Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s dynamic presence at Cannes
At the same time that glamorous stars and top directors from around the world appear on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival, behind the lights and cameras, takes place the process for the films that we will discuss in the future. The Thessaloniki Film Festival worked intensively for months to bring producers from Greece to Cannes, in order to network, present their work and collaborate with international institutions and professionals.
The Festival travelled to Cannes, with the support of the ministry of Culture and funded by the Recovery and Resilience Fund, within the framework of the work “SUB 6.3 - Market extroversion of the Thessaloniki Film and Documentary Festival” and participated in a series of actions.
The Festival helped four producers from Greece to present their work at Cannes Docs of Marché du Film, the largest film industry event in the world. Rea Apostolides - Anemon Productions, Konstantinos Vassilaros – StudioBauhaus, Dafni Kalafati - Filmiki productions, Leonidas Liambeys - Long Run productions held presentations and meetings with the aim of finding co-productions, international sales and premieres at festivals abroad. A few hours after their participation in Cannes Docs, they expressed their satisfaction with the program and the visibility that their companies and activities received and noted that they benefited significantly from the meetings they held. Of course they were not alone in this effort. The Festival partnered with Katarina Tomkova, producer and film development consultant from Slovakia with extensive experience in similar projects, who helped the four Greek producers network and prepare for their meetings.
Also, the traditional reception for Greek cinema in Cannes was attended by, among others: editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis, two-time Oscar nominee, Vicky Hatzivasileiou, deputy regional governor of Tourism of Central Macedonia, Mara Gourd-Mercado, Head of the CPH:DOX industry, Katrine Kiilgaard, managing director of CPH:DOX, Pascal Diot, Head of the Venice Production Bridge, Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen, Industry Head at IDFA and Caroline von Kuhn, Executive Director - Oxbelly. The reception was also attended by representatives from major festivals abroad, such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Gothenburg and Tallinn, representatives from IEFTA, a major sponsor of the Agora of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, and of course producers, directors, distributors and journalists from Greece who were present at Cannes and had the opportunity to chat, network and celebrate the success of Greek cinema.
The Festival’s Agora participated in the first annual meeting of the European markets, which came as a natural continuation of the initiative of the Thessaloniki Film Festival for a series of Think Tanks on the future of the film markets and in the Co-production Night, the great celebration for the European co-productions with the participation of the largest markets worldwide.
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