22nd THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL [5-15/3/2020]
TDF presents its new International Competition section
The 22nd Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (5-15/03/2020) strengthens its competitive programs. In addition to the successful competition section for first- or second- time directors and the VR documentaries competition section, the Festival boasts a new International Competition section for feature documentaries.
TDF is among the most important documentary festivals in Europe and an Oscars® documentary feature qualifying festival, celebrating the art of documentary via a rich program of films, events, initiatives and the Agora Doc Market, a lively hub for film professionals.
New section: International Competition
The new International Competition section presents ten to twelve documentary features that will compete for two awards: The Golden Alexander award which is accompanied by a €15,000 cash prize and the Special Jury Award, accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize.
The films meeting the following conditions are eligible to participate in the IC section:
1) production must have been completed within the 12 (twelve) months preceding the Festival screening
2) have not been released or screened publicly in Greece
3) have a running time of over 70 minutes
Please note that the film that wins the Golden Alexander award will automatically be eligible to submit for Oscar consideration in the Documentary Feature category.
Newcomers Competition Section
Films meeting the following conditions are eligible to participate in the already established Newcomers Competition section for first- or second-time directors:
1) a director’s first or second documentary feature film
2) production must have been completed within the 12 (twelve) months preceding the Festival screening
3) have not been released or screened publicly in Greece
4) have a running time of over 50 minutes.
Ten (10) to twelve (12) films of over 50 minutes in length will compete for the Golden Alexander Award, which is accompanied by an €8,000 cash prize and the Special Jury Award, which is accompanied by a €3,000 cash prize.
Virtual Reality (VR) Competition Section
The films that meet the following conditions are eligible to participate in the VR Competition section:
1) production must have been completed within 18 (eighteen) months preceding the Festival screening
2) has not been released or screened publicly in Greece
The Golden Alexander awarded to a VR film is accompanied by a €3,000 cash prize, sponsored by the Greek Film Centre.
The submission deadline for non-Greek documentaries is November 30, 2019. Please submit here: https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/festivals-en/tdf-en
The submissions for Greek documentaries will open early December.
Film Forward Competition Section
The new Film Forward Competition Section includes documentaries that test the limits of the form and looks at documentary filmmaking from a radical perspective. Ten (10) to twelve (12) films of over 45 minutes in length will compete for the Best Documentary award of the section which is accompanied by a €3,000 prize.
The Agora Doc Market is the professionals’ hub of the festival.
The Doc Market is a fully digital video library with more than 450 titles from all over the world (the majority of the films will be available 3 months after the end of the festival – upon rights holder permission). The Agora Docs in Progress present up to 12 projects from South Eastern Europe that are in the final stage of post-production. The EDN Docs in Thessaloniki Pitching Forum introduces up to 21 projects to commissioning editors, sales agents and festival programmers. Submissions will open in November.
