The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF) is an international documentary festival held every March in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

. TDF, founded in 1999, features competition sections and ranks among the world's leading documentary festivals. Since 2018, TDF is one of the 28 festivals included in the American Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences Documentary Feature Qualifying Festiva
List
''. TDF is organized by the

Thessaloniki Film Festival The Thessaloniki Film Festival is a Thessaloniki-based cultural institution focusing on cinema. The Institution organizes the Thessaloniki International Film Festival every November and the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival every March, while its y ...

cultural institution, which further organizes the annual

Thessaloniki International Film Festival The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), organized by the cultural institution of the same name under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture, is held every November in Thessaloniki.TIFF features international competition sect ...

, held every November. French producer

Elise Jalladeu Elise or Elyse may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Elise, the unidentified person to whom Beethoven dedicated ''Für Elise'' * ''Elise'', a 1979 speculative fiction novel by Ken Grimwood * ''Élise ou la vraie vie'' (''Elise, or the Real Life' ...

is TDF's general director; film critic Orestes Andreadakis serves as its director.

Overview

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival focuses on independent documentary film and emerging documentarists from around the world. TDF is one of the leading documentary festivals globally, with an audience measuring up to 85.000 yearly. TDF is held at the historical “Olympion” theater at the central Thessaloniki

Aristotelous Square Aristotelous Square ( el, Πλατεία Αριστοτέλους, , Aristotle Square) is the main city square of Thessaloniki, Greece and is located on Nikis avenue (on the city's waterfront), in the city center. It was designed by French architec ...

, at four theaters housed at two restored warehouses at the Thessaloniki Port, and at cinemas across Thessaloniki. The festival hub is Warehouse C, located at the city port.

History

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival was founded in 1999, an initiative of Dimitri Eipides, who served as TDF's director until 2016. TDF's initial edition was organized with the contribution of an honorary international committee, consisting of prominent film auteurs as Chantal Ackerman, Judith Elek, Marceline Loridan-Ivens,

Johan van der Keuken Johan van der Keuken (; 4 April 1938 – 7 January 2001) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker, author, and photographer. In a career that spanned 42 years, Van der Keuken produced 55 documentary films, six of which won eight awards. He also wrot ...

, Robert Kramer,

Alexandr Sokurov Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov, PAR (russian: link=no, Александр Николаевич Сокуров; born 14 June 1951) is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a feature film, '' Russian Ark'' (2002), filmed in a ...

Frederick Wiseman Frederick Wiseman (born January 1, 1930) is an American filmmaker, documentarian, and theater director. His work is "devoted primarily to exploring American institutions". He has been called "one of the most important and original filmmakers wor ...

, D.A. Pennebaker and others. Since its 19th edition in 2017, TDF features competition sections, while from 2018 on, TDF hosts a

Virtual Reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...

films competition section. In 2018 TDF became one of the 28 festivals included in the American Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List; the film that wins TDF's “Golden Alexander” award for the Best Documentary in the International Competition section is automatically eligible to submit for Oscar consideration (Documentary Feature category). In 2020, TDF's 22nd edition was held online from May 19th to May 28th, for the first time in the festival's history, due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Notable guests and tributes

Leading documentarists that have attended TDF include Barbara Kopple,

Kim Longinotto Kim Longinotto ( Sally Anne Longinotto-Landseer; born 8 February 1948, London) is a British documentary film maker, well-known for making films that highlight the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination. Longinotto has made mo ...

Pirjo Honkasalo Pirjo Irene Honkasalo (born 22 February 1947) is a Finnish film director who has also worked as a cinematographer, film editor, producer, screenwriter and actress. In 1980 she co-directed '' Flame Top'' with Pekka Lehto, with whom she worked ea ...

, Louie Psichoyos, Joe Berlinger,

Bruce Sinofsky Bruce Sinofsky (March 31, 1956 – February 21, 2015) was an American documentary film director, particularly known for his films the ''Paradise Lost'' trilogy, '' Brother's Keeper'' and '' Metallica: Some Kind of Monster'', all created with Joe B ...

, Jennifer Fox,

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Helena Třeštíková Helena Třeštíková is a Czech documentary film director, member of the European Film Academy, and briefly the Czech Republic's Culture Minister. She resigned from the position in January 2007 after serving less than three weeks. References ...

