02/03/2022 - The unprecedented changes of our times are explored in the three competition sections of the most important documentary gathering in Greece, which boasts a record number of premieres

The 24^th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF) is ready to run from 10-20 March both in cinemas in Thessaloniki and online. This year, it will feature a total of 233 documentaries with a record number of world, international and European premieres in the three competition sections. The festival will open with the world premiere of How to Survive a Pandemic by David France, and will call it a wrap with Blind Ambition by Warwick Ross and Rob Coe.

Twelve documentaries are competing for the Golden Alexander (the winner of which will also secure its place in the preselection shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Documentary) and the Special Jury Prize in the TDF’s International Competition, including three Greek documentaries. The five world premieres are Femicidio by Nina Maria Paschalidou (Greece/Italy), Off the Rails by Peter Day (UK), the Other Half [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Giorgos Moutafis (Greece), Spanton vs The French Police by Ovidie (France) and Tilos Weddings by Panayotis Evangelidis (Greece). Meanwhile, 2nd Chance by Ramin Bahrani (USA), A House Made of Splinters [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Simon Lereng Wilmont (Denmark/Finland/Sweden/Ukraine), A Marble Travelogue by Sean Wang (Netherlands/Hong Kong/France/Greece), Anima – My Father’s Dresses by Uli Decker (Germany), and Long Live My Happy Head by Austen McCowan and Will Hewitt (UK) will be enjoying their international premieres. Furthermore, the European premieres of Turn Your Body to the Sun by Aliona van der Horst (Netherlands) and Young Plato by Declan McGrath and Neasa Ní Chianáin (UK/Ireland/France/Belgium) wrap the selection.

Twelve documentaries by first-time and sophomore filmmakers are competing in the Newcomers International Competition, for the Golden Alexander “Dimitris Eipides” Award, given out in honour of the founder of the TDF, and the Special Jury Prize. Eight films are having their world premieres: Arm Wrestler by Yorgos Goussis (Greece), Caught in the Headlights by Thomas Devouge (France), Eternal Spring by Jason Loftus (Canada), Final Year by Lucas Paleocrassas (Greece), Frugal Abundance by Frantzeska Romanou and Yorgos Savoglou (Greece), Malintzin 17 by Mara Polgovsky and Eugenio Polgovsky (Mexico), Melting Dreams by Haidy Kancler (Slovenia/Austria/Finland), and Robin Bank by Anna Giralt Gris (Spain/Germany). Also, Golden Land [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Inka Achté (Finland/Sweden/Norway), Sirens by Rita Baghdadi (USA/Lebanon), and What Remains on the Way by Jakob Κrese and Danilo do Carmo (Germany/Brazil/Mexico) will be internationally premiered, and the European bow of The Devil’s Drivers [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Daniel Karsenty and Mohammed Abugeth (Qatar/France/Lebanon/Germany) wraps this section.

The third international competitive section is >>Film Forward, in which 12 movies that question conventions and utilise a bold film language will be vying for the Golden Alexander >>Film Forward and the Special Jury Prize. The selection includes Amateur by Martín Gutiérrez (Spain), Anachronic Chronicles: Voyages Inside/Out Asia by Lu Pan and Yu Araki (Hong Kong/Japan/South Korea), The Bride by Samira Guadagnuolo and Tiziano Doria (Italy), Dreams of the Sky Mausoleum by Marianna Rybynok (Russia), Film Is Dead by Juan Benitez Allassia (Argentina), Housewitz by Oeke Hoogendijk (Netherlands), The Invitation by Fabrizio Maltese (Luxembourg), IODINE - Greece on the Ruins of Messolonghi by Orfeas Peretzis (Greece), Last Voyage by Aris Chatzistefanou (Greece), Letter to Nikola by Hara Kaminara (Greece/Belgium), Pobo “Tzu” – White Night by Tania Ximena and Yolloti Manuel Gómez Alvarado (Mexico), and Sorrow Tamers by Mina Laamo (Finland).

The TDF is exploring this “post-reality” that we are currently experiencing through a selection of films that boldly outline the heroes, the anti-heroes, the hidden secrets and the truths that reflect the threshold we are crossing. Thus, ten full-length and short-form documentaries will appease the fear and the uncertainty, as they remind us that all blank pages opening up before us, as scary as they may seem, carry within them an ocean of possibilities. Furthermore, audiences will become acquainted with the works of Latvian auteur Laila Pakalnina and Finnish filmmaker Virpi Suutari through two tributes to their documentaries.

Finally, 19 Greek- and English-language podcasts make up the Podcast Competition section of the festival, while 15 podcasts are included in the Out of Competition section. At this year’s edition, the TDF, in collaboration with the Louis Lumière Grande École and the Institut Français in Greece, is offering a scholarship award dubbed Young Audio Documentary Creator.