The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF; , Diethnes Festival Kinimatografou Thessalonikis) has become one of the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

' primary showcases for the work of new and emerging filmmakers. The event features the International Section, a panorama of Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 films, the New Horizons program, the Balkan Survey, and numerous retrospectives and tributes to leading figures in the world of film. The Festival is competitive with the International Section jury awarding several prizes each year, most notably the "Golden Alexander" for Best Feature-Length Film.

Overview

Since 1992, the International Thessaloniki Film Festival has striven to present the most innovative independent films from around the world. Components of the Festival include:

• The International Competition section consists of new directors' first or second films.
• The non-competitive panorama of Greek films, an overview of the recent local production is followed by the presentation of the State Film Awards by the Greek Ministry of Culture.
• The Independence Days non-competitive section is the cutting-edge showcase for the latest trends in independent film production.
• The Balkan Survey, created in 1994, stands as a unique program which offers audiences a window on the cinema of this region of the world.

Today, president of the Thessaloniki Film Festival is the Paris-born Greek actor Georges Corraface

Georges Corraface

Georges Corraface is a Franco-Greek actor who has had an international career in film and television, following many years in French theatre, notably as a member of the famed Peter Brook Company. His film credits include To Tama, Escape from L.A., La Pasión Turca, Vive La Mariée, Impromptu,...

.
Retrospectives and tributes look at both historic masters, and emerging artists. Since 1993, numerous directors have been represented in the retrospective/tribute programs, including:

• John Cassavetes
  John Cassavetes
  John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
  
   (1992)
• Jules Dassin
  Jules Dassin
  Julius "Jules" Dassin , was an American film director, with Jewish-Russian origins. He was a subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, and subsequently moved to France where he revived his career.-Early life:...
  
   (1993)
• Nagisa Oshima
  Nagisa Oshima
  is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. After graduating from Kyoto University he was hired by Shochiku Ltd. and quickly progressed to directing his own movies, making his debut feature A Town of Love and Hope in 1959....
  
   (1994)
• Michael Cacoyannis (1995)
• Krzysztof Kieślowski
  Krzysztof Kieslowski
  Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...
  
   (1995)
• Bernardo Bertolucci
  Bernardo Bertolucci
  Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...
  
   (1996)
• Claude Chabrol
  Claude Chabrol
  Claude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
  
   (1997)
• Manoel de Oliveira
  Manoel de Oliveira
  Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira, GCSE is a Portuguese film director born in Cedofeita, Porto. He began working on films in the late 1920s, but did not receive international recognition until the early 1970s. Since the late 1980s he has been one of the most prolific working film directors and...
  
   (1997)
• Arturo Ripstein
  Arturo Ripstein
  Arturo Ripstein y Rosen is a Mexican film director.-Life and career:Ripstein got his break into movies working as an uncredited assistant director for Luis Buñuel. In 1965, he directed his first feature, Tiempo de Morir...
  
   (1997)
• Peter Greenaway
  Peter Greenaway
  Peter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
  
   (1998)
• Nikos Koundouros
  Nikos Koundouros
  Nikos Koundouros , is a Greek film director, born in Agios Nikolaos, Crete in 1926.He studied painting and sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts, and was later exiled because of his political beliefs to the Makronissos island. At the age of 28 he decided to follow a career in cinematography...
  
   (1998)
• Akira Kurosawa
  Akira Kurosawa
  was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
  
   (1998)
• Jean-Daniel Pollet
  Jean-Daniel Pollet
  Jean-Daniel Pollet is a French film director and screenwriter who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s. He was associated with two approaches to filmmaking: comedies which blended burlesque and melancholic elements, and poetic films based on texts by writers such as the French poet Francis...
  
   (1998)
• Ken Loach
  Ken Loach
  Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
  
   (1998)
• Pedro Almodóvar
  Pedro Almodóvar
  Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...
  
   (1999)
• Theo Angelopoulos
  Theo Angelopoulos
  Theodoros Angelopoulos is a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer.-Life:Angelopoulos studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, but after his military service went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. He soon dropped out to study film at the IDHEC before returning...
  
   (2000)
• Jerzy Skolimowski
  Jerzy Skolimowski
  Jerzy Skolimowski is a Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist and actor. A graduate of the prestigious National Film School in Łódź, Skolimowski has directed more than twenty films since his 1960 début Oko wykol...
  
