The ten films taking part in the International Competition of the 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (TiDF, March 6-16, 2025) will be eyeing up a series of prizes, among them the Golden Alexander, accompanied by a cash prize of 12,000 euros, and the Silver Alexander, accompanied by a cash prize of 5,000 euros.
In Newcomers Competition, ten films of over 50 minutes duration, created by young filmmakers, will compete for the Golden Alexander “Dimitri Eipides” and the Silver Alexander Award. The Golden Alexander “Dimitri Eipides” award is accompanied by a €10,000 cash prize. The Silver Alexander Award is accompanied by a €4,000 cash prize.
TiDF is an OSCAR® qualifying festival and the film that wins the Golden Alexander award will automatically be eligible to submit for Academy Awards® consideration in the Documentary Feature category.
International Competition line-up:
- Bull’s Heart, Eva Stefani, Greece, 2024, 78΄ (World premiere). Why do we do what we do? This documentary offers an intimate portrait of renowned choreographer and visual artist Dimitris Papaioannou, exploring his creative process. It follows him behind the scenes and during the tour of his show, “Transverse Orientation,” revealing an existential journey as he seeks meaning in a chaotic world.
- Sculpted Souls, Stavros Psillakis, Greece, 2025, 89΄ (World premiere). Swiss dentist Julien Grivel for 26 years (1972-1998) treating Hansenites (lepers) for free in Greece. An inner journey that helped him see the world and life differently. “By adopting the language of the Greeks, I unconsciously adopted their thinking,” he says. His friendship with Manolis Fountoulakis (ex-hansenite) was a catalyst.
- The Goals of August, Dimitris Koutsiabasakos, Greece, 2025, 116΄ (World premiere). The Goals of August is a kaleidoscope of events, incidents and moments from the everyday life of a village in southern Pindos mountains during an impromptu football tournament. The documentary’s aim is to create, through observation, an “impressionistic” portrait of a small community in its summer aliveness. A portrait with light and shadows, charming and sometimes frightening, which despite its contradictions is, above all, unexpectedly alive and genuine.
- Child of Dust, Weronika Mliczewska, 2025, 92΄ (World premiere). Sang is one of countless children left behind by American soldiers after the Vietnam War—unwanted, discriminated against, and scarred by a war that took more than just his father. When Sang unexpectedly finds his gravely ill father in the U.S., he becomes determined to meet him, even though it comes at a price. The only way to fulfill this need is to move to the U.S. permanently, leaving behind his beloved wife, daughter, and grandson. In this foreign land, he struggles to find his place—not only in a society that sees him as an outsider but also within an American family that never knew of his existence. Cultural barriers collide as the past catches up with the present in the least expected ways.
- Coexistence, My Ass!, Amber Fares, USA-France, 2025, 95΄ (International premiere). Coexistence My Ass! follows Israeli activist-comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi as she builds a comedy show by the same name. Shot over five tumultuous years, the film traces Noam’s journey in tandem with the region’s steady deterioration. Raised in a bilingual Israeli-Palestinian village — the only intentionally integrated community in the country — Noam grows disillusioned with traditional peace activism. She pivots to stand-up and quickly attracts attention across the Middle East. But as her star rises, everything around her falls apart. With biting, warm satire, Noam pushes her audiences to face difficult truths — and offers an inspiring model for the future.
- Free Leonard Peltier, Jesse Short Bull & David France, USA, 2025, 110΄ (International premiere). Directed by Jesse Short Bull (Lakota Nation vs. the United States) and David France (How To Survive a Plague, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, and Welcome to Chechnya), and produced by Bird Runningwater. Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement, has been in prison for 50 years following a contentious conviction. A new generation of Native activists is committed to winning his freedom before he dies.
- GEN_, Gianluca Matarrese, France-Italy-Switzerland, 2025, 103’ (European premiere). “Legislation should not stand in the way of human variety.” At Milan’s Niguarda Public Hospital, Dr. Maurizio Bini leads an inspiring and unconventional mission to transform lives through fertility and gender affirmation care. Balancing the dreams of aspiring parents with the journeys of individuals reconciling their gender identities, he creates a compassionate and empowering space where humor often lightens even the heaviest moments. In a politically charged environment that tests medical ethics, Dr. Bini defies societal constraints to offer hope, humanity, and healing, making a profound difference with both expertise and heart.
