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Christopher Vourlias Simon Lereng Wilmont’s “A House Made of Splinters,” a tender and humane story of a children’s shelter in eastern Ukraine, earned the top prize at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, taking home the Golden Alexander Award at a ceremony on Sunday.The international competition jury praised Wilmont’s acclaimed documentary, which also won the best director prize at Sundance, as “an unforgettable film that shines a light on the burden carried by children for the horrors and mistakes perpetrated by the world of the adults who should be caring for them.”The jury also announced a Special Jury Award for “Young Plato,” by Declan McGrath and Neasa Ní Chianáin, calling it “a film that can only give us hope in future generations and their capacity to make the world a better place.” In handing out the awards, the jury described the prize-winning duo as “two profoundly moving and intricate films that, in many ways, struck us as companion pieces, and that deserve to be seen together.”In the Newcomers Competition for young and up-and-comings directors presenting their first or second features, the Golden Alexander “Dimitri Eipides” Award went to “Golden Land,” by Inka Achté, which the jury described as “a beautiful and moving family story of belonging in a way which changes the narrative of migration…[and] shows – in a non-didactic manner – a family’s struggles and dreams.” The Special Jury Prize went to “The Devil’s Drivers,” by Daniel Carsenty and Mohammed Abugeth.In the Film Forward Competition, which showcases the work of young and daring directors who challenge genre conventions, the Golden Alexander Film Forward Award went to “The Bride,” by Samira Guadagnuolo and Tiziano Doria, which the jury praised as a

Coexistence, My Ass!, a film about Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi who dares to advocate for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, won the Golden Alexander Sunday at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, TiDF’s top award.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Amber Fares’ “Coexistence, My Ass!,” which centers on Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi, won the Golden Alexander in the International Competition section of the 27th Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival Sunday.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The largest audience award in the world, the LUX Audience Award, sees citizens and members of the democratically elected European Parliament coming together yearly to honor a European film with their coveted prize. This year’s slate of highly-acclaimed nominees include Gints Zibalodis’s history-making “Flow,” which just won Latvia its first ever Oscar for Best Animated Film, and Mati Diop’s “Dahomey,” the first film by a Black filmmaker to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Two years after receiving the Honorary Golden Alexander Award for his body of work, renowned Greek documentarian Stavros Psillakis returns to the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival with “Sculpted Souls.” The film looks at the history of the Hansenites — individuals affected by Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy — through the story of Swiss dentist Julien Grivel, who treated patients affected by the disease pro bono for almost three decades. Speaking with Variety ahead of the film’s world premiere, Psillakis recalls first reading Grivel’s book, “Greece, My Ithaca,” and promptly wanting to meet up with the dentist. “He immediately won me over,” says the director, who then quickly began production despite not having funding locked yet.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert is one of the world’s leading documentary directors, but he remains “humble,” he told an audience Saturday at Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, which had presented him with its honorary Golden Alexander award the previous evening. Among other honors, Philibert won the European Film Award and was BAFTA nominated for “To Be and to Have,” and won Berlin’s Golden Bear for “On the Adamant.” In a discussion Saturday, Philibert said he doesn’t like to be described as an “observational filmmaker.” He is not merely recording reality, but “re-writing” it, he said. Philibert, who edits his own films, added that the most important thing was to construct a narrative.

The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival has announced its competition lineups for the March event, a slate of world, international and European premieres hailing from Greece, Paraguay, Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Kenya, the U.S. and other parts of the globe.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert will be awarded the honorary Golden Alexander for his contribution to cinema at the 27th Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival, which runs March 6-16.

Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s drama Happy Holidays has clinched the Étoile d’Or for Best Film at the Marrakech Film Festival.

Happy Holidays, the latest feature from Palestinian Filmmaker Scandar Copti, has taken the top prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.  

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Traveling to Greece for the Thessaloniki Film Festival has not stopped Matt Dillon from voting in the upcoming U.S. election. “I voted before I came because I had to vote,” he told journalists at a press conference.

Veteran actors Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes exchanged teary-eyed tributes as they picked up honorary career achievement awards this evening at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece. 

The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival is coming off a successful — and at times turbulent — 26th edition, wrapping “amidst an explosive ambiance with episodes of violence and intolerance.”

Iranian filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi’s My Stolen Planet won the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival today, automatically qualifying the film for Oscar consideration.

Christopher Vourlias Iranian filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi‘s “My Stolen Planet,” an intimate family portrait of life during Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, won the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival on Sunday, bringing a close to an emotional and politically charged week in Greece’s second city. Using both the director’s personal archives and 8mm recordings of strangers’ lives, the film — which world premiered in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand — uses an essayistic style to present the joy and vitality of life in Tehran in the 1970s, in contrast with the oppression imposed on the Iranian people by the country’s hardline regime.

Christopher Vourlias A shocking attack on a transgender couple in plain view of hundreds Saturday night has rattled filmmakers and guests at this year’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which has a spotlight on queer cinema as one of the focal points of its 26th edition. During the terrifying episode, which took place around 10:30 p.m.

Christopher Vourlias Taking place just weeks after the historic passage of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Greece, the 26th edition of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival — which runs March 7 – 17 — pays tribute to that watershed moment in the long-running fight for equal rights for the country’s LGBTQ community, while also issuing a rallying cry for diversity, inclusion and empowerment across the globe. “Our festival aspires to map out a detailed and thorough overview of our world’s complexity, welcoming films from the four corners of the world, which outline the radical changes, the challenges and the problems of our times,” says festival general director Elise Jalladeau.

Savina Petkova Women dancing, women singing, women burning their hijab: these acts of defiance shape Iranian filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi’s feature-length debut, “My Stolen Planet.” After premiering in Berlinale’s Panorama section and winning a second place Audience Award, the film now competes for the Golden Alexander at Thessaloniki International Doc Fest. Prior to her feature, Sharifi made eight shorts while working as an editor for documentaries, including Firouzeh Khosrovani’s IDFA winning “Radiograph of a Family.” Using the essayistic style of a diary, “My Stolen Planet” presents the joy and vivaciousness in contrast with the regimented oppression in Tehran using both the director’s personal archives and 8mm recordings of strangers’ lives.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 26th Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival has revealed the lineup of the International Competition section, which includes “A New Kind of Wilderness,” winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema – Documentary section of Sundance Film Festival. Thessaloniki Documentary Festival runs from March 7-17.

Christopher Vourlias Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal” won the Golden Alexander at the 64th Thessaloniki Film Festival on Sunday, marking the first time in 30 years that a Greek film took home the top honors at the country’s longest-running film event. Exarchou’s sophomore feature, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, was praised by Variety’s Jessica Kiang as “a poignant portrait of life amid the sequins and the seediness of a Greek resort.” The film follows a group of entertainers at an all-inclusive island resort preparing for the busy tourist season who are forced to wrestle with the dark reality that the show must go on as the sultry Mediterranean nights turn violent.

Christopher Vourlias A middle-aged man grappling with his thwarted ambitions grows obsessed with a beautiful young woman. The fallout threatens to unravel the fraying seams of his precarious, frustrated life in Stergios Paschos’ “The Last Taxi Driver,” which world premieres in the main competition this week at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival returns this evening for its 64th edition with a screening of The Pot-au-Feu (The Taste of Things), the latest film by French-Vietnamese director Trần Anh Hùng.