Davide Abbatescianni

Nora Philippe spent over a decade working on Girls for Tomorrow, which had its world premiere at this year’s festival. The film follows four young women studying at New York’s Barnard College as they navigate questions of feminism, patriarchy and capitalism. Philippe reflects on her own journey making the documentary, the challenges she faced, and her approach to storytelling. “For them, this space was also therapeutic to some extent, and that was the same for me. I was looking for answers—about motherhood, freedom, feminism—answers I couldn’t find in any other way,” she tells BDE.

Over the past fifty years, the Greek island of Mykonos has undergone radical transformation. Once an affordable, off-the-beaten-track paradise, it has become an exclusive, high-end destination. What was once a beacon of inclusivity is now a symbol of luxury tourism. How did this small Aegean getaway become a melting pot for such divergent experiences? Was it a paradise? Is it still? Director Steve Krikris discusses his feature doc, world-premiering in Thessaloniki, with BDE.

At Thessaloniki Docs in Progress, director Tanya Vikhreva and producer Maria Gavrilova took the stage to present Tower, Sun and the Seven of Wands, a creative political documentary which centres on three women living in annexed Crimea. Produced by the Georgian outfit Marx Film, the project, now in the editing stage, is being crafted in collaboration with writer Aleksander Rodionov.

At Thessaloniki Docs in Progress 2025, the basketball-themed Home Court was presented by producer Yuri Averof of the Athens-based firm Anemon, alongside directors Elpida Nikou and Rodrigo Hernandez. Co-production support comes from Maaike Neve and Esther van Driesum of Dutch outfit Bind Film, Victor Ede of France’s Cinephage, and Boris Despodov of Bulgaria’s Arthouse Blockbusters.

At Thessaloniki Docs in Progress 2025, Business Doc Europe took a closer look at Six Letters for a River, helmed by writer-director Markos Holevas and produced by Leonidas Liambeys. The 95-minute creative documentary delves into the themes of migration, borderlands, and human resilience. Shot in Evros, northern Greece, the film is billed as “a documentary that weaves together six decades of stories from the river Evros, where lives are shaped by its waters and the borders they mark.”

French-Algerian producer and first-time director Mia Bendrimia took the Agora stage alongside producer Kira Simon-Kennedy to introduce their documentary project, Magma. Simon-Kennedy, a seasoned producer who was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category for Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension (2022), is backing the film through Paris-based Nazar Films, a company founded by Bendrimia and dedicated to “crafting impactful stories from the SWANA and Mediterranean worlds.”

Yamashita’s Gold is a mythical treasure, allegedly buried by the Japanese Army across the Philippine archipelago during World War II. Many believe most of it remains hidden to this day, and among those who have tried to find it are Jack and his father, who have dedicated their lives to the search, spending millions in the process. “The film deals with addiction and obsession - it was important to show how it affected those around him,” Gex explains his Newcomers Competition documentary to BDE.

Ahead of the 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, Business Doc Europe spoke with Angeliki Vergou, Head of Agora, the festival’s industry branch that unfolds both on-site and virtually. “Thessaloniki has always been a melting pot of cultures and civilisations, and that’s why we bring all these diverse voices together here,” she says.

A February 17 Doc Salon panel explored the making of Timestamp, the only documentary selected for the Berlinale’s main competition. The feature, helmed by Ukrainian filmmaker Kateryna Gornostai and produced by Olha Bregman and Zoya Lytvyn, delves into the experiences of educators and students living through the war in Ukraine.

On Feb 17, EFM hosted the Inventive Ambitions – Financing Non-Fiction panel, which saw the participation of Melanie Adernach (producer, Made in Germany), Emanuel Rotstein (Head of Docs, Icon Docs), Mascha Wilke (Head of EVZ Academy and EVZ Foundation), and Sylvia Grass (Senior Commissioning Editor, ARTE/Bayerischer Rundfunk). Together, they explored the challenges and opportunities of financing non-fiction projects in the current media landscape, which has been heavily shaken by geopolitical turmoil and economic hardship.