The Sweet Requiem, a film about a Tibetan refugee who escaped to India with her father as a child, will open the 14th Festival of Mountaineering Film in Ljubljana on Monday. Running until 1 March, the festival will feature 37 films in the competitive section, which will be screened in six towns across the country.

Ana Soklič will represent Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam in May after winning the Slovenian Ema contest on Saturday with the song Voda (Water).

The 68th Ljubljana Festival will be dedicated to composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth. A number of his works will be performed as the annual festival takes the streets this summer with open-air concerts.

Asked to comment on the state of Slovenian amid strong global currents that are headed by English, Nataša Gliha Komac of the Fran Ramovš Institute of Slovenian Language told the STA Slovenian remained an active and vibrant language. Still, many challenges remain, she added on the occasion of 21 February, International Mother Language Day.

Delo rejects in a commentary on Friday the political attack mounted against Culture Minister Zoran Poznič over alleged political staffing, arguing the minister is actually trying to end cronyism-plagued appointment habits that have made certain culture executives untouchable.

The government adopted at Thursday's correspondence session an initiative to conclude an agreement on cooperation in culture, education, science, sport and youth policies with Cuba. It is meant to facilitate cooperation and exchange of know-how between relevant institutions and organisations.

The parliamentary Culture Committee called on the corruption watchdog last night to look into appointments of heads of culture institutions made by the Culture Ministry due to suspicions of politically-motivated staffing. Culture Minister Zoran Poznič denies the allegations.