, Albert & David Maysles,

Heddy Honigmann Heddy Honigmann (1 October 1951 – 21 May 2022) was a Peruvian-born Dutch film director of fictional and documentary films. Early life and education Honigmann was born on 1 October 1951 in Lima, Peru, to Jewish refugees. Her mother, Sarah Pa ...

Talal Derki Talal Derki (Arabic language, Arabic: طلال ديركي ''Ṭālāl Dīrkī'') is a Syrian Kurdish director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Damascus and of Kurdish descent, Derki studied film directing in Athens at , graduation in 2003. He wo ...

and others. Each year, TDF presents tributes and retrospectives to acclaimed auteurs and documentary movements. TDF has so far held the following tributes: 22nd TDF – 2020 Animated documentaries

Anthropocene The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. , neither the International Commissio ...

Memes 21st TDF – 2019 Wang Bing Gustav Deutsch Spotlight:

Eduardo Williams Eduardo "Teddy" Williams (born 1987) is an Argentine film director. He first studied at Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, and then in Fresnoy, France, under the tutorship of Portuguese director Miguel Gomes. Williams works within an avant-g ...

Carte Blanche: Louie Psichoyos Why Look at Animals? 20th TDF – 2018

Agnès Varda Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...

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Lucien Castaing-Taylor Lucien Giles Castaing-Taylor (born 10 January 1966, Liverpool, United Kingdom) is a British anthropologist and artist who works in film, video, and photography. Biography Castaing-Taylor received his B.A. at Cambridge University and his PhD at t ...

’68 beyond ‘68 Carte Blanche:

Sara Driver Sara Miller Driver (born December 15, 1955) is an American independent filmmaker and actress from Westfield, New Jersey. A participant in the independent film scene that flourished in lower Manhattan from the late 1970s through the 1990s, she gain ...

19th TDF – 2017

Vitaly Mansky Vitaly Vsevolodovich Mansky (russian: Виталий Всеволодович Манский, uk, Віталій Всеволодович Манський; born 2 December 1963 in Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian documentary fi ...

John Berger John Peter Berger (; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to the ...

Angela Ricci Lucchi Angela may refer to: Places * Angela, Montana * Angela Lake, in Volusia County, Florida * Lake Angela, in Lyon Township, Oakland County, Michigan * Lake Angela, the reservoir impounded by the source dam of the South Yuba River Fiction * An ...

Yervant Gianikian Yervand and in some transliterations Ervand (in Western Armenian Yervant), is an Armenian given name of Persian origin. The Hellenic equivalent is Orontes. Ervand / Yervand / Yervant may refer to: Ervand *Ervand Abrahamian (born 1940) Marxist hist ...

Short Doc Experiments Oberhausen Carte Blanche: Dimitri Eipides 18th TDF – 2016 Jong Bang Carlsen Mark Cousins 17th TDF – 2015 Hubert Sauper Alexandru Solomon 16th TDF – 2014

Peter Wintonick Peter Kenneth Wintonick (June 10, 1953 – November 18, 2013) was a Canadian independent documentary filmmaker based in Montreal. A winner of the 2006 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, former Thinker in Residence for the Premier ...

Nicolas Philibert Nicolas Philibert (; born 10 January 1951) is a French film director and actor. Biography Philibert's father was a film lecturer and he attended his talks in his youth. This encouraged him to embark on a film career. He started this with René ...

15th TDF – 2013

Patricio Guzman Patricio in Spanish, or Patrício in Portuguese, is a male given name equivalent to Patrick in English. The Spanish name is pronounced with the stress on the same first i as Portuguese, but an accent is not needed because this follows normal ru ...

15 Years TDF: A Fascinating Journey 14th TDF – 2012

Eyal Sivan Eyal Sivan ( he, אייל סיון) is an Israeli documentary filmmaker, theoretician and scholar based in Paris, France. Early life Eyal Sivan is a Filmmaker, Writer and theoretician born in 1964 in Haifa, Israel; raised in Jerusalem; a ...

Angelos Abazoglou Spotlight: with Remarkable People Docville Danish Docs Balkan focus 13th TDF – 2011

Sergei Loznitsa Sergei Vladimirovich Loznitsa ( be, Сяргей Уладзіміравіч Лазніца, russian: Сергей Владимирович Лозница, uk, Сергій Володимирович Лозниця; born 5 September 1964) is a Uk ...

