Thessaloniki Pitching Forum www.filmfestival.gr Thessaloniki Pitching Forum is the new co-production and co-financing platform of the Agora Docs for creative documentaries, TV documentaries and New Media documentaries (VR, AR, etc.) intended for theatrical distribution, TV broadcasting and exhibition in general. The Thessaloniki Pitching Forum selected projects are: 1. CAUTION, RISK OF FALLING EXHIBITS!Directors: Jana Durajova & Lena Kusnierikova, Producers: Zuzana Mistrikova, Lubica Orechovska, Arkaitz Basterra – PubRes, Slovakia Alexandra, in charge of the never-ending renovation of the Slovak National Gallery, believes in the urgent need for a space where art can reach people. She fights time. Her father, the architect of the reconstruction, is ill and the gallery is falling apart. 2. DECEMBERDirector: Grzegorz Paprzycki, Producer: Maciej Kubicki – Telemark, Poland The arrival of December sweeps away the existing order and brings snow and wind to Europe. It also brings strangers. They are called refugees, migrants, or even enemies. The winter cold starts to take over the streets, as well as some people’s hearts. 3. THE FLOATING WORLDDirector: Fernando Souza, Producer: Mo Scarpelli – Rake Films, Co-producer: Jorge Thielen Armand – La Faena Films, Italy | USA | Canada Ryuki, a transgender man, silences his inner demons with a new job: making women fall in love with him. Yet selling love prevents him from experiencing it. The film follows Ryuki as he considers self perception and self-destruction while navigating Tokyo's underbelly. 4. THE FRENCH CONNECTIONDirector: Jamie Goldrick, Producer: Kevin Brannigan – PushPull, Ireland This documentary examines the modern internet through the prism of the largest alternative public network ever to have existed, the French Minitel. It asks what lessons can be learned to make the internet better today. 5. HARVEST MOONDirector: Rama Ayasra, Producer: Mariam Salim – New productions, Co-producer: Asmahan Bkerat, Jordan Two activists are on a mission to bring back the cultivation of wheat and its lost heritage to its original homeland, Jordan. They are guided by the experience and wisdom of a young farmer and the knowledge and spirituality of an old one. 6. HONEYDEWDirectors: Marco Bergonzi, Michael Petrolini, Producer: Simone Catania – Indyca, Co-producer: Costanza Julia Bani - Fellonica Film, Italy | Sweden Looking for freedom, Maureen founded Honeydew (USA), a place renowned for its illegal cultivation of marijuana. The decriminalization of cannabis, however, has become a paradoxical threat to that same freedom. 7. LAND OF SARDirector: Petra Seliskar, Producer: Victor Ede – Cinéphage, Co-producers: Petra Seliskar - Petra Pan Films, Sara Ferro - PPFP Doel, Slovenia | France | North Macedonia Zarif is seventeen. As he grows into a man, he’s not sure he wants to be a shepherd anymore. But how can he find a way out? If Zarif leaves the cherished Sär mountains, where he spent his entire childhood, who knows what could be lost for him and his family? 8. MUMSDirector: Ariadna Seuba Serra, Producer: Maria López – Intactes Films, Spain On their roller-coaster ride trying to become pregnant using assisted reproduction, Anna (40) and Ari (32) -a two-women couple- let us into the intimacy of their home where we go on an amusing, bitter-sweet adventure. 9. PEOPLE IN MY HOUSEDirector: Tatjana Bozic, Producer: Magdalena Petrovic – LEWA productions, Co-producer: Frank Müller – DOPPELPLUSULTRA FILMPRODUKTION, Jacob Gesink - Spacedust production, Wout Conijn - Conijn Film, Croatia | Germany | Netherlands A single mother from Eastern Europe, living in the West, struggles to find a cure for her uprooted nature. She ventures through her displaced friends, family and migrant communities, trying to find that elusive feeling of belonging. 