16th THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL - Images of the 21st Century. March 14 – 23, 2014

DOC MARKET. March 16 - 22, 10.00 – 20.00. ELECTRA PALACE HOTEL, Byzantium Hall, 1st Floor, Aristotelous Sq.

The International Doc Market, introduced in 1999, will be held in the Byzantium hall at the 1st floor of the Electra Palace Hotel at Aristotelous Sq. next to the Festival headquarters, providing a substantial space to its participants, outfitted with 30 digital booths for private viewing. The Market caters to television networks from European countries and a wide range of professionals from various parts of the world. The Doc Market is fully digital; all films are easily located in the digital library of booth.

Approximately 500 films will be available in this year’s Doc Market, including the majority of the films that are screened as part of the 16th TDF official program.

Approximately 60 buyers will be attending from Europe, the USA and Canada, among them: Luca Macioca (RAI, Italy), Jan Rofekamp (Films Transit, Canada), Flora Gregory (Al Jazeera, UK), Anne Grolleron (Arte, France), Allen Johnson (Planete, France), Francis Kandel (Canal+, France), Hanka Kastelikova (HBO Europe), Michael O' Meallaigh (TG4, Ireland), Ina Rossow (Deckert Distribution, Germany) and Philippe Van Meerbeeck (VRT, Belgium).

DOCS IN PROGRESS 2014. Friday, March 21, 10.30-13.30, Pavlos Zannas theatre

The Doc Market will present for the third time a Docs in Progress section: 9 projects from the Balkans and the Mediterranean region participate in closed sessions for Thessaloniki’s invited industry professionals, sales agents, distributors, producers and festival representatives. The participants will present and screen 5-8 minutes from their projects, aiming towards securing coproduction deals, funds for project completion, as well as deals for presales and distribution. For the second year Authorwave Post-Production House offers an award (up to 15.000 euros) in kind services. The projects are:

1. Beloved Days, Director: Constantinos Patsalides, Producer: George Avraam – Walking Around The World Ltd, Co-producers: Filmblades Ltd, Atlantis Ltd, Roll Out Vision Services, Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus

2. Blend, Director: Rachel Rusinek, Producer: Eyal Ben Moshe - 2Team Productions, Israel

3. Docville, Director: Katerina Patroni, Kalliopi Legaki, Elias Demetriou, Angelos Kovotsos, Natassa Xidi, Stavros Psilakis, Marco Gastine Producer: Marco Gastine – Minimal Films, Greece

4. Eni Got Her Gun, Director: Polly Vlachou, Producer: Dimitris Vernikos - Greece

5. The Invisible Hands, Directors: Marina Gioti, Georges Salameh, Producers: Athina Rachel Tsangari, Maria Hatzakou, Marina Gioti, Laura Sestito. Production: Haos Film, Co-Production: MeMSéA Greece/Italy

6. Istanbul United, Director: Olli Waldhauer, Farid Eslam, Producer: Nippes Yard Productions, Mind Riot Media, Port-Au-Prince Film&Kulturproduktions GmbH, Taskovski Films Production Germany - Out of Competition

7. Revelation Point, Directors: Boris Missirkov, Georgi Bogdanov, Producer: Martichka Bozhilova – AGITPROP, Bulgaria

8. Sad People Factory, Director: Michèle Dominici, Producers: Karina Si Ahmed & Jean-François Lepetit – Flach Film Production, France

9. War & Peace in the Balkans, Director: Andreas Apostolidis, Producer: Rea Apostolides, Yuri Averof – Anemon Productions, Key Partners: EU Media Programme, Goethe Institut Greece

EDN DOCS IN THESSALONIKI – PITCHING FORUM 2014. March 19 - 23. ELECTRA PALACE HOTEL, 1st Floor, Aristotelous Sq. The Docs in Thessaloniki, running since 2001 in collaboration with the European Documentary Network -a member-based organisation for professionals working with documentary feature projects- and with the support of the EU MEDIA Program, gives documentary professionals the opportunity to have their projects pitched to a panel of international financiers, commissioning editors and representatives of the international audiovisual media. The first 3 days focus on project development and polishing, under the guidance of the following industry professionals: Audrius Stonys, film director, Lithuania, Emma Davie, film director, UK, Philippe van Meerbeeck, strategic advisor, Belgium, Rea Apostolides, producer, Greece, Gitte Hansen Schnyder, sales agent, Switzerland, Stefan Kloos, producer and sales agent, Germany, Jesper Osmund, editor and pitch pilot expert, Denmark. The last 2 days are reserved for pitching.

