In a special event that took place on Saturday March 2nd, 2019 at Olympion theater, the 21^st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival awarded Greek-American filmmaker Louie Psihoyos, the official guest of this year’s edition, with the Golden Alexander, for his contribution to cinema. The director came to Thessaloniki on the occasion of the carte blanche given to him this year by the TDF to select and present to the audience ten of his favorite documentaries. After the ceremony, the audience had the chance to watch in a special screening Louie Psihoyos’ Oscar-winning documentary The Cove (2009), which is recording mass dolphin killings in Japan. A discussion with the director followed. 

 “In the US, a film is considered successful based on its rankings at the box office and the profits it brings. For me, it is successful if it can motivate a 10% of the population. I consider cinema a critical weapon of mass motivation. This 10% is a sufficient number of people for me to be able to raise concern, motivate and ultimately bring upon useful social changes”.

A different ceremony, inspired by the relationship between men and animals, opened the curtain on the 21^th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in a stacked Olympion theater. The tattoo artist - TV presenter George Mavridis and his dog Molly, who put on a show playing cute and barking, were the hosts.

The Agora Doc Market, introduced in 1999, will be held in Warehouse C at the Thessaloniki Port. Thirty (30) digital booths are available for private viewing. This international Market, supported by Creative Europe Media Program, caters to television networks from European countries and a wide range of professionals from various parts of the world. The Agora Doc Market is fully digital; all films are easily accessible in the video library.

The 21^st edition of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival presents 178 feature and 49 short documentary films by directors from all over the world, as well as a parallel events program.

We pass by people, objects and stray animals in the street, as if they were not visible. The documentaries reveal the hidden stories, the obscure aspects of people and situations. They reveal what we do not see at first glance.

31 short and 50 feature Greek documentaries will be screened in the 21^st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Two of them participate in the event’s International Competition section, 28 in the various International Program sections, 12 in TDF’s new segment “From screen to Screen” and 39 in the latest addition section titled “Platform”.

The International Competition section of the 21^st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival discovers the boldest new voices of contemporary documentary filmmaking, presenting the first or second films by the most promising directors from all over the world. It is worth noting that the TDF is included -along with 28 leading film festivals- in the Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Thus the documentary that wins TDF’s Golden Alexander Best Documentary–International Competition award automatically becomes eligible for Oscar consideration in the Documentary Feature category.