Thessaloniki Int’l Documentary Festival Underway As Event’s Leaders Acknowledge Fraught 2025 Context: “The Cries Of Hate Multiply”

deadline.com:

The 27thThessaloniki International Documentary Festival is underway in the Greek port city, a gathering point for some of the biggest names in nonfiction filmmaking – and young talents eager to join those ranks.

The festival opened Thursday night with About a Hero, directed by Piotr Winiewicz and “narrated by Werner Herzog” (quotes belong around that part of the description because the Teutonic-accented voiceover sounds like the famed German-born filmmaker, but as the Thessaloniki program notes, “our narrator… is not who he seems.”).

If that characterization of About a Hero sounds unnecessarily opaque, consider that TiDF is paying not just heed but tribute to Artificial Intelligence at this year’s festival. “AI, an Inevitable Intelligence” as the theme has been dubbed, “invites the audience to embark on a fascinating journey that includes a selection of eye-opening documentaries, an impressive visual installation, a masterclass, a special two-language edition, as well as the Festival’s magazine First Shot, co-created this year with the help of AI as a form of experimentation.

A cinematic exploration of the new reality, standing in the threshold between the man-made and the digital.” Along with About a Hero, documentaries with an AI theme include: In addition, TiDF 2025 will showcase several AI-themed short documentaries; the festival has also partnered with OpenDocs on “a pioneering program of worldwide scope, offering support, financing, AI tools and consulting services to artists from all over the world.