In a festive atmosphere, TIFF presented Academy Award winning producer Jeremy Thomas with the Golden Alexander award, on Friday, November 20 at a packed Olympion Theater. Present at the honorary ceremony were TIFF president Georges Corraface and director Despina Mouzaki
Mr. Corraface characterized Thomas as a modern Socrates, alluding to the Greek philosopher’s method of debate, which allowed him to elicit the truth from his interlocutor. “I can easily imagine Jeremy Thomas ‘eliciting’ the best results from the directors he works with, artists like Bernardo Bertolucci, David Cronenberg, Tery Gilliam or Takeshi Kitano”.
TIFF director Despina Mouzaki stressed how much Thomas has offered to the cinema, with such a great number of film masterpieces to his credit. “For more than 30 years, Jeremy Thomas has been guided not by commercial success but from the enlightened passion of a true artist. He counts on imaginativeness; he dares to take risks and emerges victorious. We have been fortunate to have enjoyed films, which, in the eyes of other producers, would have seemed artistically risky and commercially doomed. His infallible instinct, his faith in his vision, resulted in films that have enriched the art of cinema and touched our very souls and minds”, stressed Mrs. Mouzaki, presenting the award to the distinguished producer.
Jeremy Thomas thanked the Thessaloniki Film Festival and added that he was impressed with the city and very pleased by the fact that many of his films were met with great success in Greece. He also asked the audience to keep going to the movies so that he can continue making films. “It has never entered my mind to make a film that is merely entertaining. I always wanted to do movies with clout and a special meaning. In Creation, for example, we take a grand idea and make a film based on this idea – this is a demanding and interesting aspiration”.
After the award was presented to the producer, John Amiel’s Creation, produced by Thomas, was screened, a film based on the life of Darwin, narrating the conditions that led to the writing of his majestic essay On The Origin of Species.
