The Agora Market Awards TIFF 2011 

-TIFF PRESS RELEASE-

52nd TIFF: Agora Awards (11/12/2011)

AGORA AWARDS

The Agora/Market section of the 52nd edition of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival concluded on Friday, November 11 at Warehouse C, with the Works in Progress and Crossroads 7th Co-Production Forum awards ceremony. The ceremony took place in a festive atmosphere in the presence of TIFF director Dimitris Eipides.

Mr. Eipides warmly thanked all Agora participants. Taking the floor, the head of the Agora section Marie Pierre Macia expressed her thanks to the members of the jury, to her collaborators in the 52nd TIFF and to the participants of the Agora/Market, which is the industry section of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

Seventeen projects participate in the 7th Crossroads Co-Production Forum. The jury, consisting of Roberto Olla (executive director, Eurimages, France), Guillaume De Seille (producer, Arizona Films, France) and Giorgos Tsourogiannis (producer, Horsefly Production, Greece), selected for the Crossroads award the Virus project, which is directed by Agelos Frantzis and produced by Maria Tsiga of Argonauts SA, Greece. “We are grateful for your decision. A lot of hard work awaits us”, said the director in his acceptance speech. The Greek post-production company 2|35 Inc awarded the same project the co-production award (audiovisual); the Producer’s Network of the Cannes Festival presented the awarded producer with an accreditation allowing him to participate in the upcoming Producer’s Network in 2012, while the French consultancy company Initiative Film will be assisting the development of the project for six months.

For the first time, an award was presented by the French National Film Center (CNC), a public organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the cinema industry in France and abroad. This award, which is accompanied by a monetary sum of 7,000 euros, was given to the project The couch, directed by Duccio Chiarini and produced by Fabrizio Mosca (Acaba Produzioni, Italy). The award was presented by the Consul General of France in Thessaloniki, Christian Thimonier, and the director of the Thessaloniki French Institute Élise Jalladeau, who is also the head of the audiovisual department of the French Embassy in Greece. The couch was also selected by Sofia Festival’s Sofia Meetings section to be presented at the festival’s next edition in March 2012. In his acceptance speech, the director warmly thanked the jury and the Thessaloniki Film Festival for supporting his work.

The Hole in the Wall project, directed by Hadar Morag and produced by Elie Meirovotz, EZ FILMS (Israel / France) won the script development scholarship, awarded by the European Workshop MFI Script 2 Film Workshops, organized by the Mediterranean Film Institute (MFI).

Ten films in their final stage of development participated in this year’s Works in Progress section of Agora. The jury, consisting of Nikolaj Nikitin (representing the Berlin Festival and the Palic European Film Festival Germany/Serbia), Olimpia Pont Chafer (Sales Agent – Co-production Office, France/Germany) and Zinos Panagiotidis (Distributor – Rosebud, Greece), selected the film When I Saw You, directed by Annemarie Jacir and produced by Ossama Bawardi and Rami Yasin (Philistine Films – Jordan/ Palestine). The film had taken part in the Crossroads Co-Production Forum in 2008. For a second year running, the Graal and Kodak Cinelabs Greece companies sponsored the Works in Progress award, which includes the provision of services and material assistance to the winning film. The director said he was thankful for the opportunity presented to him by TIFF, noting that “the film was made with team spirit”. A special citation was presented to the film Beyond the Hill, directed by Emin Alper and produced by Enis Kostepen and Seyfi Teoman, Bulut Films, Turkey. Beyond the Hill had taken part in the Crossroads Co-Production Forum in 2010.

The Agora Section of the 52nd TIFF and the Crossroads – Co-Production Forum in particular, which supports the production of feature films connected to Central and Southeast Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, assisting producers to find partners and funding sources in order to complete their films, is part of the Thessaloniki – Crossroads of Civilizations initiative.

The Agora section is one of TIFF’s sections funded by the European Union, European Regional Development Fund in the framework for the Central Macedonia Regional Operational Program 2007-2013.

-TIFF PRESS RELEASE-

photo by Vanessa McMahon