Greece’s Thessaloniki Worldwide Movie Pageant returns this night for its sixty fifth version with a screening of Maria, the newest characteristic from Chilean director Pablo Larraín.
The pic, which stars Angelina Jolie and debuted at this yr’s Venice Movie Pageant, will display screen for audiences at Thessaloniki’s Olympia Theatre following a gap ceremony.
Working 31 Oct – 10 Nov, Thessaloniki will this yr display screen 12 movies in its worldwide competitors. Titles embody Edinburgh-based filmmaker Laura Carreira’s haunting debut characteristic On Falling. The pic, which debuted at Toronto and landed the Sutherland Award for debut movie at London, follows Aurora, a younger Portuguese girl who struggles to make ends meet throughout one week in her adopted dwelling of Glasgow, Scotland. Different titles embody Ariane Labed’s debut characteristic September Says and the buzzy Palestinian characteristic To A Land Unknown. A complete of 252 characteristic and brief movies will likely be screened at Thessaloniki. The worldwide competitors sits alongside two sidebar strands, Meet the Neighbors and Fiction Ahead for regional and experimental works. The pageant will shut with Joshua Oppenheimer’s fiction debut The Finish.
Headline attendees this yr embody Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, and Matt Dillon. The three actors will all be handed honorary awards. Greek filmmaker Panos Koutras, finest recognized for works like A Girl’s Means and Dodo, can even be honored on the pageant.
Beneath, Orestis Andreadakis, Thessaloniki Worldwide Movie Pageant creative director, breaks down this yr’s version. Andreadakis additionally discusses security on the pageant following an anti-LGBT assault at Thessaloniki’s documentary pageant in March and the way what he described as political extremism is making it more durable to mount movie occasions.
DEADLINE: How has prep for this yr’s pageant gone?
ORESTIS ANDREADAKIS: Getting ready a pageant is a really peculiar job since you are primarily making ready an imaginary occasion. It isn’t like some other occasion as a result of as quickly because it’s completed it disappears since you are working with films. We attempt to acquire movement photos from around the globe and mission them for our viewers. We speak with administrators, producers, and actors. After which puff, the whole lot is within the air. However within the meantime, that is the magic of a movie pageant.
DEADLINE: How has the method of attracting movies been? There may be quite a lot of speak about this yr being troublesome for festivals due to the Hollywood strikes?
ANDREADAKIS: Now we have the identical quantity of films this yr. Now we have 252 kind of yearly. However to inform you the reality, sure, over the previous couple of years it’s been harder due to the varied ongoing conditions around the globe. To start with, in our neighborhood, there are two bloody wars. In Ukraine and Palestine. Second, the local weather disaster is getting worse yearly and third, there was a rise in political extremism. As a pageant, we need to help filmmakers and artists to speak about these troublesome conditions and issues.
DEADLINE: There was an anti-LGBTQ assault in Thessaloniki in the course of the documentary pageant in March. The town is historically very welcoming to all, in order that was stunning. Will that assault change how the pageant runs?
ANDREADAKIS: Sure, the documentary pageant in March was troublesome primarily due to the assault that was because of the poster we had chosen. However fortuitously, it didn’t final. It was solely in the course of the pageant. A couple of days after it was calm. So for the second, we haven’t had any related issues. However that is the symptom of the troublesome conditions we reside in.
DEADLINE: Thessaloniki now has a podcast competitors. Why did you determine to incorporate podcasts within the official lineup?
ANDREADAKIS: Sure, we’ve had the part in earlier editions and I consider we’re both the primary or second pageant globally to incorporate a podcast programme. We’re very happy with this as a result of podcasts are actually a type of cinema with out photos. It’s very intriguing. And now, the viewers loves it. Once they’re going from one place to the following or they’re ready to see a film, they’ve the possibility to listen to a podcast.
DEADLINE: So pageant goers can simply signal on to the pageant web site and hearken to the choice of podcasts?
ANDREADAKIS: Sure, we choose the podcasts the identical approach we choose the films. After which you may go to our web site and listen to the podcasts.
DEADLINE: This yr Carlo Chatrian is visitor curating a sidebar titled ‘We, the Monster’. Final yr, Dennis Lim curated a bit. Why do you invite visitor curators?
ANDREADAKIS: As a result of it’s at all times good to have one other voice. An exterior voice. A contemporary voice, and so they deliver one thing new and totally different. It’s at all times nice to deliver one thing from outdoors that may enrich our opinions and programme. Final yr it was Dennis Lim and this yr we labored along with Carlos Chatrian to pick 22 films. I believe the theme may be very related as a result of slowly our society is turning into extra monstrous. There are additionally some individuals who consider individuals who have totally different backgrounds to them are monsters. However they aren’t. So there are two sides to this.
DEADLINE: Panos Koutras will obtain an honorary award this yr. Are you able to speak just a little about why he is a vital Greek filmmaker to honor?
ANDREADAKIS: Panos Koutras is without doubt one of the most necessary, filmmakers of recent modern Greek cinema. He’s one of many first filmmakers right here to debate LGBT themes, even in his brief movies. He additionally speaks about minorities and he invented a brand new, utterly private cinematic view. Whenever you see only one minute of a Panos Koutras movie you immediately acknowledge that’s Panos Koutras fashion, and that’s very uncommon.
