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The 13th Crossroads Co-Production Forum opened on Wednesday, November 8, 2017, at Warehouse C, as part of the Agora of the 58th Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

The TIFF’s General Director, Elise Jalladeau, welcomed the participants by saying: “We wish you enjoy the event. The Agora team has done tremendous work and you will appreciate it. We will be glad to see you in the Festival's venues in the coming days”.

Immediately afterwards, the head of TIFF’s Agora, Yianna Sarri, took the floor to thank the sponsors and contributors of the section, emphasizing: “Agora is expanding and evolving, remaining an important creative part of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival”.

In its previous editions, Crossroads hosted projects by Greek and foreign directors such as Athena Rachel Tsangari, Penny Panagiotopoulou, Constantine Giannaris, Alexis Alexiou, Angelos Frantzis, Michael Konstantatos, Deniz Gamze Erguven, Annemarie Jacir, Radu Jude, Zeki Demirkubuz, Amos Gitai and Florin Serban, among others.

This year, the Crossroads jury is comprised of: Dominique Welinski (producer, - DW, France), Teresa Hoefert De Turegano (Funding Advisor – Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany) and Konstantinos Kontovrakis (producer – Heretic, Greece).

The Agora Crossroads section, headed by Marie-Pierre Macia, selects film projects based on the script quality, the creative team and the production potential. It aims at supporting producers of feature films related to Central Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean.

This year, Crossroads includes the following projects:

  1. 200 Meters, Director: Ameen Nayfeh, Production: May Odeh – Odeh Films, Palestine
  2. Avanos, Director: Panagiotis Charamis, Production: Kostas Baliotis – 2D2R, Greece
  3. Fishers of Men, Director: Alex Camilleri, Production: Oliver Mallia – Pellikola, Malta
  4. Fronteira, Director: Nuno Baltazar, Production: Leonel Vieira - Stopline Films, Portugal - in collaboration with CINEMED
  5. Girl without Clothes, Director: Yannis Korres, Production: Alexis Pilos - Zero-Zero Productions, Greece
  6. Margherita, Director: Valentina Carnelutti, Production: Marco Alessi - Dugong Films & Valentina Carnelutti - Fiore Leone Produzioni, Italy
  7. Other People, Director: Meedo Taha, Production: Wesam Nassar – ESHMAWI, Meedo Taha – drawFILM, Lebanon
  8. Protected Species, Director: Hristo Simeonov, Production: Katya Trichkova - Contrast Films, Bulgaria - in collaboration with Sofia Meetings
  9. Rainbows Don’t Last Long, Director: Mayye Zayed, Production: Halina Dyrschka – Ambrosia Film, Mayye Zayed – Rufy’s Films, Germany-Egypt
  10. The Rooftops o f Fez, Director: Abdelhai Laraki, Production: Caroline Locardi - A2L Production, Morocco
  11. Un Peu De Chaos Inexplicable, Director, Producer: Yorgos Gkikapeppas – Film Society, Greece
  12. We Kiss in Dark Nightclubs and I Explain, Director: Daphné Hérétakis, Production: Jasmina Sijercic - Bocalupo Films, Co-production: Yorgos Tsourgiannis – Horsefly Production, France-Greece
  13. Zuhal, Director: Nazlı Elif Durlu, Production: Anna Maria Aslanoğlu - istos film, Turkey - in collaboration with MFI Script 2 Film Workshop

 

In the framework of the Agora, producers of the above-mentioned projects have the opportunity to present and discuss their projects with co-producers, distributors, sales agents and production industry experts.

 

Crossroads collaborates with:

  • The Greek post-production house Two Thirty Five 2|35 Inc, which offers the co-production award (image and sound) to the winning cinematic project.
  • The CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’ image animée), which grants 10.000 euro for script development in a cinematic project.
  • The Greek music company MuSou, which funds the winning project in order to compose and produce an original film score, acquire and license commercial music for use in the film and offers audio post-production services. 
  • The Producers Network of the Cannes Film Festival, which provides the winning producer with an accreditation, in order to participate in the upcoming 2018 edition of the Producer's Network.
  • The Sofia Meetings of the Sofia Film Festival, which selects one cinematic project to be presented in the upcoming Sofia Meetings, on March 2018.
  • The Mediterranean Film Institute Script 2 Film Workshops, which provides one of the projects with a scholarship for its 2018 Workshop.
  • The French script-development consultancy firm Initiative Film, which offers its services to one of the cinematic projects.
  • CINEMED, which will pick at least one Greek project for its annual Development Grant selection.
  • The 58th edition will also award the new Heretic Asterisk* prize, which will provide the winner with professional advice on Packaging, Development Strategy, International Financing Strategy, Project Marketing Strategy and Distribution Strategy.

