How Thessaloniki’s Industry Arm Stays True to Its Mission to ‘Nurture Talents’ and Remains a Vital Launching Pad for Region’s Filmmakers

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias As the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry arm, Agora, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, organizers are looking to maintain the right balance for an event that continues to grow in stature while retaining its carefully curated, almost intimate feel.

To that end, industry head Angeliki Vergou — an Agora veteran who assumed her current post in 2022 — is pragmatic in her approach to the Thessaloniki event and where it fits into the broader marketplace.

While several thousand exhibitors and industry professionals will descend on Las Vegas next week for a whirlwind, new-look AFM, Vergou stresses that the Agora is determined to maintain its “friendly,” personal approach. “We really want to keep having this scale of a market — not too big, but the right amount of professionals coming and meeting with each other,” Vergou tells Variety. “Our specialty is to nurture talents and offer them their first experience in a market.

An experience that feels safe and comfortable to open up and…be able to express themselves freely.” In that sense, the Agora functions as a stepping stone for emerging filmmakers and industry professionals from the region who are perhaps yet to tackle their first Cannes Marché or EFM. “The whole point is for us to be able to embrace them and help them forward to then open up to bigger markets and a bigger network,” she says.