   (2000)
• John Boorman
  John Boorman
  John Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.-Early life:Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey,...
  
   (2001)
• Marco Bellocchio (2002)
• Pantelis Voulgaris
  Pantelis Voulgaris
  Pantelis Voulgaris is a Greek film director and screenwriter. His 1989 film The Striker with Number 9 was entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival...
  
   (2002)
• Patrice Chereau
  Patrice Chéreau
  Patrice Chéreau is a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor, and producer.-Biography:Patrice Chéreau was born in Lézigné, Maine-et-Loire, and went to school in Paris. At a young age he became well-known to Parisian critics as director, actor, and stage manager of his high-school theatre...
  
   (2005)
• David Cronenberg
  David Cronenberg
  David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
  
  
• Atom Egoyan
  Atom Egoyan
  Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...
  
  
• Victor Erice
  Víctor Erice
  Víctor Erice Aras is a Spanish film director.He studied law, political science, and economics at the University of Madrid. He also attended the Escuela Oficial de Cinematografia in 1963 to study film direction...
  
   (2004)
• Otar Iosseliani
  Otar Iosseliani
  - Filmography :* Akvarel * Sapovnela * April / Ap'rili* Tudzhi * Falling Leaves, / Giorgobistve* Georgian Ancient Songs / Dzveli qartuli simgera...
  
   (2003)
• Takis Kanellopoulos
  Takis Kanellopoulos (director)
  Takis Kanellopoulos was a Greek film director and screenwriter. He directed ten films between 1960 and 1980.-Filmography:* Sonia * Romantiko simeioma * To hroniko mias Kyriakis...
  
  
• Wong Kar-wai
  Wong Kar-wai
  Wong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
  
   (2003)
• Abbas Kiarostami
  Abbas Kiarostami
  Abbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries...
  
   (2004)
• Michael Winterbottom
  Michael Winterbottom
  Michael Winterbottom is a prolific English filmmaker who has directed seventeen feature films in the past fifteen years. He began his career working in British television before moving into features...
  
   (2005)
• Joao Cesar Monteiro
  João César Monteiro
  João César Monteiro was a Portuguese film director, actor, writer and film critic . He was born in Figueira da Foz on February 2, 1939 and died of cancer in Lisbon on February 3, 2003.- Life and career :...
  
   (2003)
• Nanni Moretti
  Nanni Moretti
  Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor.-Life and work:Moretti was born in Bruneck, South Tyrol , in 1953 to parents who were teachers...
  
  
• Lucian Pintilie
  Lucian Pintilie
  -Filmography:* Duminică la ora şase * Reconstituirea * Salonul numărul 6 * De ce trag clopotele, Mitică? - see also the "Portrayals and tributes" section at Mitică* Balanţa * O vară de neuitat * Prea târziu...
  
  
• Bob Rafelson
  Bob Rafelson
  Robert "Bob" Rafelson is an Emmy Award winning American film director, writer and producer. He was an early member of the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s and is most famous for directing and co-writing the film Five Easy Pieces, starring Jack Nicholson, as well as being one of the creators of...
  
   (2002)
• Vittorio Storaro
  Vittorio Storaro
  Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. is an Italian cinematographer.In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild judged Storaro one of history's ten most influential cinematographers.-Biography:...
  
   (2005)
• Wim Wenders
  Wim Wenders
  Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
  
   (2006)
• Gustavo Santaolalla
  Gustavo Santaolalla
  Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla is an Argentine musician, film composer and producer. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score in two consecutive years, for Brokeback Mountain in 2005 and Babel in 2006.-Life and career:...
  
   (2008)
• Emir Kusturica
  Emir Kusturica
  Emir Nemanja Kusturica , is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films...
  
   (2008)
• Takeshi Kitano
  Takeshi Kitano
  is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...
  
   (2008)
• Oliver Stone
  Oliver Stone
  William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
  
   (2008)
• Luc Dardenne
  Dardenne brothers
  Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne are a Belgian filmmaking duo...
  
   (2008)
• Werner Herzog
  Werner Herzog
  Werner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...
  
