15/11/2008

Darren Aronofsky’s Golden Lion winner The Wrestler opened the 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), which is headed by Despina Mouzaki and runs this year from November 14-23.

Greece’s most important film festival hosts three main sections: the International Competition, Out of Competition and Special Screenings.

The International Competition comprises 14 titles, six of which are European: Szabolcs Tolnai’s The Hourglass (Hungary), Adrian Sitaru’s Hooked [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrian Sitaru
film profile] (Romania), Daniel Hernández’s Ordinary Boys(Spain), Diastème’s Sunny Spells [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (France) and Petros Sevastikoglou’s Three Moments and Αlexander Avranas’ Without, both from Greece.

Special Screenings include British director Richard Jobson’s New Town Killers and Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum [+see also:
trailer
film profile], alongside US titles W., Rachel Getting Married and a host of films from throughout the world.

Fernando Eimbcke’s Lake Tahoe is one of three Out of Competition titles.

TIFF also offers retrospectives on Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Ousmane Sembene Retrospective and Terence Davies. As well as parallel sections Greek Films, Division And Unity: Cinema In The Middle East, Experimental Forum, Balkan Survey: Tribute to Contemporary Turkish Cinema & Romanian Shorts and a tribute to Manos Zakharias.

Theo Angelopoulos’The Dust of Time [+see also:
trailer
film profile] will also screen during the festival and there will be over a dozen masterclasses held by, among others, the Dardenne brothers, DoP Haris Zambarloukos, Oliver Stone, Emir Kusturica, Davies, Angelopoulos and Jobson.