The following 21 projects have been selected to take part in Docs in Thessaloniki 2014:

1. After The Dream, Directed by Loraine Blumenthal. Produced by Rob Mitchell, Firstborn Studios, UK

2. Andreas Papandreou - The Making of a Political Maverick, Directed by Yianni Drakos and Stan Draenos. Produced by Magnus Briem, Schadenfreude Films, Greece

3. Carbon Trade/Off, Directed by David Soto-Karlin. Produced by Aaron Soto-Karlin, NoMoha Media, Mexico and USA

4. Digitalcurry, Directed by Francesca Scalisi & Mark Olexa. Produced by Mark Olexa, Italy

5. Falc/Harm, Directed by Dénes Nagy. Produced by Sara Laszlo and Marcell Gerö, Campfilm Production, Hungary

6. Five Times a Stranger, Directed by Vangelis Efthymiou. Producer Maria P. Koufopoulou, Land Art Productions, Greece

7. The Forgotten Army, Directed by Signe Astrup. Produced by Jesper Jack, House of Real, Denmark

8. The Fragments, Directed by Rojda Akbayır. Produced by Zeynep Köprülü, Periferi Film, Turkey

9. The Honorable Generation, Directed by Nima Sarvestani. Produced by Maryam Ebrahimi, Nimafilm AB, Sweden

10. Il non ditto, Directed by Tim De Keersmaecker. Produced by Emmy Oost, Cassette for timescales, Belgium

11. In Dependence, Directed by Henriikka Hemmi. Produced by Sami Jahnukainen, Mouka Filmi, Finland

12. Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life, Directed by Tomer Heymann. Produced by Barak Heyman, Heymann Brothers Films, Israel

13. Leaves of the Horn, Directed by Davide Morandini, David Chierchini and Matteo Keffer. Produced by Lucio Mollica, GA&A Productions, Italy

14. Life and Death of Max Linder, Directed by Edward Porembny. Produced by Monika Bednarek, AMP Polska, Poland

15. The Most Boring Thing in the World, Directed by Christina Pitouli and Carlos Muñoz Gomez-Quintero. Produced by Joan Soler, Cinefilms Productions, Spain

16. Next Stop: Utopia, Directed by Apostolos Karakasis. Produced by Apostolos Karakasis, Greece and Carl Ludwig Rettinger, Lichtblick Film, Germany.

17. The Promise, Directed by Zeljko Mirkovic. Produced by Zeljko Mirkovic, Optimistic Film, Serbia & Dusan Gajic, SEETV, Belgium

18. Samuel en las nubes, Directed by Pieter Van Eecke. Produced by Hanne Phlypo, Clin d’œil films, Belgium

19. Three Lives, Directed by Yan Ting Yuen. Produced by Reinette van de Stadt, Trueworks, Netherlands

20. Transit Havana, Directed by Daniel Abma. Produced by Iris Lammertsma, JvdW Film, Netherlands

21. Violence, Directed by Åsa Ekman. Produced by Oscar Hedin, Film and Tell, Sweden

EDN DOCS IN THESSALONIKI - MASTERCLASS. March 21, 2014 at 11:15 – 13:00. John Cassavetes Theatre

“Distributing an auteur documentary- a case study on I Am Breathing” By Ben Kempas

Ben Kempas, Producer of Marketing and Distribution at Scottish Documentary Institute, has been in charge of distributing and promoting the acclaimed documentary I Am Breathing by Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon. Kempas will share behind the scenes information, as well as strategies and tools for launching a documentary to a wide audience, mentioning a process that centred on a Global Screening Day, which was a big experiment in collaborative distribution that led to more than 300 events in over 40 countries. Speaker: Ben Kempas, Scottish Documentary Institute. Moderator: Ove Rishøj Jensen, EDN

MARKET TALKS. March 19 - 21, 17.30-18.00, Excelsior room at the Electra Palace ground floor

The Doc Market organizes half-hour talks by professionals from different areas/professions in the documentary world. The talks will take place in an informal environment and the speakers will share valuable advice and observations drawn from their extensive experience in the industry. This year’s speakers are: - Wednesday 19/3 - EDN presentation by Ove Rishøj Jensen - Thursday 20/3 - OTE TV presentation by Alexandros Christoyiannis - Friday 21/3 - Al Jazeera presentation by Flora Gregory

In addition to the talks, the Doc Market organizes a Happy Hour every day from 18.00 to 19.00 (March 17-21) in the same space, to provide festival guests with further opportunity to meet each other.

For any information on the Doc Market and the Docs in Progress, please contact Head of the Market Yianna Sarri at sarri@filmfestival.gr and Angeliki Vergou at vergou@filmfestival.gr. For info on the EDN activities, please contact Ove Rishøj Jensen at ove@edn.dk and Laurien Van Houten at tenhouten@gmail.com.

-OFFICIAL 16TH TDF PRESS RELEASE-

Edited by Vanessa McMahon