Agora, part of which is the Crossroads section, is TIFF’s industry branch. Agora welcomes an international network of professionals and provides the facilities, as well as the occasion for meetings, discussions and professional collaborations in an informal, hospitable and professional atmosphere. The TIFF Agora is funded by the Creative Europe-MEDIA European program.

TIFF’s Agora awards will be bestowed on Friday, November 10, 2017, at 22:00, Warehouse C.

The Surface of Things by Nancy Biniadaki

"For the girls who grew up in the cement 1980 Athens, who dreamt of ancient subterranean rivers and fell in love with dark heroes, those girls was the movie made for".

Sacrilege by Marsa Makri

"In my "cinema" the filmic theatricality is underlined by a music-like visual arts aesthetic and a high depth of field, in a constant quest for a new (?) transcendent narrative". 

Life Guidance by Ruth Mader

“Human freedom comes to an end within a framework that includes everything currently famliar and considered as normal”.

Grain by Semih Kaplanoğlu

“We humans keep creating new and unbreachable borders. We build these walls, these borders, in the name of security, even though we are not even aware that what we are actually doing is building prisons for ourselves”.

The Invisible Hand by David Macián

"Arbeit macht frei" said the Nazis a long time ago, and it seems that nowadays many people believe it.

Charleston by Andrei Cretulescu 

“That very fine line in between drama and laughter is the -only way to deal with love and grief. To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again, as Leonard Coen said”.

On Tuesday 7 November 2017, the audience had a delightful and enlightening discussion with Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, honored guest in the 58th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, in Pavlos Zannas theatre. This year’s event is hosting a retrospective on the director, who won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festival 2017 for his new film The Square.  

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AGORA

November 4-11, 2017 – Warehouse C

 

13 projects in the 13th CROSSROADS CO-PRODUCTION FORUM

12 films in the AGORA WORKS IN PROGRESS

264 international titles in the AGORA FILM MARKET

 

TIFF’s AGORA (November 4-11, 2017), supported by Creative Europe-MEDIA, is an industry event offering various networking opportunities for the global film industry in an informal, welcoming and professional atmosphere. As an international meeting and trading event, AGORA runs parallel to the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and offers to its visiting industry professionals a variety of industry activities which focus on the countries of Central Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean:

 

  • The Agora Film Market with a Digital Video Library (Nov. 4-11)
  • The Crossroads Co-Production Forum (Nov. 7-11)
  • The Agora Works in Progress - Screening of films in post-production (Nov. 9)
  • The Thessaloniki Locarno Industry Academy (Nov. 6-11)
  • ACE Producers Think Tank (Nov. 8)

 

Moreover, TIFF’s AGORA organizes a series of additional activities which contribute further in reinforcing its role and potential in the international festival circuit:

 

Thessaloniki Locarno Industry Academy International (November 6-11, 2017)

Thessaloniki International Film Festival in collaboration with the Festival del Film Locarno launched in 2016 the Thessaloniki Locarno Industry Academy International in the South Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. The second edition will take place in Thessaloniki from November 6-11 2017, during the 58th TIFF’s AGORA. The Thessaloniki Locarno Industry Academy is a training program created to help young professionals of the cinema industry –sales agents, distributors and new media professionals– to extend their experience and networking in the fields of international sales, marketing, distribution and programming.

 

This year’s participants are:

Maximilien Dejoie, Just a Moment, Lithuania

Christina Liapi, Heretic Outreach, Greece

Anjali Mandalia, Thunderbird Releasing, U.K.

Ivan Mihalic, Everything Works, Croatia

István Mráz, Mozinet, Hungary

Joanna De Sousa, Outsider Films, Portugal

Isabella Weber, Europa Distribution, Italy

 

Agora Training Day co-organised with CED Media Greece (November 7, 2017)

The AGORA provides valuable tools to the professionals of the film industry, as well as the environment to develop fruitful collaborations and creative projects. The Training Day event encourages even more the above goals by addressing to all young film directors and producers who will attend the 58th TIFF. They will have the opportunity to meet with well-established professionals who will share with them their knowledge and experiences. This year’s edition Training Day includes speakers such as Satu Elo (EAVE – European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) together with Vicky Miha (Heretic Asterisk*) and Alessia Sonaglioni (EWA - European Women’s Audiovisual Network). In addition, Guillaume de Seille (Arizona Films) and Weerada Sucharitkul (Filmdoo) will discuss the online distribution of festival films, while director Andrei Creţulescu will present a study case on his film Charleston that participated both in Crossroads and Agora WiP and is screened in the Balkan Survey section of this year’s edition.  

