We have the pleasure to announce the 5 films (works in progress) that will participate in the second edition of the “Thessaloniki Goes to Cannes” event which will take place on Monday, May 14th 2018, during the Marché du Film of the 71st Festival de Cannes (May 8-19, 2018).
The participation of the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora Industry in the “Goes to Cannes” of this year’s edition of Cannes’ Marché du Film, one of the world’s largest film markets discovering up-and-coming directors from all over the world, is collaboration between the TFF and the Greek Film Centre with the Festival de Cannes. Greece is the only country in Southeastern Europe and the Balkans that participates in the event.
The 5 works in progress (both fiction and documentary) that will be presented to the sales agents, distributors and programmers who attend this year’s Cannes’ Marché du Film are the following:
IN THIS LAND NOBODY KNEW HOW TO CRY (Out-There Comedy, 2018)
Director: Giorgos Panousopoulos
Production Company: Blackbird Production
Producer: Eleni Kossyfidou
Co-producers: Marie Pierre Macia & Claire Gadea (MPM Film France), ERT National TV Chanel, NOVA, with the support of GFC/CNC, Aide à la coproduction d’œuvres cinématographiques franco-grecques
Sales: MPM Film
Running time: 97’
Stage: Post-production
Looking for: Festivals, distribution
Country of production: Greece
Synopsis: In this unconventional comedy, a French MEP, a young economist, a visionary teacher and a rugged widow meet, by circumstance, in Armenaki, an islet lost somewhere in the Aegean Sea that has the miraculous capacity to change people’s lives. Gradually, they will get acquainted with the residents, the moral values and the habits of the island, spiral along unforeseen events, let themselves get carried away by the vortex of love, and decide to live in freedom.
OPEN DOOR (Drama, 2018)
Director: Florenc Papas
Production Company: Bunker Film +
Producer: Eno Milkani
Supported by: Albanian National Film Center, Kosovo Center of Cinematography, EURIMAGES, SEE Cinema Network, Albanian Public Television
Running time: 85’
Stage: Post-production
Looking for: Sales, film festivals
Country of production: Albania
Co-production Countries: Kosovo, FYROM
Synopsis: When the very pregnant Elma returns to Albania from Italy, she and her sister, Rudina, set off on a long auto journey to meet their strict and traditional father, hoping, along the way, to find a man to play the part of Elma’s husband.
SEEDS OF COLUMBUS (Documentary, 2018)
Director: Marianna Economou
Production Company: Stefi/Lynx Productions
Producers: Spyros Mavrogenis, Rea Apostolides and Yuri Averof
Co-Production Company: Anemon Productions
Running time: 52’ / 80’
Stage: Post-production
Looking for: Festival premiere, pre-sales, distribution
Country of production: Greece
Synopsis: Elias, a small farming village in Central Greece, is dying out. But two cousins, Alexander and Christos, remember the tomato seeds that the village women have kept for 500 years. The cousins team up with four village grannies to cultivate the tomatoes and export precious jars all over the world. These seeds, and the stories the villagers tell to sell them, are their bridge to a new world.
THE WAITER (Neo-noir, 2018)
Director: Steve Krikris
Production Company: Filmiki Productions
Producer: Steve Krikris
Co-Producer: Nicholas Alavanos
Running time: 97’
Stage: Post-production
Looking for: Finishing funds, sales agent, distribution
Country of production: Greece
Synopsis: Renos is a professional waiter. His next-door neighbour Milan, goes missing, and another man takes over his apartment. Renos gets gradually acquainted with “The Blond” who introduces him to a hammam, where Gina works. An outdoor excursion to a lake will result in an unexpected confrontation between him and “The Blond”, which will lead Renos to a self-defence murder. Gina announces she must leave the country, asking Renos to go with her. At a gas station near the border, Renos secretly gets into a truck heading back to Athens, leaving Gina alone. Renos upon his return confesses the murder at the police station.
WHERE ART THOU? (Documentary, 2018)
Director: Dimitris Athiridis
Production Company: Faliro House Productions
Producers: Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Kostas Kefalas
Languages: English
Running time: feature length / mini-series
Stage: Editing
Looking for: Sales, Co-Producing
Country of production: Greece
Synopsis: An adventurous film observation of Adam Szymczyk’s efforts, as artistic director of Documenta 14, to organize the world’s biggest Contemporary Art exhibition in Athens and Kassel undertaking a huge artistic, operational and financial challenge. As a journey within the institutional art world, the film, through the perspective of its protagonist, highlights the policies, politics, struggles, successes and defeats but mostly quests art as a cognitive extension of our existence, as a glimpse of our world’s contemporaneity.
