The 44th International Thessaloniki Film Festival will take place this year from November 21 to 30 in the capital of northern Greece, a city which is situated in the cross- roads of the multiple exchanges between Europe and Asia and stands as the cultural meeting place of southern Europe and the Balkans. For ten days we will be privileged to have images and insights from various countries of the world, carried by the 160 plus films to be presented during the event.
The Official Section consists of competition and out-of-competition selections as well as of special screenings. The International Competition Section, programmed by festival director Michel Demopoulos, caters to first or second features by new and emerging filmmakers. Fourteen to sixteen feature films will vie for the two main awards: the Golden and the Silver Alexander, carrying respectively Euros 36,700 and 22,000 purses, to be awarded by a seven-member international jury. The Film Critics world-wide body, FIPRESCI, will again install its own Jury.
The cutting edge roster of the New Horizons information program, steered by Dimitri Eipides, will offer a 35 plus titles-strong selection highlighting the newest, most daring trends in independent world-wide film production. The Balkan Survey will present groundbreaking works from filmmakers throughout this region. All Greek films produced during the year will be presented in the Greek Films 2003 section. This presentation will automatically make them eligible for the State Cinema Awards which will be announced the day after the conclusion of the Festival. Views of the past, the present and the future will be seen in the Retrospective and the Tribute Programs.
This year we are proud to announce a Retrospective of the outstanding Georgian-French master Otar Iosseliani, who will be present at the Festival. Iosseliani has remained for more than 35 years now in the fore front of the artistic creation in film directing. From his very beginning in his native Georgia with La Chute des Feuilles (1966), Il était une fois un merle chanteur (1971) and Pastorale (1976), he was hailed as one of the most notable innovators in film narration. His establishment in France in the early eighties allowed him to direct a number of highly regarded films, where his lyrical language was accompanied by the acute understanding, the gentle irony and the tender rendering of everyday human life issues. Titles of this period include Les favoris de la lune (1984), Et la lumière fut (1989) alternating with documentaries such as Euskadi, été 1982 (1983) and Un petit monastère en Toscane (1988). Iosseliani’s creative vein continued as vigorous in the nineties, impregnating such features as La chasse aux papillons (1992), Brigands, Chapitre VII (1996), Adieu, plancher des vaches (1998) while returning to his roots for the three parts documentary, Seule Georgie (1994). The retrospective is composed by nine features –including his latest offer, the highly praised and Berlin Film Festival awarded, Lundi Matin (2001)-and five shorts and documentaries.
One more notable European film maker, the maverick Portuguese director Joao Cesar Monteiro (1939-2003), will be the object of a Tribute including his last film, Vai e vem concluded shortly before his passing away earlier this year and presented last May at the Cannes Film Festival. The other titles of the spotlight are, A flor de Mar (1986), Recordacoes da casa amarela (1989), A comedia de Deus (1995) and As bodas de Deus (1998).
The Festival, at the cross roads of the cultural exchanges between Europe and Asia, is again this year dedicating a considerable part of its programme to film makers and the cinema of Asian countries. The world acclaimed and multi awarded Hong Kong leading film maker Wong Kar- Wai, who is actually at the final stage of the production of his new film 2046, will be honored with a complete Retrospective of his films starting with his 1988 debut As Tears Go By, followed by such ground breaking titles as Days of Being Wild (1990), Ashes Of Time (1994). Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997) and his latest In The Mood For Love (2000). The retrospective will include eight shorts and publicity spots the film maker has shot in between his fiction films.
Following the 2002 acclaimed Asian Vision section and the Tribute to Asian Cinema held in 1998, this year the Festival presents Stars of the steppe, a section highlighting films from central Asia. Eighteen features accompanied by a similar number of shorts and documentaries coming from such countries as, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, will offer a comprehensive view of film making in these countries from the dissolution of the Soviet Union to nowadays. To name only a few, film directors such as Aktan Abdykalikov, Dareshan Omirbaev, Djamshed Usmonov, Satybaldy Narymbetov, are already brand names in the international film scene. Some of them are coming back to Thessaloniki and its Festival, the place where their first films were discovered and awarded ( Damir Manabayev with his debut film Surzhekey Angel Smerti in 1993, Djamshed Usmonov with his first co-directorial attempt, Beol-I Nalda, awarded the Silver Alexander in 1998). A numerous delegation, comprising most of the directors as well as film critics will be present at the Festival to meet the members of the world film community present in Thessaloniki. The Italian film critic and journalist Vincenzo Bugno is, in collaboration with Michel Demopoulos, the curator of the Stars of the steppe section.
