The 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival will be held from Thursday 6th to Sunday 16th March 2025 both in physical spaces and online. A total of 261 documentaries will be screened as part of the 27th TiDF, among which an impressive number of 72 world, 40 international and 11 European premieres. The Festival will take place in its time-honored home ground, the movie theaters Olympion and Pavlos Zannas at the Olympion complex, the movie theaters Frida Liappa, Tonia Marketaki, John Cassavetes and Stavros Tornes at the Port of Thessaloniki, as well as Makedonikon theater. Moreover, the audience will have the chance to watch movies online, through the Festival’s digital platform, online.filmfestival.gr. In the press conference held on Monday February 24th, the Festival’s team, composed of General Director Elise Jalladeau, Artistic Director Orestis Andreadakis, Head of Program Yorgos Krassakopoulos, Head of Agora Angeliki Vergou, and Head of Greek Program Eleni Androutsopoulou, said the following:
“The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival takes place this year in a critical moment for our broader neighborhood, Europe, but also for the whole world. Fundamental principles of our culture -democracy, freedom, tolerance- have unfortunately been disputed recently, while the cries of hate multiply in the most dangerous way. The 261 short and full-length documentaries screened at the 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival portray and unveil what we experience in our precarious times. Most of all, though, they urge us to take a good hard look at the raw reality and reappraise the preciousness of cinema, while reminding us that truth can never be relevant or dubious. Four months have passed since the Festival’s last press conference and it seems like we are already living in a completely different world. Unfortunately, not a better one. Some have said that we are living in a science fiction film, but I disagree. It is not a science fiction film, it is a historical documentary about the 1930s, screened backwards, and this time we are the protagonists, or rather the victims. It is an educational documentary that taught us nothing. It is a gut-wrenching testimony for the horror of fascism and the totalitarianism that it seems we have forgotten. It is a film record of a horrific historical reality that some are trying to repeat in the worst possible way. In the face of this new scary reality, culture can not be neutral. It cannot remain silent when authoritarianism gains ground, when public discourse is poisoned by intolerance, when the past is revised in a dangerous way. In a city that carries memory and History, in a place that knows about geopolitical tensions, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival has always been a place of dialogue, of freedom, of culture. While misinformation and distortion of facts become tools of manipulation, documentary filmmaking reminds us of the power of truth. And in times of crisis, such a space, where the power of truth shines, is more necessary than ever. All these, of course, did not come suddenly, but have been in preparation for a long time. By demagogues who preached hatred, by populists who cultivated hostility, by conspiracy theorists who mocked true science, by manufacturers of lies and easy solutions who targeted art and tried to convince us that it is useless. But Art is one of the most powerful weapons of Democracy. Art is not a luxury or a neutral zone. It has responsibility, it has a say, it takes a stance. And this is what we will try to prove to this year’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival with films that capture real stories. As the value of truth is in danger of becoming relevant and algorithms no longer have to prove that what they say is true, real stories that we have learned and know well, real stories that we see in our documentaries, real stories that European culture has served for many decades are our own bulwark”.
The program, the developmental actions and the events of the 27th TiDF were then unveiled:
POSTERS AND TRAILERS
OPENING FILM - CLOSING FILM
The opening of the 27th TiDF will take place on Thursday March 6th 2025, with the film About a Hero by Piotr Winiewicz, an adaptation of a script written by an AI trained on Herzog’s body of work. The Festival will call it a wrap on Sunday March 16th 2025, with Shoshannah Stern’s Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore that unravels the story of Marlee Matlin, the first ever deaf recipient of an Academy Award for acting.
TRIBUTE “AI, AN INEVITABLE INTELLIGENCE”
The 27th TiDF hosts a grand tribute titled AI, an Inevitable Intelligence. The tribute invites the audience to embark on a fascinating journey that includes a selection of eye-opening documentaries, the impressive visual installation LAUREN: Anyone Home? by artist and UCLA professor Lauren Lee McCarthy, the masterclass I and ART EXPERIENCE powered by TELEKOM in collaboration with COSMOTE TV, a special two-language edition, as well as the Festival’s magazine First Shot, co-created this year with the help of AI as a form of experimentation. A cinematic exploration of the new reality, standing in the threshold between the man-made and the digital.
TRIBUTE “GEOGRAPHY OF THE GAZE: OFF-PLAN GREECE (1950-2000)”
A total of 19 documentary films that compose a multifaceted and illuminating portrait of the social, political and cultural life of Greece in the second half of the 20th century take center stage at the 27th TiDF’s large-scale tribute titled “Geography of the Gaze: Off-Plan Greece (1950-2000)”. On the occasion of the recent discovery of the documentary Kastoria (1969) directed by Takis Kanellopoulos invites us to embark on a unique cinematic journey in the Greek countryside through documentaries of renowned filmmakers, most of them rare and off the radar. The films Gazoros Serron (1974) and Prespes (1966) by Takis Hatzopoulos will be screened with universally accessible terms, with the support of Alpha Bank, the Festival’s Accessibility Sponsor.
SPOTLIGHT ON NICOLAS PHILIBERT AND HONORARY GOLDEN ALEXANDER
The 27th TiDF will bestow an honorary Golden Alexander to the renowned documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert, who will attend the Festival to deliver a masterclass. The Festival will screen four films by the French filmmaker, who has a Golden Bear, a César Award and a European Film Academy Award under his belt.
