Universal Cinema Film & TV Journal’s Amir Ganjavie interviewed Orestis Andreadakis, Artistic director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival. Their conversation touches on documentary and feature films and COVID’s impact on the festival.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): Can you introduce yourself and tell me about your role in your organization?
Orestis Andreadakis (OA): I’m the Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, one of the biggest cultural institutions in Greece, with actions, events and activities of international outreach and appeal. Every year we organize two festivals; the Thessaloniki International Film Festival with fiction films every November, and the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival every March. Both festivals host four competition sections (among which also a VR competition section), parallel events, tributes, retrospectives, talks, as well as a Film Market.
Our Festival was founded in 1960, in Thessaloniki. We also run four cinema theaters in Thessaloniki all year long. There’s the Cinema Museum, as well as educational programs, masterclasses, workshops and more. Recently, we have added a third pillar, taking place in the island of Evia, the Evia Film Project, a festival focused on environmental issues and sustainability.
(UM): How do you try to differentiate or make yourself unique compared to other film festivals?
(OA): We’ve focused mainly on the region of Southeastern Europe and the East Mediterranean. Our market is specialized in this region, but during our two film festivals, it goes without saying that we screen movies from all around the world.
(UM): It might be a silly question, but do you have any definition of a good movie, a movie that when you are watching, you say, okay, it’s a good movie, I should have it in my own festival.
(OA): Yes, of course, but in our festival we don’t select the movies this way. The personal taste of the artistic director or the programmers is not that important. We try to discover movies from all around the world and place them within the current political, social and artistic context, in order to decide what is important to screen and what issues should our program’s films raise.
(UM): How is the relationship between you as a festival artistic director and the programmer? Who is making the final decision? Is it collaborative? Is it you who makes the final decision? Can you say a little bit about the process?
(OA): As I mentioned before, there is not a particular process or specific rules. We receive more than 3,000 movies every year for both festivals, we watch them, we talk about them and then we decide.
(UM): In terms of knowing about new works, how do you become familiar or know about new films? Is it mostly through the distributor? Is it by going to other festivals? How are you trying to get knowledge of new movies and new works?
(OA): We have a lot of ways. We are in contact with all the producers as we invite them to our festivals. We discover films through many pathways, such as sales agents, local distributors, international distributors, and of course the submissions we accept. It’s a combination of all the above.
(UM): Some festival organizers told me that right now they are receiving too many films. So, if they see that a film is being recommended by a distributor, they take it more seriously. They don’t have time to watch all the movies and some of the movies are student works, so not very high quality. How important is it that the film is being recommended to you by a distributor compared to a film that has no distributor attached?
(OA): It’s the same. Especially when it comes to documentaries, very often we see independent films that are very good. The documentary genre has changed a lot over the recent years. Documentaries deal with a lot of pivotal problems and critical issues in the world, such as wars, depression, financial problems, the constant flow of innovations, etc. Nowadays, you can even make a very good film with your cell phone. Sometimes, particularly in the documentary genre, we have screened, even in our competition sections, many quality films from the independent field.
(UM): For submission, do you have your own platform, or are using, for example, Film Freeway or other platforms to get submissions?
(OA): The Festival has its own submission website. One can find all the details on our website. The submission process is very easy.
(UM): Do you have any kind of quota in your festival?
(OA): We are a European festival, so we are supported by the European Union. We try to have a majority of European films. But still, we screen films from all around the world and we don’t have any particular quotas.
(UM): Some festivals have a special program for kids. I’m wondering if your festival offers any special events or programs for kids.
(OA): We offer a lot of educational programs, targeted to children and students, as part of the activities and events hosted by the Cinema Museum. Moreover, we run the Thessaloniki Cinémathèque, with tributes and retrospectives. We, also, host a series of events addressed to university students, in collaboration with the Film School of Greece.
(UM): How do you support the filmmakers invited to your festival? Do you have cash awards, or do you help filmmakers with rescreening?
(OA): Yes, of course. First of all, a lot of our prizes, both in the official program and in our industry section, are accompanied by cash awards. In the framework of our market, Agora, we invite filmmakers, producers, actors, as well as other film professionals, and we try to connect them with other film industry professionals and make them feel welcome. We facilitate them in their work, as they try to deal with their next subject, discover collaborators, secure funding, find co-producers etc.
(UM): In terms of COVID and its impact, did it change the structure of your festival in any way? Some festivals I know, for example Sundance right now has a big online portion. I’m just curious if COVID and the online experiment have changed in any way, fundamentally the structure of your festival?
(OA): In the beginning they did. Actually, our 2020 Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival was the first in the world to be hosted amidst the very outbreak of the pandemic. The Festival was supposed to start in March 2020, just as the pandemic broke out. Therefore, it became the first major film event in the world to be affected. However, we adapted to the situation right away by creating an online platform, and for nearly two years we worked a lot online. We hosted programs, masterclasses, market events, screenings for the audience. We kept our pace and we helped people to share films and art at home. We still have a lot of films online for the people that can’t come to the festival, or are still reluctant to travel. But our last festival, held in March 2023, reminded us of the last pre-pandemic festival in terms of attendance, filmmakers’ presence and physical screenings.
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