The curtain fell on the 55th edition of the
Thessaloniki FF on Saturday, November 8, during the closing ceremony that took place at a packed Olympion Theatre.
Winners of TIFF 2014 (photo by Motionteam)
In his opening speech, festival director Dimitri Eipides summarised the accomplishments of this year’s edition: “We celebrated together the 55 years of the Festival. The audience gave a resounding response to our invitation, with theatres recording over 96% capacity. We owe a heartfelt thanks to this audience, because they confirmed that independent cinema can reveal a different side of the world, a side all of us need. All of our guests of honour this year have been fine examples of this kind of innovative cinema. One of them, the emblematic actress Hanna Schygulla, is here with us tonight. Your presence is a great honour. We were also joined by Serbian activist filmmaker
Zelimir Zilnik and Ramin Bahrani, one of the most important voices of American cinema. We were also fascinated by the Festival’s tributes to daring filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó and to the magician of surrealism Roy Andersson. One of the landmarks of this year’s edition has been the centennial of Greek cinema. Both classics and contemporary Greek films came center stage. I would like to thank all filmmakers from Greece and abroad who trusted us with their work” said Eipides before thanking also the staff and volunteers, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the European Programme
MEDIA, the Greek state television, the
Greek Film Center and the Hellenic Parliament TV Channels.
Mexican director Jorge Pérez Solano, Golden Alexander for Best Feature Film (photo by Motionteam)
This year’s jury president, Austrian director Götz Spielmann, joined by Rasha Salti, (festival programmer), Joanna Lapinska, (artistic director at the
New Horizons Film Festival in Poland), Miroljub Vuckovic (head of international relations at
Serbia’s Film Center) and producer
Thanassis Karathanos gave the
Golden Alexander for Best Feature Film to
Perpetual Sadness by Jorge Perez Solano (Mexico). Asaf Korman’s film
Next to Her (Israel) won the
Silver Alexander Special Jury Award, while the
Bronze Alexander for Originality and Innovation was presented by Hanna Schygulla -TIFF held a tribute to her work this year- to the film
The Lesson by
Kristina Grozeva and
Petar Valchanov (Bulgaria, Greece) which also received the
Award for Best Screenplay.
Konstantina Stavrianou from Graal receiving the Silver Alexander Special Jury Award on behalf of Asaf Korman (photo by Motionteam)
The Best Director Award was presented to Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy for his Cannes ‘14 awarded film The Tribe, from Ukraine. The award for Best Actress was bestwed to Brooke Bloom for her role in the film She’s Lost Control by Anja Marquardt (USA) and that for Best Actor to Sverrir Gudnason (Blowfly Park by Jens Östberg - Sweden). The Artistic Achievement Award was presented to the film In The Crosswind by Martti Helde (Estonia).
Consisting of José Antonio Teodoro (jury president, Canada), Müge Turan (Turkey) and Ninos Feneck Mikelides (Greece), the
FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) jury awarded two prizes and a special mention.
Goodnight Mommy (Austria) by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received the
FIPRESCI International Competition Award, while the award for
Greek Films went to the film
Norway by
Yannis Veslemes. Also, the FIPRESCI jury bestowed a
Special Mention to Nikos Nikolopoulos and Vladimiros Nikolouzos’
Polk.
Actress Margita Gosheva receiving the Bronze Alexander for Originality and Innovation for The Lesson (photo by Motionteam)
Going to the
Audience Awards, the
Fischer Audience Award for a Greek film was bestowed to
Dark Illusion by Manos Karystinos, while,
Isa Qosja’s
Three Windows and a Hanging (Kosovo*, Germany) got the
Fischer Audience Award for a film in the Balkan Survey section. In the
Open Horizons section the award was given to Australian filmmaker Josh Lawson for his film
The Little Death. In the
International Competition section, the prize was awarded to
Corrections Class by Ivan I. Tverdovsky (Russia, Germany) who also received the Hellenic Parliament TV Channel’s
Human Values Award.
Actor Donat Qosja with the Balkan Survey΄s Fischer Audience Award for Three Windows and a Hanging (photo by Motionteam)
The selected projects are:
Happy Birthday by
Christos Georgiou,
Son of Sofia by
Elina Psykou,
Interruption by
Yorgos Zois,
Voir du pays by Delphine & Muriel Coulin,
Athenes, Les eclats by Antoine Danis and
La femme de mon oncle Grec by Sandrine Dumas. The Fund will allocate 1.000.000 Euros, 800.000 coming from France and 200.000 from Greece.
Roy Andersson’s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence was screened after the awards ceremony, as part of the tribute to his work held by the festival.
Check the Agora section Awards