Amber Fares’ Coexistence, My Ass!, about Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi, was awarded March 16 the Golden Alexander in International Competition section of the 27th Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival. The Thessaloniki award renders the film eligible for the documentary category of the 2026 Academy Awards.
The jury commented: “With a compellingly constructed narrative and a fearless challenge to every taboo in the [Middle East] region, Noam’s disarming voice and humour invite the audience to a deeper understanding as we laugh and cry with her, and reconsider our biases with open minds and hearts.”
Talking to BDE ahead of its Sundance world premiere, director Fares noted to BDE how Noam’s routines hit home both with Israeli and Arab audiences. “She has that ability to blur lines and bring people together…she has such a purpose with her comedy.”
The Silver Alexander in International Competition was awarded to Jesse Short Bull and David France’s Free Leonard Peltier, which “speaks to the history of human rights abuses against the Native Americans, and their multi-generational resistance, while highlighting the ongoing struggle over their sovereign nation land rights and resources,” the jury said.
Weronika Mliczewska’s Child of Dust received a Special Mention. The film follows a Vietnamese man searching for his father, a former U.S. soldier. The jury noted that the film “is a beautifully shot cinèma vèritè portrait that tells a universal story about the generational consequences of war and the longing for paternal love.”
The Golden Alexander within Newcomers Competition was won by to How to Build a Library, directed by Maia Lekow and Christopher King, which follows two Kenyan women’s mission to restore a public library in Nairobi. The film had its world premiere at Sundance.
The jury said: “With passion, the filmmakers expose the lasting imprints of colonialism while celebrating activism and the fight of two female friends for truly accessible public spaces; places where people can engage with their own narratives and histories.”
The Silver Alexander within Newcomers Competition went to Byron Kritzas’ They Talk About Worship Here, about the Corfu band Kore. Ydro. The jury was “moved by the warm heart and rebellious spirit of this film, which reminds the audience about the healing and connecting qualities that art, in this case music, can have for people across generations and borders.”
A Special Mention was given to Pet Farm, directed by Finn Walther and Martin A. Walther, described as “a story of loneliness, emphasizing the irreplaceable value of human connections over bonds with animals.”
The Golden Alexander for the experimental Film Forward section was granted to Endless Cookie, directed by Seth Scriver and Peter Scriver. The Canadian animated film explores “the complex bond between two half-brothers — one Indigenous, one white — traveling from the present in isolated Shamattawa to bustling 1980s Toronto.”
The jury observed that it was a “sharp and funny meditation on ‘a film within a film,’ on family community and shared culture. It’s a celebration of the soundtrack of the everyday life that takes us inside a world that is rarely accessed without condescension.”
The Film Forward Competition Silver Alexander was won by Catherine Gund’s Meanwhile, described as a “a docu-poem in six verses about artists breathing through chaos.” The jury commended the film’s “form of poethics without losing precision, social and historical markers and a sense of collective art-making that takes us inside the profound resilience of Black culture.”
A Special Mention went to Fermín Eloy Acosta’s Museum of the Night, about Argentine artist Leandro Katz and the Theater of the Ridiculous in New York.
