20/07/2006

The advancing digital cinema, the Balkan connection and a few distinguished guests look like the main themes in this year’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF, November 17-26).

The 14 films of the official competition program should be announced in the next few months but most of the protagonists of the side events are already known. The festival’s main guest will be Wim Wenders. The acclaimed German director’s 27 films and documentaries will be screened in Thessaloniki while he will hold a masterclass.

The filmography of the master of surrealist cinema, Jan Svankmajer, will be the focal point of the Independence Days section. The Czech director’s puppets and props, used in his famous stop-motion animation films, will be exhibited during the festival.

The success of Jasmila Zbanic’s Grbavica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Barbara Albert
interview: Jasmila Zbanic
film profile], a film supported by the TIFF’s Balkan Fund, at Berlin last winter meant that the festival has found itself with the added task of further expanding and promoting this support mechanism. This year it introduces Works in Progress, an initiative where films from the Balkan countries that are exactly what the title suggests are presented within the festival’s market place (Agora) in search of further networking or additional financing.

However, this year’s main program innovation has to be the Digital Wave, a competition for Greek films made exclusively in digital (any format!), where a generation of filmmakers who grew up in the digital age will have a unique opportunity to have their works screened. This competition will run on the side of the official competition for Greek films, a long-standing festival tradition, but it is likely to capture the imagination of the festival’s predominantly young audiences.