WHAT IF Films

WHAT IF Films was born from the creative collaboration of Daniel Rihák and Martina Saková. Our ambition is to develop and produce films and media solutions that combine audience reach with a social-critical message. We work with filmmakers and creatives who have a unique style and offer fresh, unconventional solutions. We love genre films and aim to make films that appeal to audiences. We aspire to entertain them in a way that will leave them hopeful and inspired to think about the world.

Our current film projects include MY WORLD UPSIDE DOWN, LOVEBOTS and GOLD DIGGER. Both creative producers and directors, Daniel Rihák and Martina Saková, have an established track record. Daniel Rihák's graduate film "The Trip" was shortlisted for the BAFTA Student Film Awards, won the IGRIC Creative Award for Best Director and won the Best Feature Film Award at the Áčko film Festival. The film was shown at numerous film festivals (Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, Tirana International Short Film Festival, Euroshorts Young Filmmakers, Gdansk, PiterKit International Student Film Festival, St. Petersburg and others). Martina's films include the feature-length documentary "Little Hanoi", a German-Slovak-Czech co-production with HBO Europe, the documentary "Neighbours" for Czech and Slovak television, the fiction film "Operation Neptune" by Czech director A. Babanova or the documentary "Child Boxers" by Ghanaian director M. Zimrani, which was supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund and the Sundance Film Fund. She received the New Europe Visegrad Prix for her collaboration on the film "Haushaltshilfe" by German director A. Hoffmann (premiered at the Berlinale Perspektive German Cinema). Her feature film "Summer Rebels" was realised as a German-Slovak co-production thanks to Creative Europe Media, BKM, AVF, DFFF and KjdF. The film was screened in competition at over 30 film festivals worldwide, distributed to theatres in Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland and commercially exploited by NETFLIX, AMAZON, APPLE TV, PRIME, RTVS, NPO in numerous countries. Rebels was pre-selected for the German Film Award, won the German Film Critics Award 2021 and the Audience Award at the Festival Nuovo Cinema Europa. Her new film Lovebots was pre-nominated for the German Script Award 2024.

Daniel Rihák was born in Prešov, Slovakia. He studied cinematography at ESTC in Lisbon, Portugal and graduated in film directing at VSMU Bratislava.

Martina Saková was born in Bratislava. She studied film directing at VSMU Bratislava and as a guest student at HFF Potsdam Babelsberg and University of Arts in Berlin.