Thessaloniki Film Festival Head On This Year’s Edition & How Climate Change And Rising Political Extremism Have Made It Harder To Mount Film Events 

Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival returns this evening for its 65th edition with a screening of Maria, the latest feature from Chilean director Pablo Larraín. 

The pic, which stars Angelina Jolie and debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival, will screen for audiences at Thessaloniki’s Olympia Theatre following an opening ceremony. 

Running 31 Oct – 10 Nov, Thessaloniki will this year screen 12 films in its international competition. Titles include Edinburgh-based filmmaker Laura Carreira’s haunting debut feature On Falling. The pic, which debuted at Toronto and landed the Sutherland Award for debut film at London, follows Aurora, a young Portuguese woman who struggles to make ends meet across one week in her adopted home of Glasgow, Scotland. Other titles include Ariane Labed’s debut feature September Says and the buzzy Palestinian feature To A Land Unknown. A total of 252 feature and short films will be screened at Thessaloniki. The international competition sits alongside two sidebar strands, Meet the Neighbors and Fiction Forward for regional and experimental works. The festival will close with Joshua Oppenheimer’s fiction debut The End. 

Headline attendees this year include Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, and Matt Dillon. The three actors will all be handed honorary awards. Greek filmmaker Panos Koutras, best known for works like A Woman’s Way and Dodo, will also be honored at the festival. 

Below, Orestis Andreadakis, Thessaloniki International Film Festival artistic director, breaks down this year’s edition. Andreadakis also discusses safety at the festival following an anti-LGBT attack at Thessaloniki’s documentary festival in March and how what he described as political extremism is making it harder to mount film events. 

DEADLINE: How has prep for this year’s festival gone?

ORESTIS ANDREADAKIS: Preparing a festival is a very peculiar job because you are essentially preparing an imaginary event. It is not like any other event because as soon as it’s finished it disappears because you are working with movies. We try to collect motion pictures from around the world and project them for our audience. We talk with directors, producers, and actors. And then puff, everything is in the air. But in the meantime, this is the magic of a film festival. 

DEADLINE: How has the process of attracting films been? There is a lot of talk about this year being difficult for festivals because of the Hollywood strikes?

ANDREADAKIS: We have the same amount of movies this year. We have 252 more or less every year. But to tell you the truth, yes, over the last few years it’s been more difficult because of the various ongoing situations around the world. First of all, in our neighborhood, there are two bloody wars. In Ukraine and Palestine. Second, the climate crisis is getting worse every year and third, there has been an increase in political extremism. As a festival, we want to support filmmakers and artists to talk about those difficult situations and problems.

DEADLINE: There was an anti-LGBTQ attack in Thessaloniki during the documentary festival in March. The city is traditionally very welcoming to all, so that was surprising. Will that attack change how the festival runs?

ANDREADAKIS: Yes, the documentary festival in March was difficult mainly because of the attack that was due to the poster we had selected. But fortunately, it didn’t last. It was only during the festival. A few days after it was calm. So for the moment, we haven’t had any similar problems. But this is the symptom of the difficult situations we live in. 

DEADLINE: Thessaloniki now has a podcast competition. Why did you decide to include podcasts in the official lineup?

ANDREADAKIS: Yes, we’ve had the section in previous editions and I believe we are either the first or second festival globally to include a podcast programme. We’re very proud of this because podcasts are really a kind of cinema without pictures. It’s very intriguing. And now, the audience loves it. When they’re going from one place to the next or they’re waiting to see a movie, they have the chance to hear a podcast. 

DEADLINE: So festival goers can just sign on to the festival website and listen to the selection of podcasts?

ANDREADAKIS: Yes, we select the podcasts the same way we select the movies. And then you can go to our site and hear the podcasts. 

DEADLINE: This year Carlo Chatrian is guest curating a sidebar titled ‘We, the Monster’. Last year, Dennis Lim curated a section. Why do you invite guest curators?

ANDREADAKIS: Because it’s always nice to have another voice. An exterior voice. A fresh voice, and they bring something new and different. It’s always great to bring something from outside that can enrich our opinions and programme. Last year it was Dennis Lim and this year we worked together with Carlos Chatrian to select 22 movies. I think the theme is very relevant because slowly our society is becoming more monstrous. There are also some people who believe people who have different backgrounds to them are monsters. But they aren’t. So there are two sides to this. 

DEADLINE: Panos Koutras will receive an honorary award this year. Can you talk a little about why he is an important Greek filmmaker to honor?

ANDREADAKIS: Panos Koutras is one of the most important, filmmakers of modern contemporary Greek cinema. He’s one of the first filmmakers here to discuss LGBT themes, even in his short films. He also speaks about minorities and he invented a new, completely personal cinematic view. When you see just one minute of a Panos Koutras film you instantly recognize that is Panos Koutras style, and that is very rare.