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At the packed Pavlos Zannas theater, on Friday morning, November 8th, the audience of the Thessaloniki Film Festival had the opportunity to attend a unique masterclass about the art of casting delivered by the renowned American casting director Ellen Lewis. Being amongst the most acclaimed professionals in her field, the experienced Ellen Lewis has some impressive collaborations under her belt, with some of the most iconic filmmakers in the history of cinema, such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Jim Jarmusch.

On Friday, November 8th, Panos H. Koutras delivered a masterclass titled “Queer Before It Was Cool,” which explored queer identity in his cinema, within the framework of the “Iconic Talks powered by Mastercard” initiative. The acclaimed Greek filmmaker had a discussion with the journalist, Alexandros Diakosavvas, and the audience on the unknown aspects of his work, his valuable experiences from his 25 years of work in Greek cinema, the queer representations in his films, as well as the influences and references that have shaped his directorial gaze.

The discussion titled “The Invasion of Panos H. Koutras in Greek Cinema” took place on Thursday morning, November 7th, at the Pavlos Zannas theater, kicking off the all-day event dedicated to Panos H. Koutras, titled “The Attack of the Giant Cinema of Panos H. Koutras” and curated by Eva Stefani.

Evanthia Reboutsika and Tassos Boulmetis delivered a masterclass titled “The Director's Sound and the Composer's Vision” on Tuesday, November 5th,  in the framework of the Meet the Future action of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. This year's Meet the Future of the 65th TIFF brings to the fore the art of film scoring through the tribute "Music in Motion: The Art of Film Scoring".

On Thursday November 7th, the audience had the opportunity to enjoy five rare short films by Panos H. Koutras, which had never been screened in Greece. The screening and the discussion that followed took place within the framework of the all-day colloquium “The Attack of the Giant Cinema of Panos H. Koutras”, dedicated to the work of Panos H. Koutras.