Festival history

The International Festival of Diving Films and Photography Vysoké Tatry (MFPF), originally named the Hypoccampus Festival, was founded in Martin, Slovakia in 1986. It was founded by the local diving club Hypoccampus through the determined efforts of MUDr. Petr Tokarčík and prof. MUDr. František Novomeský.  It was Peter Tokarčík who later contacted the Vodnár Diving Club in Poprad in 1994 and helped to move the event to the High Tatras.   In 1994 the Vodnár Diving Club became the official organizer of the MFPF, in cooperation with the Slovak Divers Association and Tokarčík remained an active orchestrator of the festival through 2004.  Also in 1994, with the consent of the TANAP Administration, Štrbské Pleso became the birthplace of an accompanying environmental event, the Clean Waters Festival which organized clean ups by volunteer divers of refuse from selected Tatra lakes.  Since 2005, the organisation of Clean Waters was taken over by the State Forests of TANAP which also became a co-organiser of the MFPF.  Today, the Clean Waters event is organized by the TANAP Administration Tatranská Lomnica and is part of the festival. 

Over the years the MFPF has been held in several hotels in the area – Helios, WILI, Kremenec, Slovan… In 1999, the Slovak Environmental Agency in Banská Bystrica (SAŽP) decided to lend its support and resources to the event and the festival was anchored in the Grandhotel Praha in Tatranská Lomnica.  A new tradition was created there, known as the Winners’ Terrace.  The winner of the annual Grand Prix MFPF Slovakia, which is the festival’s highest film award, had the honour of having a bronze plaque inserted into the floor of the hotel terrace bearing the emblem of the festival, the filmmaker‘s name and the country from which they come.  Another accompanying event of the festival was the Children’s Art Competition, themed  “Let’s Save Life Under Water“, which aimed to develop environmental awareness in our youth. In 2004, Jean-Michel Cousteau also attended the festival.