Ekotopfilm is a specialist international festival of films and television and video programmes devoted to ecological concerns. The oldest event of its land in the world (and one in many ways unique), it provides a forum in which specialists in various fields can come together and share their views. The motivation behind it is the need for a balanced and integrated approach to questions of environment and development, and it proclaims the need for a new global partnership which will involve the widest possible participation of the public in taking responsibility for the fate of life on earth. As an inclusive festival presenting the latest audio-visual work from around the world relating to Man's industrial, economic and human activity - with the emphasis on the environment -, it seeks and makes available for implementation the best possible solutions to the economic, environmental and social problems that face Slovakia today. In the past quarter of a century (1974-1998) Ekotopfilm has shown 3,379 films from sixty-nine countries around the world and annually welcomes several thousand participants from home and abroad.