57th TIFF: AGORA / INDUSTRY Awards 2016

57th THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
November 3-13, 2016
 
AGORA/INDUSTRY AWARDS 2016
 
Agora/Industry, the industry activity of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, announced its awards on Friday, November 11, 2016, in Warehouse C, as part of the 57th Thessaloniki International Film Festival.  
 
This year, along with the Agora/Industry’s main activities (Agora Film Market, Agora Works in Progress and Crossroads Co-production Forum), the educational activities of Training Day and Locarno Industry Academy International were added. “This year, the Agora/Industry hosted a series of events, screenings and educational programs”, noted the head of Agora/Industry and TIFF’s consultant for innovative programs and new technologies Yianna Sarri, thanking the participants, sponsors, tutors and film professionals that supported the event, as well as TIFF’s general director Elise Jalladeau and TIFF’s director Orestis Andreadakis, and the Agora/Industry staff.
 
On her part, the artistic supervisor of the Crossroads Co-production Forum Marie-Pierre Macia said that “the Thessaloniki International Film Festival is my favorite Festival in the whole world” and thanked the team of the Agora/Industry.
 
TIFF’s Agora/Industry awards are the following:
 
The 12th Crossroads Co-production Forum awards:
I. The jury of the 12th Crossroads Co-production Forum grants one of the 14 projects the co-production award (image and sound) by the Greek company POST-PRODUCTION 2|35. The award was bestowed by the company’s representative, Nikos Moutselos.
 
The jury of the 12th Crossroads consists of Maria Drandaki (producer, Homemade Films, Greece), Raimond Goebel (producer, Pandora Productions, Germany), and Didar Domehri (producer, Maneki Films/Full House, Belgium) and grants the Two Thirty Five co-production award (full post production image and sound) to the film project: 
 
NOAH TREE, Directed/Produced by: Cenk Erturk – Hayali Ihracat Film, Turkey
 
The jury reasoning: “Noah Tree by Cenk Erturk, the most promising project of the Crossroads Co-production Forum, explores the current sociopolitical and religious transition in Turkey through a harsh but tender and poetic father and son relationship”.
 
The producer of the winning project will also be granted a free accreditation for the Producer’s Network of the Cannes Film Festival 2017.
 
II. ΤHE CENTRE NATIONAL DU CINEMA ET DE L’ IMAGE ANIMEE (CNC), a French public organization aiming to the support and promotion of cinema in France and abroad, grants, for a sixth year in a row, a Development award of10,000 euros for script development, as part of the Crossroads Co-production Forum.
 
The jury grants the award to the film project:
BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS, Directed by: Asimina Proedrou, Produced by: Ioanna Bolomyti – Argonauts Productions, Anna Jancso, Librecine Greece, Hungary  
 
The jury reasoning: “This promising young director tries to understand how our modern societies are leading decent people to corruption, through the portrait of a fisherman struggling to survive in a complex immigration and border context”.
 
The award was handed by the representative of the Institut Francais d’Athenes, Laetitia Kulyk.
                                                                                     
III. THE MUSOU AWARD  provides composition and production of an original film score, music supervision and licensing of commercial music for use in the film, as well as audio post production services.
 
The jury grants the award to the film project: FANTASIA, Directed by: Alexis Kardaras, Produced by: Eleni Kossyfidou – Pan Entertainment, Greece
 
The jury reasoning: “The jury grants the award to the project Fantasia because music and sound are part of the DNA and the heart of the film”.
 
The jury of the 12th Crossroads Co-production Forum also bestowed two special mentions to two young female directors exploring youth in two very different parts of the world, France and Turkey: 
 
FIGURAS, Directed by: Azra Deniz Okyay, Produced by: Azra Deniz Okyay, Selin Karli, Figuras Production, Turkey, “for reacting to the political and social oppression that is currently happening in Turkey”
 
and
 
A KINGDOM (working title) Directed by: Emilie Aussel, Produced by: Thomas Ordonneau, Shellac Sud, France, “for her sensitive approach to loss and mourning during the transition to adulthood”.
 
 
ΙV. MFI SCRIPT 2 FILM WORKSHOPS of the Mediterranean Film Institute (MFI) awards a full scholarship to the film project FIGURAS, Directed by: Azra Deniz Okyay, Produced by: Azra Deniz Okyay, Selin Karli, Figuras Production, Turkey.
 
The award was handed by Kostas Baliotis, Production Manager of the Mediterranean Film Institute (MFI). On her part, the film director thanked the festival’s organizers for the opportunity she was given to develop her dream in public.
 
V. For a fifth year in a row the  French consulting firm  Initiative Film, represented by the CEO Isabelle Fauvel, will offer its services to a Greek project. The selected project is:
 
BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS, Directed by: Asimina Proedrou, Produced by: Ioanna Bolomyti – Argonauts Productions, Anna Jancso, Librecine Greece, Hungary
 
In addition it will offer one consultancy session to the Greek project: FANTASIA, Directed by: Alexis Kardaras, Produced by: Eleni Kossyfidou, Pan Entertainment, Greece. 
 
Before granting the awards, Mrs. Fauvel mentioned the six winners of the awards granted from 2011 to last year (in 2014 two awards were granted). On their part, the filmmakers thanked for the chance they were given to develop their projects.
 
VI. For a seventh year in a row the company GRAAL is granting one of the films in Agora Works in Progress section the Co-production award which corresponds to post-production services.
 
The jury of Agora Works in Progress, consisting of Alexandros Christoyiannis (Content Management & Deputy Director, OTE TV, Greece), Giorgio Gosetti (Artistic Director, Venice Days – Venice Film Festival, Italy) and Rachel Schmid (Eurimage Representative, Switzerland) after noting that many of the projects were great, awards the film:
 
CHARLTON HESTON, Directed by: Andrei Cretulescu, Produced by: Velvet Moraru – Icon Production, Rani Legrand, Rani Massalah – Les Films du Tambour, Andrei Cretulescu, Kinosseur, Romania, France
 
VII. The Eurimages Lab Award at Agora Works in Progress, amounting up to 50.000 euros, is granted for the first time this year in the 57th TIFF to an unconventional film. The jury grants the award to:
 
THORN, Directed by: Gabriel Tzafka, Produced by: Panayiotis Kakavias – Kakavias Film, Katerina Beligianni, Kabel, Michael Bille Frandsen, Theis Norgaard, Nitrat Film, Greece, Denmark.  
 
 For further information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
All sections of the 57th TIFF as well as the Agora/Industry are financed by the European Union - European Regional Development Fund under the ROP of Central Macedonia 2014-2020.