Eleven Greek-speaking and one English-speaking podcasts are setting their eyes on the Best Podcast Award, accompanied by a 2,000-euro cash prize. All podcasts taking part in the Podcast Competition are available for hearing at the Festival’s website throughout the entire duration of the 66th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (October 30th-November 9th, 2025).
A Guy from Tyrnavos
Podcasters: Evangelos Makris, Panos Apokoritis. Production: Evangelos Makris. Script: Panos Apokoritis. Sound engineering-Sound editing: Evangelos Makris. Podcast: Dimitra Kasoumi. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 30΄
The podcast A Guy from Tyrnavos narrates the work of Thanasis Papakonstantinou, with stories and songs through the voices of people who have accompanied him artistically, from the beginning of his journey until today.
A Summer Morning
Podcaster: Despina Sotiropoulou. Production: Despina Sotiropoulou (DS Productions). Script-Narration: Despina Sotiropoulou. Sound engineering-Sound editing: Konstantinos Poutachidis. Original music: Eva Loukatou, Eleni Lagou. Interviewees: Mrs. Anna Gourdi (Kokkinia), Mrs. Niki (Erymanthos river, Ilia), Mrs. Vagena (Epidaurus), Mrs. Maria Kordali (Mani). Poster: Eva Dereoglou. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 24΄
In contrast to the harmonious society of cicadas, people sink deeper into isolation. The creator wanders through Kokkinia, Ilia, Epidaurus, and Mani, seeking the wisdom of four women at the peak of their lives. Their stories hold solitude, strength, and temperament — just like the summer of the cicadas.
Azathoth Blues
Podcasters: Jonas Kyratzes, Christos Christodoulou. Production: Ghost Notes ProduXion, Christos Christodoulou. Script: Jonas Kyratzes. Sound engineering: Elmer Beriguete (Acid for Squares), Ulysses Nieto (SIDE L.A.), Marco Moir Riley Wallace (Love Street Sound). Sound editing-Sound design-Sound mixing: Christos Christodoulou. Diegetic music: Kostis Christodoulou. Narration: Peter Wingfield (Daniel Ayres), Miguel Perez (Stubbs), Adam Green (Benjamin Wade), Sean Branney (Captain Donovan), Joe Lynch (Harrison Crane), Kacey Camp (Susan Danton), JM Specht (Radio announcer), George Ledoux (Slobodan Vonitsky), Blythe Renay (Samantha Perry), Chase Via (Ivan Osokin). Language: English. Greece, 2025, 29΄
Azathoth Blues is an audio drama inspired by 1970s noir, H.P Lovecraft and Paul Auster. It follows three police officers as they investigate a series of mysterious cold cases, only to discover an increasingly surreal web of corruption, decay, and outright madness.
Don’t Whistle through the City
Podcaster: Tasos Theofilatos. Script-Sound editing-Original music: Tasos Theofilatos. Narration: Fanis Kosmas. Interpretations: Angelos Andriopoulos (Orion), Eirini Ioannou-Papaneofytou (Grandmother), Tasos Theofilatos (Grown-up kids). Poster design: Petros Chountalas. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 24΄
I long for a world that no longer exists. They say that if you whistle through the night, you summon the spirits, but who said they are always wicked?
False Time
Podcaster: Spyros Skandalos. Production: Assumed Position, Spyros Skandalos. Script-Sound engineering-Sound editing-Narration: Spyros Skandalos. Original music: Myrto Zavvou. Participation: Eleni Skandalou. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 30΄
An almost illiterate woman publishes her autobiography at 90. She’s my grandma Eleni resisting the passing of time with curiosity, directness, and humor. An audio documentary about how I owe her my stories, and about our need to narrate, to understand, and to love.
Insomnia (In Six Movements)
Podcaster: Nefeli Livieratou. Script-Sound engineering-Sound editing-Original music-Narration: Nefeli Livieratou. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 21΄
A sound recording, which is unclear whether it belongs to a future or past, describes the events that led to the end of the world, as experienced by the narrator. A recorded letter addressed to someone close to her, in a last attempt to reach them.
Merkos Psipsikas: A Legacy in Vinyl
Podcaster: Christos Georgoudakis. Production: Public Central Library of Veria. Heads of production: Aspasia Tasiopoulou, Giorgos Bikas. Recording-Sound processing: Christos Georgoudakis. Narration: Christos Georgoudakis. Participants: Katerina Psipsika, Yiannis Trochopoulos, Giorgos Kalogirou, Giorgos Gkalitsos, Giorgos Bikas. Cover: Giorgos Bikas. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 26΄
Merkos Psipsikas lived before online streaming, when a love for music would send you on an endless hunt from record store to record store. His enormous collection of 9,500 vinyl records was inherited by the Public Central Library of Veria, which strives to keep it relevant in today’s digital age.
The Bat’s Song
Podcasters: Marilou Vomvolou, Kostas Vomvolos, Flora Fousteri. Production: Lotus Eaters, Marilou Vomvolou. Script-Sound engineering: Marilou Vomvolou. Sound editing: Marilou Vomvolou, Kostas Vomvolos. Sound processing: Kostas Vomvolos. Narration: Marilou Vomvolou. Cover: Flora Fousteri. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 29΄
The interviews with Natassa Papadopoulou-Tzavella, Babis Karapetis (grandson of Giorgos Batis), and Vangelis Totsis intertwine with poems and prose, weaving a strange tapestry of songs and narratives. This is not a historical overview of rebetiko and political songs. Only small fragments of life or memory — that later come to be called history.
Τhe City’s Ghosts
Podcaster: Giannis Demogiannis. Script-Sound editing-Original music: Giannis Demogiannis. Narration: Kostis Kapellidis. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 30΄
As the narrator wanders through a temporally multilayered Thessaloniki, he is led to reconsider his relationship with the city, with time, with belonging, with love, and ultimately with himself.
The Lives of Others – Wake Up, Man! It’s a Dictatorship.
Podcaster: Vasilis Zampikos. Production: Laika Productions, Marina Danezi. Script-Sound engineering-Sound editing-Original music: Vasilis Zampikos. Narration: Vassilis Zampikos, Giannis Kaounis. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 29΄
An audio documentary about the life of Giannis Kaounis, a member of the Student Organization of the Democratic Youth of Lambrakis and a founding member of the organization Rigas Feraios. A journey from his childhood to his student years, his anti-junta activism, imprisonment, and torture.
Warfetti
Podcaster: Nalia Ziku. Production: Nalia Ziku. Script: Sofia Gourgoulianni. Sound editing-Narration-Original music: Nalia Ziku. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 24΄
Two women, one younger, one older, unfold a shared story through carnival parades, secret desires, grief and love. In a small town, bodies remember, ache, celebrate, and rename the world from scratch, on their own terms, in their own language.
What Lies Within the Pages: “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”
Podcaster: Petros Savvaidis. Adapted script: Petros Savvaidis (based on the titular novel by Mark Haddon). Sound engineering-Sound editing-Original music: Alex S. Tsigkourakos. Narration: Petros Savvaidis. Actors: Vasilis Athanasopoulos, Konstantina Tsitsia-Georganta. Language: Greek. Greece, 2025, 30΄
A dog is found dead. A teenager sets out to solve the mystery. This story becomes a journey of understanding. What Lies Within the Pages podcast adapts The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with immersive narration, bringing neurodiversity to the forefront and highlighting the unique value of every human story.
