CLOSING CEREMONY
The curtain fell on the 55th edition of the Thessaloniki Film Festival on Saturday, November 8, 2014, during the closing ceremony that took place at a packed Olympion Theatre. Actress Stefania Goulioti presented the event.
In his opening speech, festival director Dimitri Eipides summarised the accomplishments of this year’s edition: “We celebrated together the 55 years of the Festival. For ten days, 150 films from around the world invited audiences to get a taste of the magic of cinema. The audience gave a resounding response to our invitation, with theatres recording over 96% capacity. We owe a heartfelt thanks to this audience, because they confirmed that independent cinema can reveal a different side of the world, a side all of us need. All of our guests of honour this year have been fine examples of this kind of innovative cinema. One of them, the emblematic actress Hanna Schygulla, is here with us tonight. Your presence is a great honour. We were also joined by Serbian activist filmmaker Zelimir Zilnik and Ramin Bahrani, one of the most important voices of American cinema. We were also fascinated by the Festival’s tributes to daring filmmaker Kornel Mundruczo and to the magician of surrealism Roy Andersson. One of the landmarks of this year’s edition has been the centennial of Greek cinema. Both classics and contemporary Greek films came center stage. I would like to thank all filmmakers from Greece and abroad who trusted us with their work. I would also like to extend a personal thank you to our volunteers and staff, who give their all for the Festival. Finally, I should thank for their valuable support the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the European Programme MEDIA, the Greek state television, the Greek Film Center and the Hellenic Parliament TV Channels and our sponsors, who stand by our side, supporting us in these times of adversity.”
Following Mr Eipides’ speech, four Greek artists with noteworthy contributions to the greek artistic universe received honorary awards. The awarded artists were actresses Voula Zouboulaki and Anna Synodinou and directors Pantelis Voulgaris and Lakis Papastathis. TIFF board member Spiros Pengas, who is the Tourism and International Relations consultant to the Municipality of Thessaloniki, presented the award to Ms Zouboulaki, noting that “the Film Festival has its eyes set on the future and spearheads the city in the same direction. But the Festival also looks back to its past, to the people who have supported the institution with their talent. The award was received by the artist’s brother, Petros Zouboulakis, who said the actress was overjoyed and moved by this “wonderful initiative,” especially since it came at a time when Ms Zouboulaki is recuperating from an illness.
Mr Pengas also presented the award for Ms Anna Synodinou, which was received in her stead by her nephew Yannis Synodinos. The latter thanked the Festival for the award and informed the audience that Ms Synodinou is getting better after facing serious health problems in the previous eight months. “She fought for her health, which, thankfully and as if by miracle, is improving, ” he noted.
Deputy minister for Culture Antzela Gerekou then presented the honorary awards to Pantelis Voulgaris and Lakis Papastathis. “It is a great honour for me to be here at the Thessaloniki Festival, which is honouring two distinguished directors,” said Ms Gerekou, who described Mr Voulgaris as “a beloved, internationally renowned and acclaimed Greek filmmaker, who makes us all proud. He is also a director who really loves actors. I was very fortunate to have had the chance to work with him as an actress.” Mr Voulgaris gave a touching account of the Festival’s history: “The Festival is 55 years old now, and a group of directors that includes me and Lakis Papastathis has been actively involved in it for fifty of them. We were six young directors when we found ourselves here in 1965, a great group of friends who gave their all for the Festival,” he said. Mr Voulgaris gave a special thanks to the audience of Thessaloniki for the warm reception of all his films.
Presenting the award to Lakis Papastathis, Ms Gerekou called him “a filmmaker of great achievement, in both features and documentaries, a man who succeeded, with his documentary series ‘Paraskinio’ to promote the cultural life of his country and important Greek filmmakers.” Mr Papastathis, after thanking the Festival for the award, said: “The Festival embodies the efforts of the young filmmakers of the ’65 generation to create their own cinema, under the influence of the great masters of European cinema and of Greek literature and history. This combination defined us. I remember Theodoros Angelopoulos saying that we resorted to History to find our identity and discover the causes of our present troubles. I don’t know if we did discover them, but at least we touched on them. The generation of ’65 managed to capture the Festival during the junta and turn it into a resistance hub, for a cinema worthy of the citizens of a democratic country.”
