Joshua Oppenheimer is tired. The two-time Academy Award nominee isn’t simply spent at the tail end of an exhausting week for the American body politic. Nor has he tossed and turned his way through countless sleepless nights, doomscrolling through the nightmare scenarios of what a second Trump administration could mean for Americans’ civil rights, the […]

Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti’s Israel-set family drama “Happy Holidays” won the top prize Sunday at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, taking home the Golden Alexander for best feature film. Copti’s sophomore feature, his first film since his Oscar-nominated 2009 debut “Ajami,” premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar, winning the best screenplay prize. Variety’s Siddhant […]

Greek officials sought to reassure local and foreign producers this week at the Thessaloniki Film Festival that the country’s 40% cash rebate is still on track, after the announcement last month that the Mediterranean nation was delaying plans to reopen its popular incentive scheme. That decision came after Greece pressed pause on its cash-back program […]

A mystical cave, a nettle pie and an unexpected betrayal spur a romantic adventure between two childhood friends in “Bearcave,” the feature-length debut of co-writers and -directors Stergios Dinopoulos and Krysianna Papadakis. Starring newcomers Xara Kyriazi and Pamela Oikonomaki, the film, which is currently in post-production, won the top prize this week in the Works […]

Greek filmmaker Stergios Dinopoulos’ queer romantic adventure “Bearcave” and Turkish director Ahu Ozturk’s drama “The Hunchback” took the top prizes at the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry award ceremony Wednesday night. Dinopoulos’ feature debut, based on a 2023 short film of the same name, won the Authorwave Post-Production Award, the top prize in the Agora’s Works […]

Alex Berger of “The Bureau” producer TOP (The Oligarchs Productions), prolific Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan (“Aníkúlápó”) and Sydney Gallonde of Paris-based outfit Make it Happens Studios are among the headliners of the Salon International du Contenu Audiovisuel d’Abidjan (SICA), a three-day industry event that takes place Nov. 5 – 7 in Ivory Coast. Now in […]

Despite blue skies over Greece’s second city ahead of the opening ceremony, the 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival kicks off Oct. 31 under clouds of uncertainty, with the war in Ukraine raging toward its three-year anniversary and the year-old Israel-Hamas conflict spilling into neighboring countries and threatening to engulf the entire Middle East. The U.S., meanwhile, […]

As the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry arm, Agora, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, organizers are looking to maintain the right balance for an event that continues to grow in stature while retaining its carefully curated, almost intimate feel. To that end, industry head Angeliki Vergou — an Agora veteran who assumed her current post […]