The Agora market of the 25th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival handed out its professional awards March 9. The top Greek award (the Onassis Film Award) went to Angeliki Aristomenopoulou for her project Holy Human Angel. The Forum Pitch Award was won by Alaa Dajani’s The Native Dance. Top Doc in Progress prize went to Post Love by Alexis Taillant.
Before the awards were handed out Angeliki Vergou, the Head of Agora, acknowledged the depth of sorrow felt at the festival for the victims of the terrible rail crash on the eve of the festival which killed at least 58 people and left with more at least ten unaccounted for. She also thanked her staff for their energy and dedication.
Award winners plus jury citations follow.
Onassis Film Award (5,000 euros): given to one of the Greek projects taking part in the Thessaloniki Pitching Forum or the Agora Docs in Progress.
HOLY HUMAN ANGEL Director: Angeliki Aristomenopoulou, Producers: Yuri Averof, Rea Apostolides – Anemon Productions, Vicky Miha- Asterisk*, Heather Millard – Compass Films, Greece, Iceland. Citation: “A moving story about a brave individual, about the acceptance offered by a family so tremendously supportive that it fills you with hope. A documentary brimming with atmospheric, exhilarating, and emotionally-charged images. “Holy Human Angel” is a masterful and rounded offering that we would like to see screened in cinemas soon”.
THESSALONIKI PITCHING FORUM AWARDS. The International Jury of the Thessaloniki Pitching Forum comprised Eleni Chandrinou, (Cigale Films), Nevena Milašinović (Lightdox, Switzerland), Sara Rüster, Swedish Film Institute.
The Thessaloniki Pitching Forum Award (2,000 euros)
THE NATIVE DANCE Director: Alaa Dajani, Producers: Kesmat El Sayed, Laura Kloeckner – SEERA FILMS, Egypt, Germany. Citation: “A film that promises a compelling visual approach combining archive material and animation, telling the story about the British forcing peasants from Egypt to dig trenches in Europe during WW1. The jury found the team inspiring and wished them all the best with this challenging and creative project.”
The ERT – Thessaloniki Pitching Forum Award to a Greek project (2,000 euros)
THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN ARM Director: Athanassios Vassiliou, Producers: Orlane Dumas – Les films de l’Aube Sauvage, Konstantinos Vassilaros – StudioBauhaus, France, Greece. Citation: “A film that through a painful personal story will emerge us into the darkness of the seven-year dictatorship in Greece in the 70s. The cinematic visual and narrative approach shows great artistic potential for a film that is sadly relevant and important in today’s world.”
DAE – Documentary Association of Europe Awards
JANA Director: Muhammad Reza Azadi, Producers Ali Haider – Filmkhaana, Maaria Sayed – Draw4Films, Pakistan, Italy. Citation: “Jana means life, and this film is about displacement, resilience and hope for a couple and their newborn child fleeing the Taliban-. A film giving a voice to a woman in a society where she does not have one. This is a story that cannot be told too many times”.
OUR FEMININE WARS Director: Zaina Erhaim, Producer: Brian Hill – Century Films, UK, Syria. In collaboration with CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator. Citation: “A strong project with a mosaic of voices from women in exile and their way to help each other to heal. By revisiting their past, the heroines are claiming their right to a better present and future. A film that aspires to be empowering and hopeful”.
The Aylon Productions Digital Services Award
FAR FROM MAINE Director: Roy Cohen, Producers: Roy Cohen – Roy Cohen Films, Serge Gordey – Temps Noir, Israel, France. Citation: “A story about hope and deception set in the Middle East focusing on the peace process during the last decades. The filmmaker makes a personal journey back to the days when the young generation strived to build bridges between two opposite sides”.
The Beldocs Networking Award
MAOMI – LARGER THAN LIFE Director: Judit Oláh, Producers: Inez Mátis – Pi Productions, Annika Mayer – Majmun Films, Anna Stylińska, Katarzyna Slesicka – My Way Studio, Hungary, Germany, Poland. Citation: “A couple that has lived outside the norms for decades, a story told using beautiful archive material from their youth and footage of today. An uplifting film about a rebellious woman of a rebellious generation”.
The Mediterranean Film Institute Doc Award
THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN ARM Director: Athanassios Vassiliou, Producers: Orlane Dumas – Les films de l’Aube Sauvage, Konstantinos Vassilaros – StudioBauhaus, France, Greece. Part citation: “This year the MFI Award is awarded to a project reminding us about the power of images, both in our present life but also from our personal and collective past. The project uses archive material that stir up our historical unconscious and make memories emerge and come to the surface in present time. The images confront our notion of what is real and what is invented.”
DOK Leipzig Accelerator Award
JANA Director: Muhammad Reza Azadi, Producers Ali Haider – Filmkhaana, Maaria Sayed – Draw4Films, Pakistan, Italy
DOCS IN PROGRESS AWARDS. The international jury comprised Maëlle Guenegues (CAT&Docs), Laurien ten Houten (IDFA, and The Netherlands and Ilias Georgiopoulos (Danaos Cinema & Danaos Films).
The 2|35 Post-Production Main Award
POST LOVE Director: Alexis Taillant, Producer: Nadège Labé – Wendigo Films, France
Thessaloniki Pitching Forum 2023 – DAE Award
POST LOVE Director: Alexis Taillant, Producer: Nadège Labé – Wendigo Films, France. Citation: “Because POST LOVE sheds a warm and caring light on an issue that goes beyond the LGBTQ+ experience to speak to all of us and the team approaches the film’s characters tenderly and with absolute respect”.
The MuSou Music Company Group Award Services in Music & Sound
SAVANNA AND THE MOUNTAIN Director-producer: Paulo Carneiro – BAM BAM CINEMA, Co-producer: Alex Piperno – La Pobladora Cine, Portugal, Uruguay
The Greek Film Center Award (3,000 euros)
SACRED WAY ~ 21KM Director: Nikoleta Paraschi, Producer: Maria Karagiannaki – Chase The Cut, Co-producer: Nikoleta Paraschi, Greece. Citation: “A parade of captivating figures and characters, met down a route that seems to transcends time and emits archaic spirituality, sanctity and yet embraces the profanity which grows along both sides of the road.”
The Neaniko Plano Award
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO CIRETTA Director: Caroline von der Tann, Producer: Antonella Di Nocera – Parallelo 41 Produzioni, Italy. Citation: Ciretta’s flooding personality delivers a new gospel like an avalanche. He preaches a landslide of words, songs and emotions which deserve the best translation and subtitling services”.
Agora Lab Guidance Award by Paradiddle Pictures
KATERINA Director Alkisti Efthimiou, Production company Marni Films, Producer Mina Dreki, Greece. Citation: “We decided to give the award to a newly formed team to boost what we believe will be a very successful, creative collaboration.”
