For 20 years, Thessaloniki International Airport has had a strong commitment to serving filmmakers from the host country and the wider region. Agora, the industry arm of the documentary festival, operates in parallel with the 28th edition of the festival and has remained true to its core principles of providing a platform for both emerging and established talent, as well as a welcoming space for voices to be heard.
“We aim to be an inclusive marketplace where everyone feels safe pitching their projects and getting the best possible feedback to advance their films and build the best connections possible,” industry chief Angeliki Vergoux told Variety on the eve of this year’s event.
“We are a medium-sized industry event with a particular focus on the wider region,” she continues. “While this makes it difficult to attract the best players in the industry, it is also attractive for the projects that participate, as the experts who participate will dedicate quality time to the connections that are made.”
Thessaloniki is a historic meeting place at the crossroads of East and West, and has been a gathering place for people and cultures for centuries. Featuring a variety of panel discussions, pitch sessions, masterclasses and other industry events, Agora provides an engaging framework for analyzing the most pressing challenges facing the documentary industry, with a wide-ranging program set against the backdrop of this beautiful seaside city from March 8th to 12th.
As evidenced by some of the highlights of this year’s event, the agenda reflects Vergou’s concerns about “the current state of documentary filmmaking as a whole and the challenges of financing and broadcasting,” she says. This includes the launch, in partnership with the European Film Academy (EFA), of a think tank bringing together Europe’s leading documentary experts focused on the future of documentary representation within the EFA. The announcement coincides with plans to introduce a documentary category at the Academy next year, and Athens will also host the European Film Academy Awards, an event organized by the Greek Audiovisual Center for Cinema – Creative Greece (EKKOMED).
“This privately held think tank brings together a select group of European documentary experts to form the vision, priorities and initial framework for the establishment of the branch, marking an important milestone in recognizing the important contribution of documentary film to European film culture,” says Vergoux. Its aim is to foster “stronger connections between documentary and fiction filmmaking communities across the continent.”
Meanwhile, Agora will present the findings of Doc Together, an initiative launched in partnership with DOK Leipzig at last year’s Thessaloniki Festival to “establish long-term cross-sector collaborations that provide sustained support to filmmakers affected by censorship, evictions and crisis,” Vergoux said. It will be supplemented by talks from international conferences. Dominic Wilsdon, Executive Director of the Documentary Society, highlighted the Society’s new emergency support program for at-risk filmmakers.
Angeliki Vergou, industry leader in Thessaloniki
Provided by Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Another new ripple this year is the launch of Agora Cross-Border, an initiative to foster greater cooperation between Greece and its international partners. The first edition will be held in partnership with the Basque Audiovisual Authority to introduce the region to industry players in Thessaloniki and “introduce the Basque Country and its charm,” says Vergoux.
Meanwhile, the annual highlight of Agora is the presentation of upcoming works at Thessaloniki Pitching Forum and Documents in Progress. This includes projects in south-eastern Europe, as well as the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. In planning this year’s selection, Vergoux said, organizers “aimed to strike a balance between marketable documentaries and character-driven stories…prioritizing works that feel urgent and reflect common lived experiences.”
This year’s Pitching Forum will feature 14 documentary projects in development from 17 countries. Highlights include “Ash,” the directorial debut of Syrian journalist and filmmaker Daham Alassad, from the producers of the Academy Award-winning “No Other Land.” “The Beautiful and the Damned” is the latest film from “A Dog Called Money” filmmaker Seamus Murphy. “My Father Killed Bourguiba” is from Tunisian director Fatma Riahi and producer of the Academy Award-nominated film “The Voice of Hind Rajab.”
Featuring 10 documentaries in post-production, Docs in Progress includes highlights such as Flowers of Immortality (pictured) by Tabor Productions, the Ukrainian collective behind Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection Militantropos, and Jordanian director Rahma Ayasullah’s Landoise, which won at Thessaloniki Pitching Forum 2022. Recent Agora alumni include Greek filmmaker Elina. “Stray Bodies” directed by Saikou premiered in Thessaloniki and CPH:DOX in 2024, and “Blueberry Dreams” directed by Georgian director Elene Mikabelidze, which premiered in Copenhagen in the same year.
With this year’s event unfolding amid ongoing industry uncertainty and widespread economic and geopolitical upheaval, Vergoux says, “It is true that we are united in difficult times.” “And even though the situation seems to get worse every year, we continue to have the same resilience and hope for a brighter future every year.
“At Agora, we want to provide a space where we can come together to record, preserve, share, and support each other. Every project proposed, every partnership forged, every conversation an investment in a future where authentic human experiences endure,” she continues. “Knowledge grows through sharing. If we don’t talk about our challenges, strategies, failures and successes, we won’t be able to gather the collective wisdom we need to navigate this changing landscape.”
Thessaloniki International Airport Documentary Festival will be held from March 5th to 15th.
