When the Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s trade arm, Agora, kicks off this week in Greece’s second metropolis, organizers will likely be trying to broaden upon current additions to a time-tested components that’s served the occasion throughout almost twenty years as a launching pad and incubator for Greek and regional expertise.
“We’ve been doing the Agora since 2005, and we’ve got slowly however steadily established it as one of many markets the place yow will discover new abilities and rising administrators from this area,” says trade head Angeliki Vergou, who took over from longtime Agora topper Yianna Sarri final yr. “I feel we’re sustaining the essence of Agora that we’ve got developed all these years, however simply tweaking it slightly bit to make it extra out there and extra open to herald new alternatives.”
In her second yr in command of the Agora, Vergou is trying to construct on the muse laid within the earlier version, when Thessaloniki launched a brand new TV strand, Agora Series, to its trade program, whereas additionally launching a Think Tank sequence — in partnership with the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film and the Berlinale’s European Film Market — tasked with how movie markets can adapt to satisfy the wants of a quickly altering trade. Both initiatives are key elements of this yr’s occasion.
The Think Tank’s findings, says Vergou, performed a elementary position in shaping the 2023 Agora, with organizers stressing the necessity to make the market extra numerous and inclusive, notably by giving a lift to youthful contributors and “attempting to have a extra open marketplace for trade professionals that want steerage or must put their foot right into a market and begin connecting with individuals.”
Agora trade head Angeliki Vergou
Courtesy of Thessaloniki International Film Festival
One new wrinkle would be the first version of Launchpad, a collaboration between the Thessaloniki, Locarno, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary and Tallinn Black Nights festivals. The initiative was designed to provide a leg as much as younger professionals coming into the movie trade by facilitating their entry to the 5 accomplice festivals by way of each on-site and on-line occasions over the course of the yr. The program is comparable in spirit to the almost decade-old Thessaloniki Locarno Industry Academy, a partnership between the long-running European festivals that runs Nov. 4-9 in Thessaloniki, which Vergou credit with making a community of rising movie professionals who’re studying to “navigate [the industry] collectively.”
Also new this yr is Bridge to the North, which goals to spice up collaboration between northern and southern Europe by internet hosting a unique visitor nation from both Scandinavia or the Baltic area every year. Vergou cites it for instance of the Agora responding to suggestions from Greek movie professionals who wished to “have some new blood out there, some new individuals experiencing it, new connections.” The inaugural version will welcome Lithuania, with a number of Lithuanian trade professionals touring to Thessaloniki and a panel on Nov. 6 exploring alternatives to work with the Baltic nation.
Perhaps the largest change in Thessaloniki this yr, nonetheless, is the expanded Agora Series program, which after 2022’s pilot version has developed right into a four-day occasion that features two days of panels and masterclasses, as properly sequence premieres together with episodes of Nima Javidi’s “The Actor” (pictured above), which received the Grand Prize at Series Mania this yr, Oscar nominee Jasmila Žbanič’s Venice-premiering sequence “I Know Your Soul,” and Greek director Vasilis Kekatos’ “Milky Way,” the primary present from the Mediterranean nation to compete at Series Mania.
Vasilis Kekatos’ “Milky Way” was the primary Greek TV present to compete at Series Mania.
Courtesy of Foss Productions
Industry professionals collaborating in panels and masterclasses embrace Iranian director Javidi; “Game of Thrones” alum Jeremy Podeswa, just lately tapped to direct the pilot of Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming restricted sequence “Blade Runner 2099”; Beta Film producer Ferdinand Dohna; and Paper Entertainment CEO Julien Leroux, govt producer of Apple TV+’s spy drama “Tehran,” which is filmed within the Greek capital, Athens. Leroux can also be serving because the Agora Series program advisor.
The occasion underscores how the Greek TV trade, bolstered by sequence like “Milky Way” and Beta-repped primetime sensation “The Beach,” is progressively discovering its footing on the worldwide stage. It additionally displays a need by the organizers to place “extra give attention to creativity and the connection between cinema and sequence,” says Vergou. This yr’s version of Meet the Future, the Thessaloniki competition’s expertise incubator, spotlights 5 screenwriters from the host nation making the transition from the massive to the small display screen. “The level is to have the creators who’re creating sequence to make the fitting connections [and] to current them to the worldwide trade that that is what’s happening proper now in Greece,” Vergou provides.
Meanwhile, Thessaloniki stays true to its cinematic roots with the Crossroads Co-Production Forum, which spotlights 15 tasks in improvement from Southeastern and Central Europe, the Mediterranean and the broader Black Sea area. Highlights embrace the newest function from Poland’s Anna Jadowska, in Tribeca final yr with performing prize winner “Woman on the Roof,” in addition to sophomore options from Lithuanian director Marat Sargsyan, whose 2020 debut “The Flood Won’t Come” premiered at Venice’s Critics’ Week, and Lebanon’s George Peter Barbari, whose first function, “Death of a Virgin, and the Sin of Not Living,” bowed in Berlin two years in the past. Ten Works in Progress may also be offered to trade visitors.
After final yr’s version was marked by an outpouring of grief and solidarity sparked by Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, this yr’s Agora once more unfolds towards the backdrop of one other devastating battle, amid Israel’s ongoing army response in Gaza to the lethal terrorist assaults launched by Hamas on Oct. 7.
In current years the Agora has expanded its attain to embody extra filmmakers from the Eastern Mediterranean area, reflecting the host metropolis’s conventional position as a cultural melting pot on the crossroads of East and West. Two Israeli tasks are amongst this yr’s Works in Progress, whereas Vergou factors to a protracted custom of participation by filmmakers from the Arab world, together with Ameen Nayfe’s Palestinian drama “200 Meters,” which was awarded on the Agora in 2017 and premiered within the Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days part three years later.
Ameen Nayfe’s Palestinian drama “200 Meters” was awarded on the Agora in 2017.
Courtesy of Venice Film Festival
“It’s horrifying and horrible what is occurring,” Vergou says. “Cinema is that this artwork type that, by way of tales, can join so many individuals. The movie festivals are there to rejoice this medium and convey individuals collectively. Agora began in 2005, simply after the conflict in Yugoslavia had simply ended, and all people was nonetheless numb from it. And nonetheless we had tasks from Bosnia, from Serbia, from in all places. And they have been coming to Thessaloniki to current their tasks.”
She provides: “I do really feel that Thessaloniki is a spot that brings all of those concepts and these voices collectively.”
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival runs Nov. 2 – 12.
