FMK students won the first place for documentary film at the Lúčany Film Festival

At the Faculty of Mass Media Communication of UCM in Trnava, projects are being created that go beyond the boundaries of school desks. Proof of this is a pair of students who succeeded with their debut documentary film at the Lúčany Film Festival of Amateur Filmmakers and Students 2026.

Their film Amateurs won first place and also opened the door to further filmmaking ambitions. Students Daniil Dolidudko and Vitalii Ermakov have already had several successes in the field of filmmaking. Dolidudko told us more about his current success in an interview.

You can also see the film in Trnava, on 23 April during the regional round of the Cineama competition at the Mikuláš Schneider Trnava House of Music and on 27 April at the Frejm FMK festival in Little Berlin.

What topic are you dealing with in the film?

It's a documentary comedy called Amateurs. The subject is the work of amateur filmmakers, and we're specifically focusing on a filmmaking group called Infarct Production. Up until now we have been exclusively making short fiction films, so this project is our very first experience with the documentary genre.

With our previous feature films we have regularly participated in various amateur film festivals. It was at one of them - the Cineama festival in Kremnica - that we met the main actor of our documentary - Zdenek Molnar - who also presented his work there.

We were immediately intrigued and inspired by his work. At the time, we were thinking that we would like to try out a documentary as well. His personality prompted us to make our first ever documentary about him.

How long did you work on it?

Work on the film started last autumn, when we approached the protagonist of our documentary, Zdenek Molnar, and introduced him to our project. Subsequently, we met him and his crew several times in person to record interviews and capture their creative process together. We were even present directly at the filming of their new project.

The documentary not only introduces the viewer to each member of this creative group, but also shows how their collaboration looks like in practice. The filming itself took us a total of six shooting days between November and the beginning of March. Then followed the post-production - within a week Vitalii edited the film, I did the colour correction and the work was ready for its first premiere at the Lúčany Film Festival.

How did you meet Vitalii and find out that you were going to work on films?

We met while we were still enrolled in the first year of our bachelor's degree. Since then, we have not only been good friends, but we have also worked on films together. There is even a separate article on the faculty website about the history of our acquaintance and our work together .

For this documentary, the entire crew consisted entirely of the two of us, so this is the pure result of our joint artistic activity. We had a clear division of labour: during the actual filming, I, as the cinematographer, was in charge of the complete visual aspect. Vitalii, on the other hand, was in charge of directing, preparing the questions, working with the performers and recording the sound.

In the post-production phase, Vitalii takes care of editing and I do the color correction. We have a great symbiosis with each other, we complement each other perfectly and each concentrates on his own area. As a result, our joint work is always created.

What else do you have planned with this new documentary?

The premiere at the Lúčany Film Festival left a huge positive impression on us. We received very good feedback not only from the audience, but also from the jury members, which gave us the confidence to push the film further. At the moment we are actively working on building a festival strategy in order to submit the work to festivals in Slovakia and abroad.

We already have experience with festival distribution thanks to our previous feature film Girlfriend. However, in the case of the documentary it will be a new experience and further discovery for us. We are very much looking forward to this process and will work on it intensively.

Do you have ambitions to make another film? Do you already have a specific subject?

We have big ambitions and plans for our next production. Given the positive experiences we have gained, we want to continue to develop in both genres. Vitalii will soon start actively writing the script for our new feature film, as well as developing the concept for our next documentary project.

We hope to be fully embarked on their realization within the next year. Our creative journey together is far from over with this film and we plan to continue it intensively.

Photo source.