Among the programs dedicated to the Greek cinema, enabling our foreign guests to get acquainted with the most representative local trends and film makers, standing out this year is the Retrospective dedicated to the work of director Nikos Panayotopoulos. The Festival will showcase all his films including his acclaimed The Idlers of the Fertile Valley (1978) which obtained the Golden Leopard at Locarno. Other outstanding titles include his debut, The Colors of the Iris (1974), Melodrama (1981), The Woman Who Dreamed (1988), I Dream of My Friends (1993), Edge of the Night (1999). Panayotopoulos has managed, starting in 2001, the extraordinary feat, considering the financial strains of the local film industry, to turn out a film per year, consistently proving his attachment to the principles of “cinema d’auteur” and to his fiercely defended artistic independence throughout his 38 years old career. Festival guests will be also treated to extracts of his latest directorial effort, Delivery, actually in production.
The Festival’s unique position in the Balkans and Southeastern Europe is substantially enhanced as of this year with the launch of the Balkan Fund, which offers seed money for script development. The Balkan Fund, announced last November at Thessaloniki during the Festival, concerns full fiction film projects submitted from film makers coming from countries of the region, that is Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Fyrom, Greece, Rumania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. The Balkan Fund will finance, starting this year, the script development stage of 5 feature films annually to the tune of Euros 10,000 per project. Funds are provided by the Greek Ministry of Culture.
The first stage of the Fund’s operation has been completed last July with the announcement of a short list composed by twelve projects coming from eight countries, pre-selected by an international team of experienced readers. The respective filmmakers will participate in a workshop during the first weekend of the Festival- November 22 to 24- where they will be able to present their projects and get feedback from the jury and invited decision makers, producers and distributors. The grants, decided by a five -member international jury, will be announced at the end of the workshop. Festival guests are welcomed to attend the workshop. The International Jury is composed by Georges Goldenstern, in charge of the Cinefondation at Cannes Film Festival and former commissioning editor at Arte, Gunnar Bergdahl, director, producer and former head of the Goteborg Film Festival, Leonard Crooks, in charge of the Glascow Film Fund, Dunja Klemenc, president of the association of Slovenian Film Producers and Christina Kallas, artistic director of the Balkan Fund, screenwriter, producer and screenwriting professor at the Berlin Film Academy. Thierry Lenouvel, producer and head of the development fund at the Amiens Film Festival, is attached as consultant to the Balkan Fund which is administered by the Athens-based director-producer Lucia Rikaki.
The Balkan Fund forms part of the Coordination scheme of the European Film Funds, alongside such prestigious institutions as the Dutch Hubert Bals Fund, the Fondazione Monte Cinema Verita, the Goteborg Film Festival Film Fund and the Berlinale Film Fund.
The Festival permanent headquarters are located in the Olympion Cinema Complex which also houses the two main venues of the event, the Olympion 1 and the Pavlos Zannas (formerly Olympion 2), in Aristotelous Square. Conveniently located in the city port, within walking distance from the Olympion Cinema Complex and the main hotels where the guests will be housed, is the multimedia cultural center, The Pier (Provlita), which proved hugely successful with festival guests for the last four years and includes four state-of the-art venues plus the Administration, Operation and Press Center during the Festival.
A second Press Release will be sent out mid October, including the full program of the event plus up-to-date news concerning this year’s event as well as practical information for our guests. Thank you for your attention. We hope to see you in Thessaloniki this coming November.
Foreign Press Contact: Alexis Grivas Angeliki Vergou
Thessaloniki International Film Festival 40 K. Paparrigopoulou St. 11473 Athens, Greece Tel: (30 10) 645 3669. Fax: (30 10) 644 81 43 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
