Mastercard is teaming up with the Festival for the fifth consecutive year, serving once again as the official payment card of Greece’s most prestigious cinema institution. Mastercard, within the framework of its partnership with the Festival, offers all movie lovers and Festival goers who purchase their ticket via Mastercard® from the Festival’s ticket counters, from October 31st to November 11th, the chance to win one of the 200 double invitations for the 64th TIFF’s screenings.
In addition, as last year, Mastercard will back the Mermaid Award granted to the best LGBTQI+ film of the Festival’s official selection with a 3,000-euro cash prize. Moreover, it takes last year’s initiative Masterclass powered by Masterclass to the next level, co-hosting alongside the Festival the event ICONIC TALKS Powered by Mastercard: The Evolution, Challenges and Future Visions of the LGBTQI+ Portrayals in Greek TV and Cinema, οpen to the public and scheduled to be held on Saturday 11th (11:00-13:00), in Pavlos Zannas theater. The audience attending the event will have the opportunity to listen to iconic Greek cinema and TV artists as they share their personal experiences and shed light on the challenges, the future and the steps taken for the visibility of the LGBTQI+ community, while pointing out the contribution of cinema and the TV to the shaping of a positive view of Greek society towards the LGBTQI+ community.
Vasilis Kekatos, Short Film Palme d’Or winner and director of Milky Way TV series, will raise the issues of diversity and inclusivity in today’s cinema. Beloved actress and screenwriter Dimitra Papadopoulou will make a retrospect to the TV smash hit Oi Aparadektoi and recount the challenges she was faced up against concerning the depiction of a gay character in the 90s. Actor Dimitris Tsiklis will lay out his approach on the gay character he portrayed in the TV series Agries Melisses, while placing emphasis on the evolution of the LGBTQI+ community representation on the small screen in the course of time. Zacharias Mavroeidis and Andreas Labropoulos, director and protagonist of the film The Summer with Carmen respectively, will map out the pathway of queer cinema. Last but not least, talented actress and director Fenia Apostolou will focus on the ever-changing landscape of gender identity within the film industry.
The list of movies competing for the Mermaid Award:
All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White
Babatunde Apalowo
Nigeria, 2023, 92’
“Raise your head,” photographer Bawa asks the reserved Bambino. It sounds easy when it pertains to how he should pose for the camera, but it becomes challenging in the metaphorical sense, as their hidden love affair intensifies in a country where homosexuality is a criminal offense, and queer individuals are at risk of being subjected to violence at any given moment. The Teddy Award at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival is a courageous, heartwarming, and mature directorial debut from Nigeria. Despite echoing the reflexive fear of diversity taking root in places where they insist on confining sexuality to black-and-white standards, the film steadfastly upholds the inherently colorful right to love.
Eileen
William Oldroyd
USA, 2022, 98’
The stagnant waters of Eileen's dull, stifled life as a solitary worker at a juvenile detention center in 1960s Boston - are unexpectedly disrupted when the institution brings in a new psychologist, the vibrant Rebecca. The fervent enthusiasm that blossoms between the two women almost immediately gives way to a closer relationship, until their fragile connection takes a dramatic turn. William Oldroyd, acclaimed for his work in theater and opera (his film Lady Macbeth received the Golden Alexander and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2016 Thessaloniki Film Festival), reaffirms his status as one of the most audacious talents in global cinema with his second film, confirming his dedication to challenging the conventions of film genres. With the captivating chemistry between Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway as the driving force, the director takes on world literature, skillfully adapting Ottessa Moshfegh’s award-winning novel of the same name into an enthralling thriller. Todd Haynes’s Carol meets the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock.
Housekeeping for Beginners
Goran Stolevski
North Macedonia-Croatia-Serbia-Poland-Kosovo, 2023, 107’
Dita’s stately old house in the hills of Skopje is the unlikely home to a wild group of queer people, among them her moody friend Toni and his new, much younger boyfriend Ali. When her partner Suada is diagnosed with a terminal illness, the emotionally removed Dita is forced to promise she will raise Suada’s two girls - cheeky little Mia and temperamental, increasingly rebellious teen Vanesa. Dita doesn’t want to be a mother and the girls don’t want to be her daughters. But to save this patchwork family Dita has to act quickly and maybe even marry the only available man around.
Mutt
Vuk Lungulov-Klotz
USA, 2023, 87’
When Feña completed his gender transition, he decided that his journey would be easier if he kept his distance from people and situations from his past. However, one beautiful morning, his ex, his younger sister, and his Chilean father all reappear in his life simultaneously. Set against the backdrop of a New York that diverges from cinematic stereotypes and draws from his personal experiences, the director captures the challenges and complexities that transgender individuals face in their daily lives and social bonds, even in seemingly ordinary circumstances. A directorial debut that is straightforward, humane, and unapologetically sincere, wholeheartedly embracing the pursuit of visibility, it provides greater momentum to 21st-century American independent cinema and brings to the forefront the talent of Lío Mehiel, a non-binary transgender individual of Greek heritage, who received an acting award at the Sundance Festival.