 

ACE Producers Think Tank Discussion (November 8, 2017)

The event takes place during the 58th TIFF as part of the series of think tank sessions organized by ACE Producers that will be also held in the Netherlands Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. These sessions will touch upon issues such as co-production, financing and legislation and policy, with the aim to address the idea of a functioning European cinema exploring both practical issues and aesthetic considerations. The sessions’ findings will be collated and presented to ACE and international industry professionals with the purpose of the need to better promote European films and increase exports outside the continent.

 

The AGORA FILM MARKET promotes the majority of the films included in the Festival’s official program selection. In addition, this year more titles from the countries that the AGORA INDUSTRY focuses on will be also presented, even though they are not part of the Festival’s main program. Moreover, the Agora Film Market includes the previews films of the Crossroads participants and a selection of Greek films produced within the last year. This year the Digital Video Library of the Agora Film Market includes 264 films from all over the world, available for viewing by the professionals who participate in the AGORA (producers, distributors, broadcasters, sales agents and consultants), as well as the Greek and international press representatives.

 

CROSSROADS, the Co-Production Forum headed by Marie-Pierre Macia, has selected 13 projects this year, based on the quality of the script, the creative team and the likelihood of it being produced. All selected projects are either produced or co-produced by a country in South-eastern and Central Europe or the Mediterranean area, or contain story elements linked to these regions. The selected projects come from the following countries: Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal and Turkey.

 

The producers of these 13 projects will be introduced to a variety of industry professionals from all over the world. The program is varied and provides opportunities to meet other producers, distributors, broadcasters, sales agents and consultants. Crossroads’ goal is to support the producers of feature-length film projects that are linked to the Mediterranean and Balkan regions in finding the right partners to finance and accomplish their projects.

 

The Crossroads Awards are:

  • The Greek post-production house Two Thirty Five (2|35 Inc) offers the main prize of a co-production award (image and sound) to the winning project.
  • Centre national du cinéma et de l’ image animée (CNC) offers 10.000 euro for script development.
  • The Greek music company MuSou offers the music & sound award (composition and production of an original film score, music supervision, licensing of commercial music for use in the film and audio post-production services). 
  • The Producers Network of the Cannes Film Festival offers a free accreditation for the 2018 edition.
  • Sofia Meetings of the Sofia IFF will select one project to be presented in March at the Sofia Meetings 2018.
  • The Mediterranean Film Institute Script 2 Film Workshops offers a scholarship for its 2018 Workshop to one of the projects.
  • Initiative Film, the script-development consultancy firm in France, offers its services to one of the Greek projects.
  • CINEMED will include at least one Greek project in the Development Grant selection according to its state of development and follow the films from Crossroads and Works in Progress in regards to its program selection.
  • Heretic Asterisk* will offer for the first time an award consulting on Packaging, Development Strategy, International Financing Strategy, Project Marketing Strategy and Distribution Strategy. 

 

The 2017 Crossroads jury consists of:

Dominique Welinski, Producer – DW, France

Teresa Hoefert De Turegano, Funding Advisor - Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany

Konstantinos Kontovrakis, Producer - Heretic, Greece

 

This year’s projects are:

  1. 200 Meters, Director: Ameen Nayfeh, Production: May Odeh – Odeh Films, Palestine
  2. Avanos, Director: Panagiotis Charamis, Production: Kostas Baliotis – 2D2R, Greece
  3. Fishers of Men, Director: Alex Camilleri, Production: Oliver Mallia – Pellikola, Malta
  4. Fronteira, Director: Nuno Baltazar, Production: Leonel Vieira - Stopline Films, Portugal - in collaboration with CINEMED
  5. Girl without Clothes, Director: Yannis Korres, Production: Alexis Pilos - Zero-Zero Productions, Greece
  6. Margherita, Director: Valentina Carnelutti, Production: Marco Alessi - Dugong Films & Valentina Carnelutti - Fiore Leone Produzioni, Italy
  7. Other People, Director: Meedo Taha, Production: Wesam Nassar – ESHMAWI, Meedo Taha – drawFILM, Lebanon
  8. Protected Species, Director: Hristo Simeonov, Production: Katya Trichkova - Contrast Films, Bulgaria - in collaboration with Sofia Meetings
  9. Rainbows Don’t Last Long, Director: Mayye Zayed, Production: Halina Dyrschka – Ambrosia Film, Mayye Zayed – Rufy’s Films, Germany-Egypt
  10. The Rooftops of Fez, Director: Abdelhai Laraki, Production: Caroline Locardi - A2L Production, Morocco
  11. Un Peu De Chaos Inexplicable, Director, Producer: Yorgos Gkikapeppas – Film Society, Greece
  12. We Kiss in Dark Nightclubs and I Explain, Director: Daphné Hérétakis, Production: Jasmina Sijercic - Bocalupo Films, Co-production: Yorgos Tsourgiannis – Horsefly Production, France-Greece
  13. Zuhal, Director: Nazlı Elif Durlu, Production: Anna Maria Aslanoğlu - istos film, Turkey - in collaboration with MFI Script 2 Film Workshop