Kyriaki Malama Spotlight: Middle East African Stories 12th TDF – 2010

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Andrzej Fidyk Spotlight: Polish docs, Docs on North Korea, Aegean stories Hybrid Docs African Stories 11th TDF – 2009

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Spotlight: Mexican docs, Austrian docs Hybrid Docs Theme: Africa from Within 10th TDF – 2008 Focus on Asia Theme: Faces of Fascism Canadian docs Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky Arto Halonen War Zone 9th TDF – 2007 Focus on Asia Theme: troubled innocence Games we play Barbara Kopple

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Julia Reichert &

Steven Bognar Steven Bognar (born 1963) is an American film director. An Oscar-winning and award-winning documentary filmmaker, his films have been screened at SXSW, Sundance, and the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Bognar has also worked as an instructor of medi ...

World Musicians Dutch Docs 8th TDF – 2006 Current Issues: globalization Theme: Africa, unresolved issues The politics of violence – part 2

Exandas – Documentaries of the world Nordic Docs 7th TDF – 2005 Theme: Immigration – Refugees Spotlight:

Auschwitz – The nightmare, 60 Years On Focus: The Human RIghts Watch Ethnographic Cinema: Dedicated to

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Pierre Perrault Olympic Games: Greek docs 6th TDF – 2004 Current Issues: Terrorism – The Politics of Violence Cinema Lessons: Decoding our World –

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Spotlight:

5th TDF – 2003 Contemporary Issues: Palestine Spotlight: Margaret Smilow,

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, Mary Hadjimichali-Papaliou,

Yannis Smaragdis Yannis Smaragdis ( el, Γιάννης Σμαραγδής) is a Greek film director. Biography He was born in Crete in 1946 and studied film in Greece and Paris, France. He appeared in 1972 with his short film ''Two Three Things...'' which receive ...

4th TDF – 2002 Focus on: Children of a Harsh Reality Bruce Weber Monika Treut

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3rd TDF – 2001 Albert & David Maysles Docs from Iran Lefteris Xanthopoulos Yugoslavia in Focus: Anatomy of Horror 2nd TDF – 2000 Gypsies: Lives without Borders D.A. Pennebaker: Rock’ n’ Roll Concerts ''Backstage'' and literature

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1st TDF – 1999 Dimitris Mavrikios

Festival sections

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival comprises the following sections: * Feature Length International Competition, screening films over 70 minutes in length that compete for the “Golden Alexander” Award and the Special Jury Award. * “Newcomers” International Competition, screening the first or second film by emerging documentarists from around the world. * “Film Forward” International Competition, screening innovative and experimental documentaries. * Virtual Reality (VR) International Competition. * Top Docs, screening films by major auteurs or films that have successfully toured the festival circuit. * Open Horizons, TDF's section hosting the best of independent documentary film from around the world. * Platform, showcasing the year's Greek documentary production. * From Screen to Screen, screening Greek documentaries previously broadcast on TV. * Docs for Kids, TDF's section dedicated to children and younger audiences. TDF's program further includes sidebar events such as lectures, masterclasses, concerts, exhibitions and workshops.

Agora Doc Market

The Agora Doc Market was launched in 1999, along with the first Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The actions of the Agora Doc Market match the needs of film directors from Central and Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean. The Agora Doc Market is the developmental arm of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which aims to bring together an international network of professionals, serving as an ideal place for meetings, discussions and professional deals, in a welcoming and professional ambience. The Agora Doc Market includes the following clusters: ''Agora Doc Market'' The Agora Doc Market online Video Library (via Cinando) promotes the majority of films participating in TDF's program, but also a large number of European documentaries without a sales agent. The films remain online one and a half month after the end of the festival. ''Docs in Progress'' Agora DiP gives the chance to selected sales agents, distributors and festival programmers from all over the world to be the first to discover feature films from the Mediterranean and the Balkan countries that are currently one step away from their completion. ''Thessaloniki Pitching Forum'' The newly established Pitching Forum is a co-financing and co-production platform dedicated to projects from Southeastern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean countries and the Middle East. It consists of a two-day workshop, an all-day Pitching Forum and two-day round table meetings. The Agora Doc Market further hosts masterclasses, the Agora Lab, Doc Counceling, as well as the Meet the Future initiative, supporting emerging documentary filmmakers from the Balkans and Southeastern Europe.