Passages
Ira Sachs
France,-Germany, 2022, 91’
In Ira Sachs' films, just as in life, love is strange and love triangles are uneven. Tomas is a self-centered, talented director who, at the wrap party for his new film, chooses to let his low-key husband go home alone, opting to spend the night with another woman instead. And thus begins the emotional and sexual tangle of the film involving Frank Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, and Adele Exarchopoulos, which is a delight to watch but likely quite challenging to experience. Sachs captures the complexity of relationships with his familiar disarmingly honest approach, recognizing the turbulent nature of desire and examining the characters' most vulnerable yet toxic sides. If you're expecting a well-paced romantic story, feel free to pass, but if you're not afraid of love even if it hurts, bleeds, and leaves scars, this may well be the movie of your life.
The Human Surge 3
Eduardo Williams
Argentina-Portugal-Brazil-The Netherlands-Taiwan-Hong Kong-Sri Lanka-Peru, 2023, 122’
For the intrepid explorer of what lies between the visible and the invisible, Eduardo Williams, the boundaries of both the planet and cinema cease to exist. Similarly to The Human Surge (and in case you're wondering, no, there is no The Human Surge 2), Eduardo Williams traverses the world, capturing groups of people interacting through their bodies, souls, or screens. He presents a queer poetic exploration of place and time, senses and emotions, the fluid essence of existence, and the translucent networks that link us within the vast realm of the planet and the boundless webs we weave around it. Shot with a 350-degree camera, the film transforms into an immersive experience, requiring no additional equipment beyond its enchanting imagery and compelling ideas.
The Lost Boys
Zeno Graton
Belgium-France, 2023, 85’
Is it possible to discover freedom within prison walls? Seventeen-year-old Joe is preparing to leave the detention center where he has spent the past few years, but the arrival of William, a new inmate, will reshape his concept of what freedom truly means. Zeno Graton’s electrifying and self-assured debut captures a love of rare strength and sensitivity while also examining prevailing notions of masculinity, sexuality, and power structures through a different lens. With lyricism, beauty, and the power of profound emotional truth, The Lost Boys is born at the intersection of Jean Genet’s Un chant d’amour and the recent The Great Freedom, where deeply societal cinema gains the right to romance, hope, and poetry that can flourish like a flower even in the cracks of the harshest walls.
The Prince
Pierre Creton
France, 2023, 82’
The 16-year-old Pierre-Joseph enrolls in an educational center with the goal of becoming a gardener. There, he will encounter the director Françoise Brown, the botany teacher Albert, and his employer Adrien, all of whom will play a crucial role in his education and the discovery of his sexuality. With an idiosyncratic directorial style and a highly unique artistic vision, one of the most intriguing contemporary auteurs draws us into a journey of transcendence, inner growth, and self-discovery within a cinematic realm that defies categorization and still remains uncharted.
We Have Never Been Modern
Matěj Chlupáček
Czech Republic-Slovakia, 2023, 117’
A period piece that is unexpectedly contemporary, a suspenseful film that simultaneously waves a queer and feminist flag, We Have Never Been Modern exceeds every expectation with its unique directorial approach. Set in 1937 in a town in Eastern Europe - built on the outskirts of a factory and aspiring to become a model of a modern metropolis - the film follows the wife of the director who is confronted with a mystery that no one wants to solve: The lifeless body of an intersex infant is discovered buried in a mound of sand, compelling everyone to confront their own self-judgment and biases. Drawing its title from the book by French anthropologist Bruno Latour, who challenges whether progress alone can sever the ties that bind modern humans to their primitive nature, Matěj Chlupáček’s film reintroduces these questions to today's audience in a genuinely cinematic manner, underscoring their relevance in the present time even more so than in the era the film portrays.
Woman of…
Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert
Poland-Sweden, 2023, 132’
A sweeping emotional journey and simultaneously an unapologetically militant and political film, Woman Of… tells the story of a man and the path to becoming the woman she always knew she was, set against the backdrop of a country's parallel trajectory towards an entirely different version of itself. Aniela was born male, got married, and had children in a small Polish town. However, her whole life is but a journey toward her true self, which she is determined to embrace, regardless of the consequences. A tale of gender transition intertwined with a nation's shift from communism to capitalism, from unity and solidarity in the fight for freedom to division, hostility, bitter individualism and distrust towards that which is different. This remarkable film by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert is irresistible and a must, it is a true emotional and cinematic achievement that you should not miss.