- Kick-off, Roser Corella & Stefano Obino, Germany, 2025, 77΄ (World premiere). In a small village in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, where conservative traditions confine women to domestic duties, Gazi challenges the status quo by organising a women’s football tournament. As she strives to empower the women and break social taboos, Gazi must navigate through cultural resistance, unveiling a compelling story of resilience, and social change in this unique setting.
- Supernatural, Bonaventura Durall, Spain-Belgium-France, 2025, 81΄ (World Premiere). Mathu, a medical doctor, grew into the complete opposite of his father, Malby, a spiritual healer. When Anna, who believes Malby cured her anorexia, invites Mathu to meet him, Mathu confronts his strained relationship with his father and the divide between their beliefs: science versus magic. In Supernatural, two opposing worldviews explore coexistence; sometimes conflicting, sometimes seeking common ground. Where even parent-child bonds and defining dualities are uncertain, Durall’s film intrigues, mirroring our existential dilemma.
- Under the Flags, the Sun, Juanjo Pereira, Paraguay-Argentina-USA-France-Germany, 2025, 89΄ (International premiere). In 1989, the fall of Alfredo Stroessner’s 35-year dictatorship in Paraguay marked the end of one of the world’s longest authoritarian regimes, but also the abandonment of the audiovisual archives that had cemented its power. This footage, crafted to shape a national identity and celebrate the regime, was left to fade from memory. Decades later, a trove of unseen and long forgotten footage has been recovered from Paraguay and abroad, revealing the hidden mechanisms of power behind Stroessner’s rule. Under the Flags, the Sun is a visual experience through the history of the media, an archeology of the present in a country where the descendants of the regime’s leaders still rule.
Newcomers Competition line-up:
- Lo, Thanassis Vassiliou, Greece-France, 2025, 70΄ (World Premiere). A year after the death of his mother, the director returns to his childhood apartment, burdened with debts and memories. Filming its emptiness, he uncovers silences: his estranged father’s ties to the dictatorship and his fragmented history. As personal and collective traumas intertwine, he confronts the weight of inherited and unsolved past.
- Super Paradise, Steve Krikris, Greece-Germany, 2024, 87΄ (World Premiere). Over the past 50 years, Mykonos has experienced radical transformations — it was dirt cheap, today it is unaffordable; it was “off-the-beaten-track,” now it is a top destination; it was a symbol of inclusivity, today it is one of exclusivity. How did a tiny island become a melting pot for such divergent experiences? Was it paradise? Is it still?
- Τhey Talk About Worship Here, Byron Kritzas, Greece, 2025, 88΄ (World Premiere). Poetic, dramatic, and witty, MTV kids hailing from Corfu, Kore. Ydro. were a rare force in the Greek indie pop/rock scene, inspiring both devotion and scorn. This documentary traces their journey, centering on the two core members and the significance of embracing one’s uniqueness without shame.
- How to Build a Library, Maia Lekow & Christopher King, Kenya, 2025, 102΄ (International premiere). Two intrepid Nairobi women decide to transform what used to be a whites-only library until 1958 into a vibrant cultural hub. Along the way, they must navigate local politics, raise millions for the rebuild, and confront the lingering ghosts of Kenya’s colonial past. Directors Maia Lekow and Christopher King capture the complicated work to restore a library and the deeper challenges of confronting colonial legacies.
