Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the 28th TiDF closing film

The Closing Ceremony of the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival unfolded on Sunday, March 15, in a packed Olympion theatre, bringing the curtain down on eleven vibrant days of cinematic discoveries, creative encounters and meaningful dialogue sparked by the realities explored through contemporary documentary filmmaking.

The curtain fell on this year’s edition with the screening of the film Mr. Nobody Against Putin, directed by David Borenstein, which shortly after its screening at Olympion won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 98th Academy Awards. After the screening, an OSCARS® party followed at Olympion, along with the live broadcast of the awards ceremony, in collaboration with the Festival’s Major Sponsor, COSMOTE TELEKOM.

Guiding the audience through the evening were the Festival’s General Director, Elise Jalladeau, and Artistic Director, Orestis Andreadakis. “The 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival has come to an end,” noted Orestis Andreadakis, reflecting on the eleven days of the event as a meeting point for people, ideas and stories. “As we return to the ordinary world tomorrow, let us carry with us from this Festival the value of reconciliation and memory. Because only then can we truly look towards the future,” he continued. For her part, Elise Jalladeau stressed that audiences and filmmakers alike had the privilege “to live for a while inside a world of art, memory and truth, a world where people came together as one.”

Before the screening of the Closing Film, the audience was invited to revisit the highlights of this year’s edition through a video that brought back the images that defined this year’s Festival. Orestis Andreadakis warmly thanked the juries of the Festival’s three Competition sections, as well as the juries of the Immersive, Mermaid and Podcast sections, together with the organizations that present awards within the framework of the Festival. Elise Jalladeau, in turn, expressed her gratitude to the Festival’s supporters, staff, collaborators and volunteers, as well as to all the filmmakers and crews whose work helped transform this year’s edition into “a space of creation, dialogue and peaceful coexistence.”

Unable to be in Thessaloniki, director David Borenstein, who was in Los Angeles for the OSCARS® ceremony, appeared on screen with a video message for the audience. “I’m the director of the documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin, and I just wanted to say hello to everyone and apologise for not being able to be there tonight. Thessaloniki is a truly special place, and the Festival means a lot to me. Unfortunately we can’t be with you, as we are currently in Los Angeles, wrapping up a long journey promoting the documentary ahead of the OSCARS®, a journey that has taken up the past five months of our lives. It’s been an exciting time, but also one filled with many strange and unexpected moments. But for us, it has all been worth it, because this is a film we truly believe in.”

Thessaloniki is a truly special place, and the Festival means a lot to me. Unfortunately we can’t be with you, as we are currently in Los Angeles, wrapping up a long journey promoting the documentary ahead of the OSCARS®. - David Borenstein

“This project started more than three years ago, in the very first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a war that, as we know, continues to this day with growing violence. But when we first set out, we had no idea whether we would ever manage to finish it. There were countless moments during the making of the film when we were convinced the whole effort would collapse. Even towards the end, after completing the final cut, most of us believed there was no way the film would ever be released, because it seemed almost impossible to get Pasha, our central character and co-director, out of Russia. So to arrive at this moment now, knowing that all of you are there together in a theatre watching the film, is something deeply moving for us. It means more than we can say. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being there. I hope to see you all very soon in Thessaloniki. Until then, my warm greetings to all of you,” he concluded.

This year’s edition came to a close with the screening of the film Mr. Nobody Against Putin, directed by David Borenstein. The film had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, which it went on to win later that same night at the 98th Academy Awards. The documentary follows Pavel Pasha, a teacher at a school in a small Russian town. In everyday life he is a beloved mentor, known for his humour and unconventional spirit. He hangs pro-democracy posters on classroom walls and offers his office as a safe haven for students who feel out of place. But after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Pasha finds himself drawn into a far more dangerous role: exposing the devastating consequences of the militarisation that begins to creep even into the school environment. Although the traumatic memories of his own years as a student at the same school continue to haunt him, Pasha remains a warm and light-hearted presence for the children. Yet his mission as a teacher is soon called into question. In the first weeks after the invasion, a new policy of patriotic education is introduced, and Pasha is shocked to discover that his duties now include organising daily state propaganda events. Trying to cope with his guilt and sense of helplessness, he decides to document how the war is changing his school. Posing as the person responsible for the school’s audiovisual material, he secretly films for hundreds of hours what unfolds in classrooms, corridors and school grounds. Through these images emerges the story of a school undergoing a dramatic transformation: propaganda, new repressive laws, children’s organisations with a military orientation and, ultimately, the recruitment of graduates to fight in Ukraine. When Pasha realises that his own life may be in danger, he is forced to plan a dangerous and daring escape from Russia.

The spotlight then shifted to the screening of the documentary, followed immediately by an OSCARS®-themed party at the Olympion, featuring a DJ set inspired by film soundtracks, photo props, a themed cocktail, beer by Fischer and Jameson Black Barrel. The celebration continued with the live broadcast of the OSCARS® ceremony from Los Angeles, organised in collaboration with the Festival’s Grand Sponsor, COSMOTE TELEKOM. The closing film of the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.