Awards

TDF hands the following awards: * Feature Length International Competition:“Golden Alexander” Award, accompanied by a 15.000 euros cash prize, and the Special Jury Award, accompanied by a 5.000 euros cash prize. * “Newcomers” International Competition: “Golden Alexander” Award, accompanied by an 8.000 euros cash prize, and the Special Jury Award, accompanied by a 3.000 euros cash prize. * “Film Forward” International Competition: “Golden Alexander” Award, accompanied by a 3.000 euros cash prize. * Virtual Reality (VR) International Competition: Best VR Film Award, accompanied by a 3.000 euros cash prize. * “Mermaid Award” for the best

LGBTQI ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

-themed documentary. Independent juries hand parallel awards, including two

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...

awards (one for the Best Documentary competing at the Feature Length International Competition, and one for the Best Greek Documentary screened in TDF's official program), the “Human Values Award” granted by the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule of the Hellenes, label=none), also known as the Parliament of the He ...

, the

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award, the Youth Jury Awards by the students of the Thessaloniki Universities, the

Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation ( el, Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση AE, Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi SA) or ERT () is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of Greece. History Overview ERT b ...

awards, the

WIFT WIFT (102.1 FM, "Bigfoot Country 102.1 & 101.3") is a country music formatted broadcast radio station licensed to DuBois, Pennsylvania, serving the DuBois/ Punxsutawney/ Clearfield area. WIFT is owned and operated by Kristin Cantrell, through ...

GR Award to a woman filmmaker of a film selected for TDF's official program and the Greek Association of Film Critics award. Four Audience Awards, sponsored by Fischer beer, are presented to two Greek documentaries (under and over 50 minutes in length) and two international documentaries (under and over 50 minutes in length).

Award-winning films

The “Golden Alexander” award for the Best Documentary in the Feature Length International Competition section has been awarded to the following films: 2020 ''

Welcome to Chechnya ''Welcome to Chechnya'' is a 2020 documentary film by American reporter, author and documentarian David France.Mike Fleming, Jr"HBO Documentary Films Lands Sundance-Bound ‘Welcome To Chechnya’, About Harsh Plight Of LGBTQ Community In Russian ...

'',

David France David Harry France, (born 30 June 1948) is an author, football historian and philanthropist. Throughout the past two decades, he has been the driving force behind numerous initiatives related to Everton Football Club including Gwladys Street's ...

(USA) 2019 ''

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'',

Rachel Leah Jones Rachel Leah Jones (born 1970) is an American-Israeli documentary film director and producer. Her documentary film ''Advocate'' about the controversial human rights lawyer Leah Tsemel, which she co-directed and co-produced with cinematographer ...

and

Philippe Bellaïche ''Advocate'' is a 2019 Israeli documentary film, directed by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche. The film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Festival, and went on to win top prizes at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Kraków Film Festival, H ...

(Israel, Canada, Switzerland) 2018 '' The Distant Barking of Dogs'', Simon Lereng Wilmont (Denmark, Finland, Sweden) 2017 ''

Dream Empire Dream Empire is a 2016 American documentary film directed by David Borenstein. Its plot revolves around the director's experience as a foreign performer (known as "white monkey") in the booming real estate of Chongqing, the mega city in Southwest Ch ...

'', David Borenstein (Denmark)

References

External links

Official Website
{{film-festival-stub

Gallery

File:Η Πίριο Χονκασάλο βραβεύεται στο 7ο Φεστιβάλ Ντοκιμαντέρ Θεσσαλονίκης.jpg, Pirjo Honkasalo awarded at the 7th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (2005) File:Η Κιμ Λοντζινότο στη διάρκεια του masterclass που έδωσε στο 8ο Φεστιβάλ Ντοκιμαντέρ Θεσσαλονίκης.jpg, Kim Longinotto during her masterclass at the 8th TDF (2006) File:Ο Στίβεν Μπόγκναρ και η Τζούλια Ράιχαρτ σε masterclass που έδωσαν στο 9ο Φεστιβάλ Ντοκιμαντέρ Θεσσαλονίκης.jpg, Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert during a masterclass at the 9th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (2007) File:Η Μπάρμπαρα Κοπλ στο Φεστιβάλ Ντοκιμαντέρ το 2007.jpg, Barbara Kopple at the 9th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (2007)
Film festivals in Greece Documentary film festivals in Greece Festivals in Thessaloniki Annual events in Thessaloniki Arts in Thessaloniki Spring (season) events in Greece