- My Sunnyside, Matylda Kawka, Poland-USA, 2025, 92΄ (World premiere). True love can surprise you when you’ve already lost hope of finding a partner. Allie and Jo knew from the first moment that they would be together. The feeling gave them a strength they never anticipated. Jo, a trans man, is one of the leading figures in the New York start-up arena, a great speaker, mentor, activist. His partner Allie, a trans woman, is a biology lecturer beloved by her students…
- Queens of Joy, Olga Gibelinda, Ukraine-France-Czech Republic, 2025, 90΄ (World premiere). Three Ukrainian drag queens—Marlene, Monroe, and Aura—choose to remain in their war-torn country, fighting for LGBTQ+ inclusion amid Russia’s invasion. Spanning from the 2014 Maidan Revolution to spring 2024, their story blends the glamour of drag with the brutality of war. Marlene, a beloved drag icon, hides a vulnerable side as Alexander, grappling with trauma and family obligations. Monroe, a popular influencer, navigates her evolving gender identity while advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Aura, determined to fight for inclusion in both the military and society, balances the chaos of war with her love for drag. A charity drag show becomes a powerful moment of unity and resilience. The film is a story of self-discovery, love, hope, and the power to find joy even in the darkest of times.
- Pet Farm, Finn Walther & Martin A. Walther, Norway, 2024, 83΄ (International premiere). Joakim chases his childhood dream of breeding pet foxes, but external forces threaten to euthanize his beloved fox pack. Pet Farm is a story of loneliness, emphasizing the irreplaceable value of human connections over bonds with animals.
- Resilience, Tomas Elsik, Czech Republic, 2025, 80΄ (World premiere). Pavel and Klara see the position of humankind in a larger context. Pavel has been taking care of spring meadows his whole life, cutting the grass with a scythe and helping preserve rare plant species on this planet. Klára hasn’t come to terms with human ruthlessness and together with her dogs she hunts for deadly bait traps.
- The Secret of Me, Grace Hughes-Hallett, UK, 2025, 80΄ (European premiere). Nineteen-year-old Kristi discovers a secret her doctor and parents have kept from her all her life. Her search for truth uncovers a radical psychology experiment on a pair of identical twins that led to a global medical scandal. It’s 1995 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During a feminist studies class, college student Kristi opens her textbook to discover something that turns her world upside down. For as long as she can remember, Kristi has felt different– now she knows why. Demanding her medical records, Kristi is finally confronted with the devastating truth: she has been lied to all her life by those she trusted the most. What follows is the unearthing of an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes far beyond her own life, leading to the discovery of a psychology experiment on a pair of twins – once hailed as a revolutionary success but now revealed to be a terrible lie affecting thousands around the world.
- The Treasure Hunter, Giacomo Gex, UK-Philippines-Mexico, 2025, 84΄ (World premiere). Yamashita’s Gold is known today as a mythical war loot allegedly buried by the Japanese Imperial Army across the Philippine archipelago during World War II for future recovery. Legend has it that to this day most of it remains unrecovered. The story has lured treasure hunters from all around the world. Among them, Jack and his father have dedicated their lives and spent millions of dollars to find it. Shot over seven years, this is the story of a son trying to earn his father’s love, trust and respect. A dark path that leads to obsession and unhealthy addiction threatening the livelihood of his wife, children and their entire family.
As earlier reported, the >>Film Forward Competition section hosts movies that “challenge conventions and utter a bold and daring cinematic language.” Ten films are selected for the section and awards include the >>Film Forward Golden Alexander, featuring a 6,000-euro cash prize, and the >>Film Forward Silver Alexander, featuring a 3,000-euro cash prize. The 27th Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival runs March 6-16.
>>Film Forward Competition line-up:
- Death Plan for a Dog and a Man, Christos Karakepelis, Greece, 2024, 66΄ (World Premiere). In lockdown hibernation, an outcast like an invulnerable superhero, plans an epic escape for himself and his dog; he wants to escape the deadliest virus: life itself. An adventurous death trip that will magically drive them both from their hovel to the wild mountains and up to New York, from suffocating reality to absolute freedom.
- NovaMax SkyLand, Dionysia Kopana, Greece, 2025, 78΄ (World Premiere). Among Athenian balconies, fragmented images, sounds, and fleeting and incomplete stories emerge. The seasons change, the significant intertwines with the insignificant, and beauty and ugliness coexist. Weather phenomena, absurd circumstances, events, human gestures, and other fragments of life weave together the spectrum of an urban ecosystem.
- The One Who Hopes, Stratis Chatzielenoudas, Greece, 2025, 67΄ (World Premiere). In the twilight of a post-apocalyptic age, an intergalactic traveller seeks the sacred language of birds on the last remaining planet. With an artificial mind as her companion, she will learn that even in the stillness of silence, the desire to communicate endures, unyielding and eternal.
