Ceremonial awarding of the festival's honorary prizes with the participation of the general public on the stage at the Lower Gate.

Milan Ondrík studied acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava under Peter Mankovecký and Zuzana Kronerová. He began his career at the Andrej Bagar Theatre in Nitra, where he still performs today. His reach quickly spread beyond his home stage: Slovenian director Diego de Brea cast him in the title role of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus at the Slovak National Theatre, whose drama ensemble he joined in 2011.

With an honest, for Slovakia even trail-blazing acting style, Ondrík caught the eye of several film-makers early in the new millennium. Directors repeatedly entrusted him with demanding, layered characters—roles he handled with striking conviction, as evidenced by a shelf of awards. A highlight is his subtle yet powerful turn as the traumatised son of a recovering alcoholic actress in Marko Škop’s drama Eva Nová (2015), which earned him his first national Sun in a Net award. He teamed up with Škop again for Nech je svetlo (2019), a family drama reflecting social tensions in Slovakia; here he plays a loving but often absent father whose distance costs him a bond with his son. The performance won him a second Sun in a Net for Best Actor and Best Actor at Karlovy Vary IFF.

Ondrík has also impressed in Tieňohra (dir. Peter Bebjak), Čierne na bielom koni (dir. Rasťo Boroš), Bod obnovy (dir. Robert Hloz) and Úsvit (dir. Matěj Chlupáček), confirming both his genre range and his knack for deep psychological character work. This year he received two Sun in a Net nominations—Best Actor for MIKI (2024) and Best Supporting Actor for Ema a smrtihlav (2024), winning in the latter category.

“In recent years Milan Ondrík has been impossible to overlook on Slovak screens,” says festival artistic director Martin Palúch. “He turns up regularly in leading and supporting parts, collecting one award after another. That’s no stroke of luck; it’s the mark of a sought-after talent who masters both physically taxing roles and the finest psychological detail. For that, Art Film is honouring him this year with the Actor’s Mission award.”

Besides arthouse cinema and the stage, viewers know Ondrík from TV dramas, where he has played a string of memorable roles—from the long-running Panelák (2008) and crime series Za sklom (2016) to the period piece 1890(2017) and, more recently, Iveta (2021) and Zrada (2024).