TRIBUTE TO LAUREN GREENFIELD
The 27th TiDF will host a tribute on the acclaimed filmmaker and photographer Lauren Greenfield, whose work castigates the toxic side of hyperconsumerism, leaving a biting commentary on the decay of the nouveau-riche class that wastes itself in ephemeral delights. In addition to presenting her films to the audience, the American artist will also deliver a masterclass and serve as a member of the International Competition Jury.
GREEK DOCUMENTARIES
The 27th TiDF is welcoming a total of 71 full-length and short Greek films
- 42 films take part in the international program (International Competition, Newcomers competition, >>Film Forward competition, Open Horizons).
- The Platform+ section hosts 25 Greek films, screened at the Festival’s digital platform from March 7th to March 21st.
- The special screening of the documentary Mysterious Deaths in Ancient Greece: Olympias. Thirst for Power produced by COSMOTE TV and directed by Kalliopi Legaki, which investigates the death of prominent personalities of Ancient Greece and reveals a darker side that no one had imagined.
- The special screening L'éclairage revient / Waves of Light produced by the Public Power Corporation and directed by Pantelis Kalogerakis, Michalis Kalogerakis, Panagiotis Andrianos, carried out within the framework of the Waves of Light online festival held by the Greek National Opera in collaboration with the Public Power Corporation, under the artistic curation of Giorgos Koumendakis.
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
The 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival is hosting four competition sections:
* A total of 10 films, among which three Greek, take part in the International Competition, having their eyes set on the Golden Alexander, accompanied by a 12,000-euro cash prize, and the Silver Alexander, accompanied by a 5,000-euro cash prize.
* The Newcomers competition section, featuring debut and sophomore films of up-and-coming film directors, includes 10 films, among which three Greek, competing for the “Golden Alexander - Dimitri Eipidis”, accompanied by a cash prize of 10,000 euros, and the Silver Alexander, accompanied by a cash prize of 4,000 euros.
* The >>Film Forward competition section, which challenges cinematic conventions and showcases unconventional films, is hosting 10 films, among which three Greek. The awards bestowed are the Golden Alexander >>Film Forward, accompanied by a cash prize of 6,000 euros and the Silver Alexander, accompanied by a cash prize of 3,000 euros.
* Within the framework of the Immersive: All around cinema competition section, 8 pioneering films are lining up for the Golden Alexander Immersive, accompanied by a 2,000-euro cash prize. Moreover, the multifaceted art installation AI & Me by the Romanian multimedia artist duo “mots” will be screened out of competition, exploring the thrilling interaction between AI and human beings.
* We discover dynamic and out-of-the-box docs at the Open Horizons section.
* We are presenting the cream of the crop of the documentary production at the Top Docs section.
* We turn our attention to the younger generation through the NextGen section.
AGORA
Dynamic initiatives, newly established awards and fresh synergies are part of the 27th TiDF Agora, the Festival’s developmental branch, which will take place both in physical spaces and online. The TiDF Agora is showcasing and supporting the films and the documentary filmmakers of tomorrow through a series of actions such as Thessaloniki Pitching Forum, Docs in Progress, Agora XR Lab, Agora Boost, Agora Talks, Talking Heads etc.
PODCAST SECTION
A total of 10 podcasts were selected for the Podcast Competition section, with their eyes set on the Best Podcast Award, accompanied by a cash prize of 2,000 euros. In addition, the audience will have the chance to hear another 12 podcasts taking part in the Nexus Section. The podcast BiPolar Opposites by Valia Dimitrakopoulou, created within the framework of the open call launched by the Thessaloniki Film Festival and the non-profit journalistic organization iMEdD, will be presented in an open hearing event.
EDITIONS
*The Festival’s special two-language edition includes essays and articles by distinguished journalists, academics, artists and tech experts that contemplate on issues related to the recent evolution and extended use of Artificial Intelligence.
*This year’s beloved Non-Catalog is titled BLUEPRINTS: records of natural and human geography. Horizontal cross-sections of an “off-plan” landscape, tracings of rituals of the past, rough drafts of countries “under development,” carbon copies of views of mass culture, marginal notes, sketches of the future, and portraits of people left off-frame. The Non-Catalog of the 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival imprints in Prussian blue (the pigment most sensitive to light) the copies of a changing world.
The 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival is held with the support of the Hellenic Parliament, the Ministry of Culture, the Partnership Agreement of the Central Macedonia Regional Operational Program, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0”, the MEDIA programme, the Ministry of Tourism and ERT. COSMOTE TV is Grand Sponsor of the Festival, for the 8th consecutive year, proving once again its support towards quality cinema. PPC Group, the Festival’s Strategic Partner, shares our vision and work. Valuable support is offered by Alpha Bank, the Festival’s accessibility sponsor, Aegean, the Festival’s official air-carrier, Fischer, the Audience Awards sponsor, and Jameson. The awards of the 27th TiDF will be bestowed in the Festival’s closing ceremony.
The Festival’s programme, as well as more info on the films, are available at www.filmfestival.gr. The tickets’ presale kicks off on Tuesday March 4th.
A lovely festival to you all!
#TiDF27
