, the award
for Original approach at the Ji.hlava IDFF and the main prize at One World festival in Bratislava. With other colleagues she runs a production company Guča films, based in Slovakia, focusing on producing films of young emerging directors from the region. Besides making her own films, she also collaborates on other independent film projects as dramaturgist and editor.
in Prague. In her work she combines documentary, fiction and animation practices and explores the boundaries between these disciplines.
Her early student documentaries won a number of awards, such as Best First/Second film at Visions du Réel (Regard Neuf ) in 2010 and The Golden Key Award for the best documentary work of a director under the age of 35 at Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (2010).
Her feature debut FREM had its international premiere at the Berlinale 2020, and won the Award for Best Czech Debut at the ELBE DOCK IFF, the Special prize of International jury at the One World festival in Bratislava and one of the Czech Film Critics Awards. The film was screened at more than two dozen important international film festivals around the world.
Her subsequent film WHITE ON WHITE won the main prize at Ji.hlava IDFF in 2020. It also won the GreenDox Award at Dokufest in Kosovo, the Czech Competition at the One World festival in Prague and was selected for the main competitions at the Sheffield DocFest and ZagrebDox. Her last film NOTES FROM EREMOCENE had its world premiere at the Berlinale 2023, won the award for the Best director at the Mirage film festival, the award
for Original approach at the Ji.hlava IDFF and the main prize at One World festival in Bratislava. With other colleagues she runs a production company Guča films, based in Slovakia, focusing on producing films of young emerging directors from the region. Besides making her own films, she also collaborates on other independent film projects as dramaturgist and editor.