The Festival's extroversion initiatives continue with the participation of creators from Greece in Locarno and Sarajevo
The Thessaloniki Film Festival continues its efforts for the greater extroversion of Greek cinema and the promotion of Greek filmmakers abroad, with the support of the Ministry of Culture. The Festival gives the opportunity to two film professionals from Greece who have participated in Thessaloniki Locarno Industry Academy, to travel to the Locarno Film Festival and participate in Locarno Pro. At the same time, the directors who participated in the Agora Short Film Lab of the 65th TIFF will take part in the Cinelink of the Sarajevo Film Festival, where they will have the opportunity of networking with film professionals from abroad and discuss their new projects. The actions are implemented within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan "Greece 2.0" with the funding of the European Union - NextGenerationEU, within the integrated project "SUB 6.3 - Market extroversion of the Thessaloniki Film and Documentary Festival". The extroversion initiatives are also supported by the Ministry of Tourism.
After successful actions in large film festivals, like Cannes (participating in the prestigious Cannes Docs), Berlin, Rotterdam and DOK Leipzig, the Thessaloniki Film Festival continues its extroversion initiatives at the Locarno Film Festival and the Sarajevo Film Festival. More specifically, the Festival financially covers the travel costs for cinema professionals (accreditation, travel expenses, accommodation etc.), while with the input of specialists, it provides consulting services before, during and after the completion of their trip. At the same time, the Festival supports the participation of professionals in special programs held in the framework of the international film markets.
Participation at Locarno Pro
After their participation at the Thessaloniki Locarno Industry Academy of the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Annita Nitsaidou, Festival Director WOW Film Festival / Film Programmer and Vangelis Trichias, Editor / Independent film promotion professional will travel to the Locarno Film Festival, in order to participate to the Locarno Pro actions, from August 7 to August 10. Also, Errika Zacharopoulou, who is coordinating the Agora of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, was selected for the U30 program of the Locarno Pro. U30 is a think tank that aims to give a voice to a new generation of cinema professionals.
Four filmmakers at SFF’s Cinelink
Four directors who participated in the Agora Short Film Lab 2024 and were nominated for the Iris Awards of the Hellenic Film Academy will travel to the Sarajevo Film Festival, in order to participate in the Cinelink Industry Days from August 18 to August 21. Agora Short Film Lab is an initiative hosted by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, in collaboration with Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and Drama International Short Film Festival.
The filmmakers travelling to Sarajevo are:
Yorgos Fourtounis (MJ)
Lina Kountoura (pop)
Dimitris Moutsiakas (Gekas)
Meni Tsilianidou (Driving Me Crazy)
The participants will have the opportunity to discuss their work with top film professionals, take part in networking events and will be present in Agora’s networking breakfast in Sarajevo. Their consultant is producer Yorgos Tsourgiannis.