   (2009)
• Goran Paskaljević
  Goran Paskaljevic
  Goran Paskaljević is a Serbian film director. He was raised by his grandparents in Niš, following the divorce of his parents, and 14 years later returned to Belgrade where he worked in his stepfather's cinema....
  
   (2009)
• Alexandre Desplat
  Alexandre Desplat
  Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat is a French film composer. He has received four Academy Award nominations, five BAFTA nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, winning a Golden Globe for his work on The Painted Veil in 2006, and two Grammy nominations. In 2011, Desplat won his first British...
  
   (2009)

In addition to the rich film offerings, the Festival hosts panels, exhibitions, and other artistic events such as:

• The Nam June Paik Video & Television Art exhibition
• The Strange Objects of Desire of David Cronenberg Ingrid Caven's concert
• Paintings & Collage
  Collage
  A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
  
  s by Sergei Paradjanov
• Periplanissis Photo Exhibit by Josef Koudelka
• "Peter Greenaway
  Peter Greenaway
  Peter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
  
  's Paintings, Drawings & Collages" exhibit
• Jazz master Gato Barbieri
  Gato Barbieri
  Leandro Barbieri , better known as Gato Barbieri , is an Argentinean jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s.-Biography:Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music...
  
   in concert

Over the last five years the Festival has also spotlighted significant, leading directors and promoted the work of emerging young filmmakers from all over the world.

History

First held in 1960 as a modest "Week of Greek Cinema", the Thessaloniki International Film Festival has become, 50 years later, an annual event focused on the discovery and promotion of new directors from all over the world. For ten days in mid-November, audiences numbering approximately 70,000, as well as hundreds of Greek and foreign Festival guests, attend screenings of more than 150 films in the city's cinemas.

Newcomers in the competitive section meet veteran filmmakers whose work is celebrated through retrospectives and special screenings. All films are screened before the young, vital, cinema-loving Thessaloniki audience, while in the Festival's parallel events, such as concerts and art exhibitions, cinema is brought together with the other arts. The Festival assumed its present international character in 1992, under the direction of Michel Demopoulos, with the financial support of the Greek Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with the Municipality of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

 and other local institutions, and with the unanimous support of the city's population. The international recognition enjoyed by the Festival is illustrated by the participation in its jury of celebrities such as Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...

, Faye Dunaway

Faye Dunaway

Faye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...

, Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...

, and many others.

