The official festival trailer for the 29th Ji.hlava IDFF was composed by award-winning Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa. "The theme captures a moment in Ukraine's current history. The war continues, bringing further suffering and destruction to the country and its people every day. Russia must be stopped. The future of all of Europe is at stake," says Loznitsa. This year's Ji.hlava will also offer a unique showcase of film collectives' work and a varied program of the Inspiration Forum, whose guests will include former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
The author of the official festival trailer for the 29th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival (October 24–November 2, 2025) is renowned Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, whose works combine precise observation of reality with a deeply humanistic view of history and the present. The trailer prepared for this year's edition takes place in the subway of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
"The footage comes from material shot in the spring of 2023 as part of The Invasion project. I wanted to capture the lives of ordinary Ukrainians across the country—from Kharkiv to Lviv, from Kyiv to Odesa—and observe how war affects every aspect of civilian life and transforms individuals and society as a whole," explains Loznitsa. "As we know, during wartime, subway stations in large Ukrainian cities – in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro – serve as air-raid shelters. So, on the one hand, we see a completely normal, everyday scene: people entering the subway during the morning rush hour and hurrying to their duties. On the other hand, we know that this routine morning situation can be interrupted at any moment by an air raid siren," adds the director, whose films regularly compete at the world's most prestigious festivals – from Cannes to Venice to the Berlinale – and who is one of the most respected contemporary European documentary filmmakers.
"I think I can call Sergei Loznitsa a friend of the Ji.hlava festival; We have had a professional friendship for two decades. Each of his films, whether feature or documentary, attracts attention on literally every continent; most recently, he presented his new film at the Cannes Film Festival. Sergei is a distinctive filmmaker who is able to combine the language of documentary and feature film and capitalize on his Eastern European roots and experience as a Western European creator and producer," says Marek Hovorka, director of the Ji.hlava IDFF.
"This year's Ji.hlava trailer is a cleverly and multi-layered short film with Loznitsa's typical sense of humor and absurdity. But it is also a call for a real solution to the war situation in Ukraine. It shows everyday scenes from many cities, which in the case of Ukraine are still not an everyday reality," adds Hovorka about this year's festival trailer.
Ji.hlava traditionally entrusts the creation of its official trailers to exceptional authors of world cinema – Jean-Luc Godard, Kirsten Johnson, Godfrey Reggio and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, for example, have all contributed to this tradition.
Collective Film Retrospective
Every year, Ji.hlava also presents unique retrospectives. In addition to the Food and Epoch showcase, which captures the transformations of society through food and dining, this year it will also offer an exceptional section called Collective Film. This section will present a cross-section of the work of film collectives from across continents and decades – from the 1960s to the present day – and show that even a non-hierarchical community of authors can create aesthetically sophisticated, politically courageous and humanly profound works.
"While researching collective films, I was thrilled by how aesthetically striking and imaginative they are, even though they are not created by a single dominant authorial personality. Collective creation, which works to dissolve the boundaries between individual professions and is based on the sharing of knowledge and expertise, is also characteristic of other art forms in the second half of the 20th century. It is also often linked to social activism or work in local communities and reinforces interdisciplinarity," says Andrea Slováková, programmer of the section.
The program will feature, for example, the famous Bolivian film Blood of the Condor (1969), shot by the Grupo Ukamau collective. This docufiction reveals the secret sterilization of indigenous women by American health workers and became a symbol of resistance against colonialism and an inspiration for Bolivia's political awakening. The British Black Audio Film Collective will present its groundbreaking film Handsworth Songs (1986), a polyphonic visual essay on migration, identity, and the media image of the 1985 riots in Birmingham. The American collective Videofreex will be remembered for its guerrilla video Mayday 1971 (1971), which authentically captures the anti-war protests in Washington and the power of collective solidarity in the midst of repression. The present will be represented by the interdisciplinary group Forensic Architecture with its analytical reconstruction The Bombing of Rafah (2015), which combines scientific and artistic methods to visualize war crimes.
Short Joy Competition now available to watch online
Although the 29th Ji.hlava IDFF only starts in two weeks, the first documentaries are already available to watch. This year's online competition section, Short Joy, features 23 short documentaries from around the world, which are available from October 9 on the DAFilms.com platform, where viewers can vote for the best film until October 23. The winning film will be announced at the opening ceremony of the Ji.hlava IDFF on Friday, October 24, where it will receive the DAFilms Audience Award. This year's films combine personal perspective, visual experimentation, and sensitivity to current issues, ranging from cultural memory to social and environmental issues to reflections on human identity.
"We can't imagine the DAFilms fall program without Short Joy, and neither can our viewers from around the world. We prepare the showcase two weeks before the festival itself so that viewers can decide on the best of the short films, which explore the possibilities and power of documentary in a very small space," says DAFilms curator Magda Španihelová.
Among the selected titles are, for example, the Slovak film Tereza Smetanová's seablindness, a meditative look at the colossal nature of maritime transport, and the Czech film Victoria Aldabagh's Behind the Blue, a portrait of a freediver exploring the limits of the human body. An intimate look at the lives of people affected by drought is offered by the Chadian film The Guardian of the Well by directors Bentley Brown and Tahir Ben Mahamat Zene, while a meditation on memory and war losses is provided by Geometry of Return by Canadian-Ukrainian director Nataliya Bek-Gergard.
The Inspiration Forum invites to a debate with Oleksiy Reznikov
This year's Ji.hlava IDFF’s Inspiration Forum will offer four days full of debates and reflections on what shapes our lives – money, love, the radicalization of society, and the future of Europe.
The world is changing faster than we can comprehend. That is why people who are looking for new ways to communicate, cooperate, and live together are coming to Jihlava. Four main topics—money, love, radicalization, and the future of Europe—will offer perspectives from different corners of the world and life.
How can we understand a world where money determines who has a say and who is listened to? British economist Grace Blakeley will show how the financial system shapes everyday life and why it is difficult to bring about change when profit remains the highest value. American political scientist Jeffrey A. Winters will present a provocative thesis: democracy has never replaced the rule of the rich, it has only become intertwined with it. We thus live in a world of "participatory inequality," where everyone votes, but power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of a few.
How can we nurture relationships in a fast-paced world? Psychologist Kateřina Klapilová, director Diana Fabiánová, and writer Eliška Mynářová will explore how technology, social media, and pressure to perform are changing intimacy, closeness, and understanding between people. This day dedicated to love will combine science, personal experience, and humor, reminding us that caring for relationships is just as important as caring for the planet.
How does misunderstanding become division? Sociologists Anna Durnová and Vendula Kolařík Mezeiová will show how dissatisfaction can escalate into radicalization.
What does it mean to be European today? Anna Šabatová, a lifelong Czech defender of human rights, will speak about Europe's values and responsibilities, philosopher Andreas Weber will focus on the connection between people and nature, and writer and futurist Jonathan Ledgard will present the future of Europe in cooperation with Africa—as a space for new partnerships where Europe and Africa can work together to create prosperity, justice, and balance between people, technology, and nature. Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov will then share the experience of a country that is defending not only its borders but also its belief in humanity.
The Inspiration Forum is a lively space for meeting and reflection – for everyone who wants to listen, understand, and seek hope and solutions.
The 29th Ji.hlava IDFF will take place on October 24–November 2, 2025.
