November 6-15, 2015
PRESS CONFERENCE
The Festival acquires the management of Warehouse 1 (Port)
A press conference was held on Tuesday, November 10, 2015 at Warehouse C, in the framework of the 56th Thessaloniki Film Festival, regarding the acquirement of the management of Warehouse 1 (Stavros Tornes and John Cassavetes theatres) by the Festival. The event, with speakers Argiro Mesimeri, head of the Thessaloniki Cinematheque and Panagiotis Forsos, manager of TIFF’s theatres, took place in the presence of the director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Dimitri Eipides.
“We are very pleased that this year the management of Warehouse 1 at the Port is assigned to the Festival, which will use the venue to bring classical masterpieces of world cinema and the best films of contemporary independent cinema even closer to the city’s audience” said TIFF’s director, Mr. Eipides. As he added, the Thessaloniki Cinematheque, the screenings of which were previously held at Takis Kanellopoulos theatre at the Film Museum, will from now on hold its screenings at Stavros Tornes theatre, ”offering more spectators the opportunity to attend its successful tributes”. In addition, first-run films will now be screened at John Cassavetes theatre, besides the Olympion and Pavlos Zannas theatres.
For her part, Ms. Argiro Mesimeri welcomed the fact that the 4,000 members of the Thessaloniki Cinematheque and the city's audience can now have access to a bigger venue, with better quality projections, while she also presented the films of eight tributes, programmed to take place after the completion of the 56th Festival. In particular, the forthcoming tributes are: “Classic European films V” (26-29 November 2015), “American Noir - Paint it Black” (3-6 December 2015), “In the Strange Land of David Lynch” (10- December 13, 2015), “The Red Dragon Is Roaring” (17-20 December 2015), “Satyazit Rai, a Classic Indian Auteur” (14-17 January 2016), “Atom Egoyan, a Canadian from Armenia” (21- 24 January 2016), “Il signore Vittorio De Sica” (28-31 January 2016) and “This Is the Balkans” (4-7 February 2016).
In turn, Panagiotis Forsos took the floor stressing that “the Festival is known to take chances” and went on to cite some of them, such as the survival of the institution during the junta, its internationalization, the establishment of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and the success of the Olympion and Pavlos Zannas theatres. As noted by Mr. Forsos, the two theatres at Warehouse 1 stand as a bigger challenge for the Festival. Stavros Tornes theatre will host the screenings of the Thessaloniki Cinematheque, while John Cassavetes theatre will serve as an art-house venue presenting artistic films. “Our goal is for the cinephile audience to feel at home. For them to be able to stay there after the screenings, to have a coffee and start a discussion about the films,” Mr. Forsos said. As he added, the goal is to showcase the best of this year's film production. He went on revealing some titles of the upcoming films to be screened, among which are the opening and closing films of the 56th TIFF, i.e. Sebastian Schipper's Victoria and Arnaud Desplechin’s Our Golden Years, respectively. Mr. Forsos concluded by thanking the former director of the Thessaloniki Port Authority, Giannis Pantis, who largely contributed to the partnership between THPA S.A. and TIFF.
As Mr. Forsos added, the transfer of the management of the Warehouse 1 was completed at a symbolic price, aimed to cover part of the operational costs. “We hope that the revenues will be sufficient to cover the cost. It is a challenge to attract audiences to the theatres. It will not be difficult to take it from there,” he said, stating that this project can be financially successful. “Until the end of May we hope that this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship (with THPA), to quote the finale of the film Casablanca,” Mr. Forsos added.
The two theatres will operate with the staff of the Thessaloniki Cinematheque, with common screening dates, as Ms. Mesimeri explained. “We are cautious in the financial decisions, because we do not want institutions-fireworks. These institutions are to remain. We will take additional steps to establish the Cinematheque and will gradually improve our program and publications,” she further explained.
The opening of the theatres will be held on Saturday, November 21, 2015. The first film to be screened at John Cassavetes theatre is 45 years by Andrew Haigh (November 19th), while at Stavros Tornes the spectators will have the opportunity to watch Luchino Visconti’s classic film The Leopard at a special opening-screening event.
