Her lasting contribution in the art of documentary making and her valuable support to the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival all these years, is the reason behind the Festival’s idea to honor Madeleine Avramoussis, Commissioning Director for Arte France, in a special event organized on Monday 5 March 2018 at a stacked “Stavros Tornes” Theatre, as part of TDF’s 20th anniversary edition. The event ended with the screening of Lefteris Haritos’ documentary Dolphin Man, a co-production with Arte.
“In appreciation of her passion for documentary and her ongoing support to the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, we honor Madeleine Avramoussis”, noted Elise Jalladeau, General Director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, handing the honorary plaque to Mrs Avramoussis, who counts more than 25 years of experience with Arte. On his part, TIFF’s Director, Orestis Andreadakis, welcomed once more the guest to Thessaloniki and TDF, and described her as a “unique personality and a citizen of the world”.
“It’s more than I’m worthy of”, noted Madeleine Avramoussis, who during her long career in documentary and from her key position in Arte, has participated in the co-production of many Greek production and co-production documentaries, such as Roy Sher’s My Sweet Canary and Up to the Last Drop: The Secret Water War in Europe by Yorgos Avgeropoulos, which is being screened in this year’s event. “Documentary is above all teamwork. Therefore, I return the honor to all the people we have worked together with for the promotion of Greek documentary. I come to this festival ever since it was a ‘baby’, and now it is a twenty-year old... girl. So, happy birthday, and know that TIFF is not just a good opportunity to watch interesting things and relax with the films; it is mostly a chance to see and meet people and build relations with them eventually, so that beautiful partnerships can happen. You would not believe how many remarkably talented Greek documentarists are out there”. Mrs Avramoussis added: “If I’m worthy of this honor at all, it is for my decisiveness. Because the producer clearly needs to be very decided and open-minded. I’m proud and thrilled to be here today, in this historic, cosmopolitan and open-minded city, in this historic building, just like I was proud every time we were going, together with all the team of Dolphin Man, to pitch this film in every big documentary festival in the world”,» Mrs Avramoussis noted, and concluded: “In our job, in order to make a documentary you have to wait for the right moment. It is like building a house. You need patience and time in order to lay the proper foundations”.