During the ceremony, producer Marie-Pierre Macia, head of the Crossroads Co-Production Forum of the Agora section of TIFF and former head of the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, and Grigoris Karandinakis, general manager at the Greek Film Center, announced the film projects selected for financing in the context of the agreement between France’s National Center of Cinematography and the Greek Film Center. This collaboration aims at establishing a new financing mechanism that will support French and Greek co-productions. The projects were selected by a six-member committee consisting of Marie-Pierre Macia, Jacques Bidou and Eric Lagesse from the distribution company Pyramide (France), and directors Panos H. Koutras, Iris Zahmanidi and the head of the Greek Film Center’s Development and Production Office Yannis Iliopoulos (Greece). The selected projects are: Happy Birthday by Christos Georgiou, Son of Sofia by Elina Psykou, Stage Frightby Yorgos Zois, Voir du pays by Delphine & Muriel Coulin, Athenes, Les eclats by Antoine Danis and La femme de mon oncle Grec by Sandrine Dumas.
The presentation of the 55th TIFF awards followed. This year’s jury president was Austrian director Gotz Spielmann, joined by Rasha Salti, (festival programmer), Joanna Lapinska, (artistic director at the New Horizons Film Festival in Poland), Miroljub Vuckovic (head of international relations at Serbia’s Film Center) and producer Thanassis Karathanos .
The most prestigious festival award, that of Best Feature Film (Golden Alexander – Theo Angelopoulos award), was bestowed to Perpetual Sadness by Jorge Perez Solano (Mexico). “This is a movie of narrative exactness, which combines realism with poetry and was filmed in a poor, secluded province of Mexico,” the jury explained. Deputy minister for Culture Antzela Gerekou presented the award to a visibly moved Perez Solano, who thanked the jury, the audience and the festival organizers.
Asaf Korman’s film Next to Her (Israel) won the Special Jury Award – Silver Alexander. The award was presented by Thessaloniki mayor Yannis Boutaris and was received on behalf of the director by Ms Konstantina Stavrianou from the Greek company Graal, which co-produced the movie. The director, who was in Thessaloniki earlier, was not present at the awards ceremony, but sent a message thanking organizers for the distinction and expressing his hope to return to the Festival with his next film.
The Special Jury Award for Originality and Innovation Bronze Alexander was presented by Hanna Schygulla — TIFF held a tribute to her work this year — to the film The Lesson by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov (Bulgaria, Greece). Both directors had been in Thessaloniki in the previous days, but departed before the ceremony. In their thank you message they noted that their film was made “with no money, thanks to the support of friends from both countries.” The award was received by the film’s protagonist Margita Gosheva and two representatives of Greek co-producer Graal.
The Best Director Award was presented to Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy for his film The Tribe(Ukraine). Jury president Gotz Spielmann presented the award to a representative from the film’s distributor.
Mr Spielmann also presented the Award for Best Screenplay to Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov for their film The Lesson (Bulgaria - Greece). The award was received by Margita Gosheva, who conveyed the appreciation of the directors and scriptwriters.
Mr Spielmann then bestowed the award for Best Actress to Brooke Bloom for her role in the film She’s Lost Control by Anja Marquardt (USA) and the award for Best Actor to Sverrir Gudnason for his role in Blowfly Park by Jens Ostberg (Sweden). “Actors can easily lose their self-esteem and this award gives me something to hold on to,” said the actor.
The Artistic Achievement Award was presented to the film In The Crosswind by Martti Helde (Estonia).