 

The AGORA WORKS IN PROGRESS are closed sessions for Thessaloniki’s invited industry professionals, presented to sales agents, distributors, producers and festival representatives. This year 12 films are produced or coproduced by the following countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.

 

The awards for a film in post-production include:

  1. The Eurimages Lab Project Award for unconventional projects which amounts up to €50,000. Through the Lab Project Award, Eurimages is investing in new forms of cinematographic expression and actively participating in the renewal of European cinema.

 

  1. Greek post-production house Graal provides a post-production award in kind services to one film participating in the Agora Works in Progress section.

 

The 2017 Agora Works in Progress Jury consists of:

Bero Beyer, Artistic Director of International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Dorien van de Pas, Netherlands Filmfund/Eurimages, The Netherlands

Ilias Georgiopoulos, Distributor, Danaos Films, Greece

 

This year’s films are:

  1. A Shelter among the Clouds, Director: Robert Budina, Production: Robert Budina & Sabina Kodra – ERAFILM, Albania - The film was presented as a project in Crossroads 2015
  2. Bad Poems, Director: Gábor Reisz, Production: Julia Berkes - Proton Cinema, Co-producer: Estelle Robin You - Les films du Balibari, Hungary-France
  3. Charcoal, Director: Esmaeel Monsef, Production: Etienne de Ricaud - Caractères Productions, Co-producer: Nader T. Homayoun - Alias Films, France-Iran
  4. Dead Horse Nebula, Director: Tarik Aktaş, Production: Güneş Şekeroğlu - Hay Film, Co-producer: Guillaume De Seille - Arizona Films, Turkey-France
  5. Siren’s Call, Director: Ramin Matin, Production: Emine Yıldırım, Oğuz Kaynak - Giyotin Film, Turkey
  6. Sister, Director: Svetla Tsotsorkova, Production: Svetoslav Ovcharov - Omega Films, Co-producer: Svetla Tsotsorkova, Bulgaria
  7. Snowing!, Director: Kristina Nedvědová, Production: Jitka Kotrlová - Frame Films, Co-producer: Barrandov Studio, Frame100r, Bystrouška, i/o post, Czech Republic
  8. Speak So I Can See You, Director: Marija Stojnic, Producer: Marija Stojnic, Milos Ivanovic – Bilboke, Co-producer: Tibor Keser, Vanja Jambrovic - Restart, Serbia-Croatia
  9. Trot, Director: Xacio Baño, Producer: Luisa Romeo - Frida Films, Co-producer: Marija Razgute - Ciobreliai Films, Spain-Lithuania
  10. Unpleasant, Director: Giorgos Georgopoulos, Producer: Giorgos Georgopoulos – Multivision, Co-producer: Antonis Kotzias, Yafka, Greece
  11. The Waiter, Director: Steve Krikris, Producer: Steve Krikris – Filmiki Productions, Co-producer: Nikolas Alavanos, Greece
  12. Zizotek, Director: Vardis Marinakis, Producer: Konstantinos Vassilaros – StudioBauhaus, Co-production: Red Carpet Films, Greece-Bulgaria - The film was presented as a project in Crossroads 2016

 

For more information please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Too Much Info Clouding over my Head by Vassilis Christofilakis

“A black-and-white, innovative smart comedy with a Woody Allen attitude that never fails to be funny, even when dealing with concepts of great depth; its humor is sharp and fast-paced”.

Blue Queen by Alex Sipsidis

“The film deals with trust in human relationships. A contemporary Greek film noir with countless twists and a unique atmosphere”.

Everything is Wonderful by Pia Mechler

“This film will charm you, it will make you laugh a lot and, maybe, once or twice, it will make you wonder if everything is, indeed, wonderful”.

Life and Nothing More by Antonio Mendez Εsparza

“The film is a testimony, a testament. The expression of a time point, a place and the people living in it”.

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