10. QUIXOTE'S CAMERA - 10 Letters from Beyond LightDirector: Cordelia Dvorák, Producer: Cordelia Dvorák - Paloma Films, Co-producers: Daniel Hočevar – Vertigo, Leonidas Liambeys – Long Run Productions, Germany | Slovenia | Greece Evgen’s gaze is exiled behind a glass eye and his dreams into a camera. He takes photographs by ear, not depicting what he (does not) see, but rather what he hears, smells, and remembers. Suddenly his touch becomes our eye, and his hearing our seeing. 11. RUNNING FOR ANNADirector - Producer: Tomaso Aramini, Italy During the 1970s in Italy, a young hippie leads the fight for prisoners’ rights, and is present on every one of the most important uprisings that took place in Italian prisons. 12. SUPER PARADISE Director: Steve Krikris, Producer: Paul Typaldos – Filmiki Productions, Co-producer: Dafni Kalafati, Greece A film about our unquenchable thirst for freedom and self expression; about a desire that reached its heights in the 1970s, on the island of Mykonos: a paradise lost that was never recovered. 13. SUNKENDirector: Dimitris Gkotsis, Producer: Mina Dreki – Marni Films, Greece Abandoned ships and their toxic cargo have sunk into oblivion 20 km away from Athens, next to Elefsina: a city considered sacred in ancient times. Sunken "dives" into the wounds of a city that remains hidden beneath the surface, on the threshold of the European Capital of Culture 2023. Are we all equally affected in this environmental crisis? PROJECT MANAGER & TUTOR Ove Rishøj Jensen, consultant, Paradiddle Pictures, Denmark THESSALONIKI PITCHING FORUM TUTORS Mila Turajlić, director & producer, Dribbling Pictures, SerbiaPeter Jäger, consultant, Jäger Creative, AustriaFlora Gregory, International Documentary Consultant, UK THESSALONIKI PITCHING FORUM JURY Krishan Arora | International Content Consultant, SBS - AustraliaStephanie Fuchs | Festival Manager, Autlook Filmsales - AustriaAngelos Kovotsos | Director - Greece THESSALONIKI PITCHING FORUM MODERATOR Marion Schmidt | Co-Director Documentary Association of Europe (DAE) - Germany Panel of financiers Natalia Arshavskaya - Current Time TV, USA Adel Ksiksi - Aljazeera Doc Channel - QATARMagdalena Borowska - TVP, Poland Jenny Westergard - YLE, FinlandSoleil Gharbieh - AFAC - Arab Fund for Arts & Culture, Lebanon Irena Taskovski - Taskovski Films, UK Krishan Arora - SBS, Australia Dafni Bechtsi - CINOBO, Greece Marketa Stinglova - Czech Television, Czechia Hanka Kastelicova - HBO Europe, Czechia Patrizia Mancini - Deckert Distribution, Germany Stephanie Fuchs - Autlook, Austria Lejla Dedic - Al Jazeera Balkans, Bosnia & Herzegovina Maëlle Guenegues - Cat&Docs, France Sandrine Ventezout - Histoire TV, FranceFrédéric Pfyffer - RTS, Switzerland Fiona Lawson-Baker - Al Jazeera English, Qatar Silvia de Felice - RAI Culture, Italy Per Erik Gilsvik - Sörfilm, NorwayDevin Karambelas - WGBH/PBS, USA Sanam Gharazoglou - MUBI, UK Sharon Nuni - ORF, Austria Sabine Bubeck-Paaz - ZDF/ARTE Jasmina Vignjevic - Syndicado Film Sales, Canada AWARDS Thessaloniki Pitching Forum Award € 2000ERT – Thessaloniki Pitching Forum Award € 2000 to a Greek project by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation Onassis Cinema Award € 5000 to a Greek project participating in the Agora Docs (Thessaloniki Pitching Forum and Docs in Progress) MFI Script2Film Workshop Award Scholarship for the Doc Lab (worth € 2000) DAE - Documentary Association of Europe Award Consultancy session and a free membership Aylon Productions Digital Services Award Digital transfer of archival material up to 1 hour (2K) Beldocs Networking Award Accommodation and free accreditation for the upcoming Beldocs International Documentary FF (May 2022)