ETNOFILM ČADCA is the oldest film festival in Slovakia. The event started in 1980, when the filmmakers producing films on folk culture met in Čadca for the first time. The festival is inextricably linked with such prominent figures of Slovak artistic, scientific and cultural life as Martin Slivka, Peter Maráky, Oskar Elschek, Svetozár Švehlák, Milan Leščák, Dušan Hanák, Rudolf Gerát, Daniel Luther, Štefan Vraštiak, Boris Hochel, Peter Mihálik, Miroslav Ruttkay Dauko, Martin Mešša and many others.
The festival is highly acclaimed by both professional and lay audience as a unique film event dedicated to ethnology, social and cultural anthropology, offering an insight into the way of life of human community and folk culture through documentaries from Slovakia and abroad.
The idea of organizing an ethnographic film festival arose in 1978 when the Kysuce Museum in Čadca worked closely with the Ethnomusicological Department of the then Institute of Arts of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (today's Institute of Musicology). At that time, the team led by leading Slovak folklorist Oskar Elschek and the Head of the Technical Team Miroslav Ruttkay Dauko collaborated with the museum on film documentation of the folk dances and music from the defunct Riečnica village and the production of traditional musical instruments in Korna and Zborov nad Bystricou. After mutual discussions, inspired mainly by the famous documentary film director and ethnographer Martin Slivka, and following the existing festival of amateur ethnographic films in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, it was agreed to organize a festival of professional film and television production on folk culture in Čadca - ETNOFILM ČADCA.
The first edition of the international film festival took place at the Palárik cinema in Čadca. The long-term organizers include: The Kysuce Museum in Čadca, The Žilina Self-Governing Region, The Slovak Film Institute, the Town of Čadca and the House of Culture in Čadca. Since 2012 the festival is run by the Kysuce Cultural Center in Čadca, The Žilina Self-Governing region and The Town of Čadca.