Thessaloniki Industry Awards Crown Two Debut Projects
Two projects by women film-makers led the Thessaloniki Film Festival's industry awards on Wednesday night, 11 November, according to Variety.
Mari Gulbiani's "The Crossroad" won the Two Thirty-Five Award, the top prize in the Agora's Works in Progress section. That section lets films still in production pitch themselves to buyers and backers. It is Gulbiani's fiction debut. The film is produced by Kate Kalandarishvili for Georgia's Midifilm.
Angela Dimeska's "They Bloom at Dawn" took the Frenel Post-Lab Post-Production Award, the top honour in the Crossroads Co-Production Forum. A co-production forum is a meeting where producers from different countries look for partners to share costs. The prize's name points to post-production, the stage after shooting when a film is edited and finished. The film is Dimeska's first feature and is produced by Ognen Anton for North Macedonia's Dream Factory.
Several other projects also took home prizes. Sofia Georgovassili's psychological thriller "Mignon" won the Onassis Film Award, a €10,000 cash prize for a Greek project in Agora Works in Progress. It also received the €3,000 Agora Works in Progress Award from EKKOMED.
Tunahan Kurt's "The Law of the Flies" won the 119 Marvila Studios Award, which offers sound mixing services. Ayman El Amir won an €8,000 script development award from France's CNC, the national film centre, for "A Pair of Shoes in the Dark Corner of the Moon." Gözde Kural won the €6,000 ArteKino International Award for "In Those Darkest Nights."
"Koukitsa", by Christina Koutsospyrou and Aran Hughe, won the €3,000 Finos Film Award. Yumna Marwan won two prizes for her feature "This Is Not a Set."
Industry prizes are rarely about applause. Cash, post-production work and sound mixing help a project cross the next gap, whether that is finishing the edit or finding a co-producer. Most of the winners on this list are still some way from a cinema screen.
Outside the awards, the festival is presenting a multimedia installation called "WELCOME TO THE DESERT II: WILL THEY FIND US NOT?" The festival's website lists it at the West Guardhouse, Gate 1, at the Port of Thessaloniki. It is open daily from 13:00 to 21:00 for the whole festival, and admission is free.
The installation uses electronic sounds composed by Kangding Ray, who also wrote music for the soundtrack of the film "Sirât." It includes two extended reality works, which are digital experiences that mix computer-generated imagery with the real world, often viewed through a headset or a screen.