George Makrygiannakis, Marketing Director at Fischer, and Irene Spanou, head of Public Relations at Athenian Brewery, presented the Fischer audience awards for the 55th edition of the Festival. Mr Makrygiannakis noted that the Fischer prize is awarded for the eighth consecutive year. “Our presence here is explained by our love for a Thessaloniki institution that showcases the modern face of the city,” he noted.
The Fischer Audience Award for a film in the Greek Films section – Michael Cacoyannis Award was bestowed to Dark Illusion by Manos Karystinos. Actor Stamatis Papadopoulos received the award on behalf of the director, expressing his pleasure for this pleasant and unexpected surprise and thanking the Thessaloniki European Youth Capital 2014 for their contribution in the production.
The Fischer Audience Award for a film in the Balkan Survey section was bestowed to Three Windows and a Hanging by Isa Qosja (UNMI Kosovo, Germany) and was received by actor Donat Qosja.
The Fischer Audience Award for a film in the Open Horizons section was bestowed to The Little Death by Josh Lawson (Australia).
The Fischer Audience Award for a film in the International Competition section was bestowed to Corrections Class by Ivan I. Tverdovsky (Russia, Germany).
The Hellenic Parliament TV Channel bestowed its Human Values award to the filmCorrections Class by Ivan I. Tvardovsky. The award was presented by director Vasilis Douvlis who represented the TV Channel.
The FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) jury, consisting of Jose Antonio Teodoro (jury president, Canada), Muge Turan (Turkey) and Ninos Feneck Mikelides (Greece) bestowed two awards and a special mention. For a film in the International Competition, the FIPRESCI award went to Goodnight Mommy by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (Austria) “for its formalistic elegance and haunting images, its playful and daring approach to the genre and its impressive investigation into the matter of identity formation, mutual dependence and painful, traumatic effects in the relationship between mother and son.” The Honorary Consul of Austria in Thessaloniki, Ms Evelyn Papadopoulou, received the award.
For a film in the Greek Films 2014 section, the FIPRESCI jury awarded the film Norway by Yiannis Veslemes, for “its inspired, inexpressive irrationalism, its meticulousness in every aspect of the production, its peculiar vision of Greek night-life and for presenting us with one of the most inspired vampires of all time.” Mr Veslemes received the award and thanked the jury. Mentioning “the high standard and inventive combination of history and literature, its formalistic boldness and its many mysterious, realistic and beautiful images,” the FIPRESCI jury also bestowed a special mention to the film Polk by Nikos Nikolopoulos and Vladimiros Nikolouzos (Greece), who received it in person and thanked the jury from the stage of Olympion.
The Greek Film Critics Association (PEKK) presented its award to the film Stratos by Yannis Economides (Greece, Germany, Cyprus). The award was presented by film critic Stratos Kersanidis, who explained PEKK’s rationale, stressing “the narrative strength with which the film suggests the moral codes that can lead us to the exit of the crisis tunnel.” The award was received by Ms Irini Souganidou, Managing Director at Feelgood Entertainment, the film's co-producer and distributor. Ms Souganidou said that she is representing a company that has been supporting Greek cinema for five years now and expressed the wish that critically acclaimed Greek films are also well-received by audiences.
The ceremony concluded with a speech by deputy minister for Culture Antzela Gerekou, who congratulated organizers and noted: “I wish the Festival a creative future; as an institution it is an ambassador of our country and showcases the extrovert nature of Greek cinema. Critics and audiences enjoyed films that touched and moved us, raised our awareness, and took us on a cinematic journey. Allow me to say that I feel like I have a split personality: on the one hand I am someone who loves the cinema passionately, while on the other I am the holder of a public office with a duty to protect and nurture this productive, creative and dynamic field. I hope we prove worthy of the challenge.”
Roy Andersson’s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence was screened after the awards ceremony. The closing film was part of the tribute to his work held by the 55th edition of the Festival. In a videotaped message, the Swedish director thanked organizers for the honour.