List of Golden Alexander winners

Year	Film	Director	Country of origin
1992	Orlando Orlando (film) Orlando is a 1992 film based on Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando: A Biography, starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando, Billy Zane as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth. It was directed by Sally Potter....	Sally Potter Sally Potter Charlotte Sally Potter is an English film director and screenwriter.-Career:Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, Potter joined the London Film-Makers' Co-op and started making experimental short films, including Jerk and Play...	United Kingdom
	Dance in the Night	Aleko Tsabadze	Georgia
1993	From the Snow	Sotiris Goritsas	Greece
1994	The Days The Days (film) The Days is filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai's 1993 directorial debut. Filmed entirely in black-and-white, The Days follows the life of Dong , and Chun , married artists who have recently graduated from the Beijing Art Institute...	Wang Xiaoshuai Wang Xiaoshuai Wang Xiaoshuai is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and occasional actor. He is commonly grouped under the loose association of filmmakers known as the Sixth Generation of the Cinema of China....	China
1995	Postman Postman (film) Postman is a Chinese film made in 1995 and directed by He Jianjun. His second feature, Postman tells the story of a shy mailman played by Feng Yuanzheng who steals and reads the letters of people on his route...	He Jianjun He Jianjun He Jianjun is a Chinese film director and screenwriter. A graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, He is considered a leading voice in the so-called "Sixth Generation." He is occasionally credited under the name "He Yi."- Career :...	China
1996	Brothers in Trouble	Udayan Prasad	United Kingdom
1997	Road to Nhill Road to Nhill Road to Nhill is a 1997 Australian comedy-drama film directed by Sue Brooks. The film won the "Golden Alexander" for Best Feature-Length Film at The International Thessaloniki Film Festival .-Plot:...	Sue Brooks	Australia
1998	Fishes in August	Yōichirō Takahashi	Japan
1999	Shower Shower (film) Shower is a 1999 Chinese comedy-drama film directed by Zhang Yang and starring Zhu Xu, Pu Cunxin and Jiang Wu. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 14 September 1999 and won the FIPRESCI Prize...	Zhang Yang	China
2000	Last Resort Last Resort (2000 film) Last Resort is a film by Pawel Pawlikowski, released in 2000 and starring Dina Korzun, Artyom Strelnikov and Paddy Considine.A young Russian woman and her son arrive in London, expecting to be met by her fiancé. When he does not arrive, they claim asylum, and are confined to a small seaside town...	Paweł Pawlikowski	United Kingdom
2001	Tirana Year Zero Tirana Year Zero Tirana Year Zero , is a 2002 Albanian film that tells the story of a young couple in post-communist Albania, at a time when many Albanians left the country in search for a better life abroad. The protagonist of the movie is Nik, who lives in the capital of Albania, Tirana, along with his mother and...	Fatmir Koçi	Albania
2002	Woman of Water	Hidenori Sugimori	Japan
	Blissfully Yours Blissfully Yours Blissfully Yours is a 2002 Thai romance film directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. It won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...	Apichatpong Weerasethakul Apichatpong Weerasethakul Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. His feature films include Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the prestigious 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or prize; Tropical Malady, which won a jury prize at the 2004...	Thailand
2003	The Last Train	Aleksei German Aleksei German Aleksei Yuryevich German is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, most active as a director and screenwriter. His last name is pronounced with a hard "g" and in English is frequently spelled Guerman or Gherman to avoid confusion.Almost all of German's films have been set during the Stalin era and have...	Russia
2004	Bitter Dream	Mohsen Amiryousefi	Iran
2005	Someone Else's Happiness Someone Else's Happiness Someone Else's Happiness is a 2005 Belgian-Dutch film directed and written by Fien Troch. The movie was the Belgian entry for the Academy Awards 2006 in the category Best Foreign Language Film but failed to receive the actual nomination.- Cast :...	Fien Troch Fien Troch Fien Troch is a Belgian left field film director, producer and screenwriter. After graduating from the Sint-Lukas art academy in Brussels in 2000, she achieved several nominations and awards in her chosen career....	Belgium
2006	Family Ties Family Ties (film) Family Ties is the second film by South Korean director Kim Tae-Yong, known for his debut Memento Mori...	Kim Tae-yong Kim Tae-Yong Kim Tae-Yong is a South Korean film director, actor and scriptwriter. He is best known for co-directing the critically acclaimed horror film, Memento Mori and directing the award winning film Family Ties .- Personal life :...	South Korea
2007	The Red Awn The Red Awn The Red Awn is a 2007 Chinese film directed Cai Shangjun. The film premiered at the 2007 Pusan International Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. The film tells the story of a father and son in China's interior Gansu province...	Cai Shangjun Cai Shangjun Cai Shangjun is a Chinese film director and screenwriter. Cai graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in 1992. Since then, his major work has been that of a professional screenwriter. Cai was part of the team, along with Zhang Yang, Diao Yi'nan, and Liu Fendou, that co-wrote the screenplays...	China
2008	Over There	Abdolreza Kahani Abdolreza Kahani Abdolreza Kahani is an Iranian filmmaker.In 2009, Kahani's film Twenty won the Special Jury Prize and the Prize of Ecumenical Jury at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival...	Iran
2009	Ajami Ajami (film) Ajami is a 2009 Arab/Jewish collaboration drama film. Its plot is set in the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa.-Overview:Written and directed by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani , Ajami explores five different stories set in an actual impoverished Christian-and-Muslim Arab neighborhood of the Tel...	Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani	Israel - Germany
2010	Periferic	Bogdan George Apetri	Romania

See also

• Thessaloniki Video Dance Festival
  Thessaloniki Video Dance Festival
  The VideoDance Festival started in 2000 in Athens and Thessaloniki as an international dance film festival, but soon it widened up to include more kinds of experiment on movement and the moving image....
  
  
• Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
  Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
  The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – Images of the 21st Century is a film festival specialising in documentary films which takes place every March in Thessaloniki and is affiliated with the International Thessaloniki Film Festival.-History:...
  
  
• List of film festivals

External links

• Thessaloniki International Film Festival - official website
• Photos - Thessaloniki International Film Festival Flickr Group's Pool