With 89,000 spectators and visitors, the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival has come to a close. From October 31st to November 10th, the 65th Festival hosted premieres, fascinating discussions and masterclasses, in addition to welcoming prominent figures of cinema, including Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, Matt Dillon, Joshua Oppenheimer, Panos H. Koutras. It also had the pleasure of having the beloved writer Victoria Hislop as an ambassador of the Agora.
This year, 281 screenings were held in physical venues. Of those, 164 screenings were sold out. In total, 252 feature-length and short films were screened. Overall, 67 films were screened on the Festival's online platform.
Within the framework of the Agora's development actions, 583 meetings were held involving 648 professionals of the film industry from both Greece and abroad. Hopefully these processes will soon be translated into new projects, scripts and films. Overall, 211 films were available to industry professionals and journalists from Greece and abroad.
During these eleven days, within the context of the initiative Meet the Future, which foregrounded this year the art of film scoring, through the tribute “Music in Motion: The Art of Film Scoring”, 6 exciting masterclasses were delivered by acclaimed artists. The masterclasses were given by composer Zbigniew Preisner, a close collaborator of Krzysztof Kieślowski, music editor Suzana Perić, with movies directed by Martin Scorsese, Greta Gerwig and Peter Jackson under her belt, as well as renowned Greek artists Nikos Kypourgos, Evanthia Reboutsika, Tassos Boulmetis, Kostas Christides and Coti K., who have been praised for their outstanding work both in Greece and abroad. One more masterclass was delivered by the great casting director Ellen Lewis, a close collaborator to filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Jim Jarmush. All masterclasses were held in the packed Pavlos Zannas theater, with a dynamic presence by students and young people.
The 65th TIFF hosted a large-scale tribute to the unconventional, pioneering and daring Greek film director Panos H. Koutras, who received the Festival’s honorary Golden Alexander. The Festival, teaming up with the Department of Communication & Media Studies and the Department of Digital Arts & Cinema of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, hosted an all-day colloquium dedicated to the work of Panos H. Koutras. Moreover, the Greek director delivered a masterclass on the queer identity of his cinema, within the framework of the Iconic Talk powered by Mastercard. The renowned Greek director talked about the unknown aspects of his work, the valuable experiences from 25 years of work in Greek cinema, about the queer representations in his films, as well as about the influences and references that have shaped his work as a filmmaker.
More than 2,845 visitors toured the main exhibition of the Festival, titled "We, the Monster" and the installation Interfears by Jesper Just. The exhibition We, the Monster will be on view until November 24th at MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts, at Pier A of Thessaloniki's Port.
As part of the Immersive section, 882 screenings of the virtual reality films competing for the Golden Alexander Immersive Award and of the installation Intangible by Danish artist and designer Carl Emil Carlsen screenings of the virtual reality films competing for the Golden Alexander Immersive Award were carried out. Moreover, 1,446 people heard the podcasts of the Podcast Competition Section and of the Nexus Section, that were available on the Festival’s website.
The 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival is held with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Partnership Agreement of the Central Macedonia Regional Operational Program 2021-2027 and the MEDIA programme. Valuable is the support of the Hellenic Parliament and of the Ministry of Tourism. We would like to express our gratitude to ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation), official communication sponsor of the Festival, COSMOTE TV, Grand Sponsor of the Festival, PPC Group, Strategic Partner of the Festival, Alpha Bank, the Festival’s accessibility sponsor, MasterCard, the Festival’s official payment card, Aegean, the Festival’s official air-carrier, Fischer, the Audience Awards sponsor, and Jameson. We warmly thank the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center S.A.-Creative Greece, the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation, Finos Film, Masoutis, Savvikos, volunteering sponsor, Eurojackpot, Stone Group, a supporter of inclusion, LG, ON Residence, Mediterranean Palace, Ktima Kir-Yianni, EEA Grants and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Fraport, Interbus, Volvo Papadopoulos, 2.35 and Authorwave for their contribution. Thank you to the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the Municipality of Neapoli-Sykies, the Municipality of Pavlos Melas, Momus-Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki, the Ports Public Authority, the Thessaloniki Port Organization and to the Festival’s communication sponsors Kathimerini, TV5Monde, TV100, and FM100.
The actions of the 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival are carried out within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0”, funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the 27th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which will take place from March 6th to 16th, 2025.
