Thessaloniki is a minor festival that knows where it is going, reports Samir Farid from Greece In its 50th round, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (13-22 November) stressed the connection between cinema and other arts by holding many cultural activity programmes. To mark the event's golden jubilee, the value of the feature film official competition prizes has been raised to Euro 40,000 and Euro 25,000 for the golden and silver prizes, respectively. The jury was headed by the celebrated Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos, who together with Michael Kakoyiannis and Jules Dassin forms the golden triangle of Greek film. The festival opened with Fatih Akin's Soul Kitchen, which featured in the Venice Film Festival's official competition and won the Special Jury Prize and Young Cinema Award. It closed with Alain Resnais's Les herbes folles, which featured in the Cannes Film Festival's official competition and won no prizes even though it deserved the Palme d'Or. The competition featured fare from the US, Germany, the UK, Begium, Romania, Hungary, Greece, South Korea, the Philippines, Israel -- with the Egyptian filmmaker Ahmad Abdalla's El-Sayed's Heliopolis representing the entire Arab world and Africa. Heliopolis was the first Egyptian film to be screened at Thessaloniki since 1999, when scriptwriter and director Atef Hatata's Closed Doors won the best screenplay and best actress awards (the latter went to Sawsan Badr) -- a particularly great achievement in the light of the presence at the head of the of the great Italian scriptwriter Tonino Guerra. Heliopolis is the third full-length feature to come out of the digital-camera independent film movement in Egypt, which has lasted over 10 years and produced, before Heliopolis, Ibrahim El-Battout's Ain Shams (the godfather of the genre) and Nadia Kamel's feature-length documentary Salata Baladi. Ain Shams won the Taormina Mediterranean Film Festival first prize last year. Heliopolis did not win at Thessaloniki, but it was very well-received; and my feeling is that it failed to glean a prize because of the technical quality of the cinematic version screened (whether it is due to this particular copy or to inadequate copying of the digital original onto film). Heliopolis is its director's first full-length film. El-Sayed studied music and worked for years as a film editor before coming to filmmaking. It is an elegy for liberal Egypt (1922-1952), employing modernist techniques. Both the director and the cast and crew are too young to have experienced this era first hand, but they have a profound nostalgia for it in the light of the predominance of Arab nationalist, then Muslim fundamentalist thought. It is a well-known fact that the Greek people are the closest to Egyptians in Europe; few Greeks have not either visited Egypt or boast a family member who used to be part of the Greek community in Egypt, which was the largest throughout the liberal era -- so much so that there are Greek-speaking Egyptian films. Thus the audience took in the film particularly smoothly on each of three screenings (the norm for official-competition films at Thessaloniki), something that was clear in post-screening discussions with the audience. Besides the official competition, programmes at Thessaloniki this year included numerous programmes organised around the fringe, Greek cinema, independent film, the Balkans, Post-Romance, and experimental filmmaking. Altogether the festival comprised 240 short and full-length films from all over the world, with a special emphasis on Greek, Balkan and European cinema -- reflecting an effective regional strategy for a smaller festival. The festival also honoured the Serbian filmmaker Goran Paskaljevic as well as the great German film artist Werner Herzog, screening his entire output of 52 films in new copies subtitled in collaboration with the Goethe Institute in Athens. International film festivals compete for world premieres and new discoveries, with the three major festivals, Berlin, Venice and Cannes, getting 75 percent of the premieres, and smaller festivals competing for the remaining 25 percent. Yet where premieres have not been forthcoming, proper film-festival strategy dictates that the largest number of previously screened excellent films possible should be made available to film lovers, film critics and audiences. This was the policy of Thessaloniki in its golden jubilee, which featured dozens of excellent films from the major festivals as well as structuring itself around Greece, the Balkans and Europe without severing the connection with the rest of the world. Concern with the connections between cinema and other arts, on the other hand, varies from festival to festival; but Thessaloniki certainly excelled at this aspect of festival organisation. It featured numerous fringe activities, with four lectures on production, one on music, one on screen writing, and two on the connection between video and cinema and the connection between fiction and documentary, respectively. The festival also featured five seminars, on independent film, cinema and the environment, the history of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, arts in Macedonia, and cinematic prizes. Thessaloniki International Film Festival Jury and Awards The jury of the International Competition Section of the 50th Thessaloniki Film Festival comprised of: Theo Angelopoulos, Director (Greece), President Lissy Bellaiche, Sales agent for the I/S Danish Film Producers (Denmark) Mirjana Karanovic, Actress (Serbia) Eugenio Caballero, Production designer (Mexico) Lav Diaz, Director (Philippines) Gyorgi Palfi, Director (Hungary) and Amos Poe, Director (USA) Best Feature Film Award - Golden Alexander AJAMI by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Producers Mosh Danon, Thanassis Karathanos, Screenwriters Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani, Israel/Germany, 2009 Special Jury Award - Silver Alexander MEDALIA DE ONOARE (MEDAL OF HONOR) by Calin Netzer, Producer Liviu Marghidan, Screenwriter Tudor Voican, Romania, 2009 Best Director Award to RIGOBERTO PEREZCANO for Norteado (Northless), Producer Edgar San Juan, Screenwriters Edgar San Juan, Rigoberto Perezcano, Mexico/Spain, 2009 Best Screenplay Award ex aequo to SCANDAR COPTI & YARON SHANI for Ajami by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Producers Mosh Danon, Thanassis Karathanos, Israel/Germany, 2009 AND to TUDOR VOICAN for Medalia de onoare (Medal Of Honor) by Calin Netzer, Producer Liviu Marghidan, Romania, 2009 Best Actress Award to RUTH NIRERE in Le jour oç Dieu est parti en voyage (The Day God Walked Away), by Philippe van Leeuw, Producers Patrick Quinet, Toussaint Tiendredeogo, Screenwriter Philippe van Leeuw, Belgium/France, 2009 Best Actor Award to VICTOR REBENGIUC in Medalia de onoare (Medal Of Honor) by Calin Netzer, Producer Liviu Marghidan, Screenwriter Tudor Voican, Romania, 2009 Artistic Achievement Award to SARAMEUL CHATSEUMNIDA (MISSING PERSON) by Lee Seo, Producers Lee Jae-Ho, Son Seon-ok, Screenwriter Lee Seo, South Korea, 2009 Special Mention to KATHARINA SCH�TTLER in Es kommt der Tag (The Day Will Come), by Susanne Schneider, Producers Sabine Holtgreve, Stefan Schubert, Ralph Schwingel, Philippe Avril, Screenwriter Susanne Schneider, Germany/France, 2009 Special Mention for its screenplay and subject to BAKAL BOYS (CHILDREN METAL DIVERS) by Ralston Jover, Producers Bessie Badilla, Albert Almendralejo, Screenwriters Henry Burgos, Ralston Jover, Philippines, 2009 FIPRESCI AWARDS The 50th International Thessaloniki Film Festival FIPRESCI (The International Federation of Film Critics) jury comprised of: Ronald Bergan, President (UK) Leo Soesanto (France) Bo Green Jensen (Denmark) Dimosthenis Xifilinos (Greece) MEDALIA DE ONOARE (MEDAL OF HONOR) by Calin Netzer, Producer Liviu Marghidan, Screenwriter Tudor Voican, Romania, 2009 and (for a film in the Greek Films 2009 section) O DIAHIRISTIS (THE BUILDING MANAGER) by Periklis Hoursoglou, Producer & Screenwriter Periklis Hoursoglou, Greece, 2009 HUMAN VALUES AWARD (Euro 15,000) The Hellenic Parliament TV Channel bestows the award to a film of the Independence Days ID-09 section: LEBANON by Samuel Maoz, Producers Uri Sabag, Einat Bikel, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, David Silber, Benjamina Mirnik, Ilann Girard, Screenwriter Samuel Maoz, Israel/France/Germany, 2009 FISCHER PUBLIC CHOICE AWARDS For a film in the International Competition section (Euro 4,000): AJAMI by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Producers Mosh Danon, Thanassis Karathanos, Screenwriters Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani, Israel/Germany, 2009 For a film in the Greek Films section (Euro 4,000): BILOBA by Sophia Papachristou, Producers Sophia Papachristou, Stavros Meleas, Screenwriter Sophia Papachristou, Greece, 2009 For a film in the Balkan Survey section (Euro 3,000): HONEYMOONS by Goran Paskaljevic, Producers Goran Paskaljevic, Ilir Butka, Nikola Djivanovic, Screenwriters Goran Paskaljevic, Genc Permeti, Serbia/Albania, 2009 For a film in the Greek Films DigitalWave section (Euro 3,000): TO TELEFTEO TRAGOUDI TOU ELVIS (ELVIS' LAST SONG) by Vassilis Raissis, Producer & Screenwriter Vassilis Raissis, Greece, 2009 THE GREEK UNION OF FILM TELEVISION AND AUDIOVISUAL TECHNICIANS (ETEKT) AWARD The ETEKT Technical Excellence award to a film in the International Competition section MEDALIA DE ONOARE (MEDAL OF HONOR) by Calin Netzer, Producer Liviu Marghidan, Screenwriter Tudor Voican, Romania, 2009 CINEMA AND THE CITY AWARD (Euro 10,000) The Municipality of Thessaloniki bestows the award to a film of the International Competition section, LA SANGRE Y LA LLUVIA (BLOOD AND RAIN) by Jorge Navas, Producers Jorge Navas, Julian Giraldo, Wilson Gómez, Carolina Barrera, Hugo Castro Fau, Screenwriters Jorge Navas, Carlos Henao, Alizé Le Maoult, Colombia/Argentina, 2009 DIGITALWAVE 2009 AWARDS Digital Alexander (Euro 15,000 EUROS) -- Award offered in collaboration with the Greek Film Centre TO TELEFTEO TRAGOUDI TOU ELVIS (ELVIS' LAST SONG) by Vassilis Raissis, Producer & Screenwriter Vassilis Raissis, Greece, 2009 2ND DIGITALWAVE AWARD (Euro 10,000) TO KOUTI (THE BOX) by Fotis Passos & Apostolis Passos, Producers Fotis Passos & Apostolis Passos, Screenwriter Fotis Passos, Greece, 2009 CROSSROADS - Co-production Forum AWARD (Euro 10,000) PASQUA written and directed by Ivan Marinovic and produced by Branislav Srdic, A Atalanta, Slovenia/Czech Republic/Montenegro Special mention to ODYSSEY OF A VAGABOND PRINCESS, written and directed by Altinai Petrovic Njegosh and produced by Janja Kralj, Shilo Films, France BALKAN FUND - Script Development AWARDS (three awards, Euro 10,000 each) MOTHER OF ASPHALT: writer/director Dalibor Matanic, producer Ankica Juric Tilic, Kinorama (Croatia) CNC AWARD. ROMANIAN SPRING: writer/director Anca Miruna Lazarescu, producer Verona Meier, Razor Films (Romania/Germany) ORANGE GARDENS: writer/director �zkan Kèçèk, producer Suncem Koçer, Mesopotamia Cinema Collective & Yapim 13 (Turkey)