- Endless Cookie, Seth Scriver & Peter Scriver, Canada, 2025, 97΄ (European premiere). Endless Cookie is a new full-length animation from Seth & Pete Scriver, playing out like a particularly tangential fever dream – a colourful depiction of the many overlapping episodes of the brothers’ lives – from their upbringing in Downtown Toronto’s Kensington Market to Pete’s current residence in an isolated Northern Manitoba First Nation community. As they reminisce, their yarns are often punctuated, interrupted or else hijacked by the charismatic members of their family who indulge in their own reveries. Endless Cookie is at heart an impressionistic and often surreal depiction of family but it is also a documentary of the creative process.
- Meanwhile, Catherine Gund, USA, 2024, 89΄ (European premiere). Meanwhile is a docu-poem in six verses about artists breathing through chaos. Through a dynamic collaborative process, the artists’ expressions are combined with historical and observational footage to unveil a rare cinematic meditation about identity, race, racism, and resistance as they shape our shared breath. Meanwhile is not just a film; it’s a journey, a conversation, an experience not an education, reflecting the chaos of existence and the beauty found within it. Since its inception in 2020, this cinematic poem has been a communal effort to explore the complexities of truth and identity. Cinema—like identity—is entirely constructed, merely and astonishingly, a practice.
- Museum of the Night, Fermín Eloy Acosta, Argentina, 2025, 88΄ (World premiere). At the end of the 1960s, Argentine artist Leandro Katz participated in “Theatre of the Ridiculous”, an eccentric group linked to New York’s queer underground. This film-essay moves between archives, testimonies, and spectres of the past that question the present. Photography, film, video, and sound intertwine to approach, if only in brief flashes, that mythical past and raise questions about time, art, sexuality, death, and cinema.
- Erreplika, Pello Gutiérrez, Spain, 2024, 74΄ (International premiere). In 1979 the Virgin of Zikuñaga disappeared, leaving its inhabitants without her iconic image. A gap in the niche. A collective void. My father, the filmmaker Juanmi Gutiérrez, passed away some years ago. Now, from a distance, I return to his films in an exercise of personal memory through the image, or rather, through its absence.
- Seeds, Brittany Shyne, USA, 2025, 122΄ (International premiere). Interweaving the stories of three Black generational farmers, SEEDS paints an intimate portrait of farming today—its joys, struggles, and the fragility of legacy. With remarkable closeness, the film captures daily life—harvesting, fixing machinery, and facing financial strain—while savoring quiet moments of warmth and connection. Against this backdrop, the stark reality looms: Black-owned farmland has shrunk from 16 million acres in 1910 to a fraction today, with systemic barriers still in place. Through these intergenerational stories, SEEDS reveals cycles of inequity, resilience, and the deep ancestral ties that shape our relationship to the land.
- Where Do You Call Home?, Ana Pérez-Quiroga, Portugal, 2025, 73΄ (World premiere). “Where do you call home?” was the question faced by nearly 3,000 Spanish children exiled in the Soviet Union during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This film tells the story of one of them, Angelita Perez, who lived in Russian boarding schools from ages 4 to 24 until completing her medical studies in Moscow. It is a tale of resilience, love, and identity, intertwining past and present, history and memory. It also explores the bond between a mother and daughter—the director and her mother—through shared songs and stories. Revisiting Angelita’s journey is both a tribute to her strength and a declaration of love.
- Zodiac Killer Project, Charlie Shackleton, USA-UK, 2025, 92΄ (International premiere). The true crime genre’s ubiquity is driven by people’s endless fascination, disgust, and—bizarrely—search for comfort in genre conventions that still have the ability to generate complex emotions despite their predictability and familiarity. Having tried and failed to make a documentary about the infamous Zodiac Killer, filmmaker Charlie Shackleton walks the viewer through what his film would have been like and why, using Bay Area landscapes, reenactments, film and TV clips, and voice-over. In this wholly original, self-aware cinematic work, a filmmaker chews over what might have been and playfully probes the inner workings of a genre at saturation point.
