The TIFF and the Balkans

For the TIFF the Balkan region is particularly important. A large part of the program and the side events come from this area. The TIFF’s commercial activities are grouped under the umbrella of the Industry Center, that is, the Balkan Fund ― the script development fund ― Crossroads ― the co-production forum ― and Agora ― the film market. The central purpose of this group is to promote and help materialize Balkan ideas and productions.

And the Balkan region is particularly important to the TIFF for many reasons, not least of which are historical and geographical. It is our natural arena, the region where we began our international career. Moreover, the Balkans seem to be particularly attractive for film production at the moment.

Nevertheless, we wish to advance our relationship with the neighborhood even further. We wish to offer our neighbors what we offer to Greeks: an international festival that is the cultural crossroads of the Balkans, Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean; an international festival that offers its films the opportunity to claim their position in the international market; an international festival that is a bridge to the world’s film markets.

The Balkan Survey

For this reason, the TIFF has created the Balkan Survey section, launched in 1994, which stands out as a unique program, opening a window to the cinema of the Balkan region for audiences. It is particularly interesting that cinema experts from the international press visit the festival every year, precisely because here they can find ― among other things ― recent Balkan film production concentrated in one place.

This year, in our 47th edition, the tribute to Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan stands out in the Balkan Survey section, with the screening of his entire oeuvre – four feature-length films and one short ― and the organization of an exhibition of his photographic work. This is a director who has made an international impact with his particular style of production, something that was recognized at this year’s Cannes festival, where he received the FIPRESCI prize for his latest film, Climates.

Works in Progress

This year’s festival holds another Balkan premiere: In collaboration with the Balkan Survey and Agora, this year the program Works in Progress, concerning Balkan films, will make its debut. In this program excerpts from Balkan films in progress will be presented in a special screening zone for professionals, for the purpose of finding co-producers and their general promotion.

Concerning commercial activities, here again the Balkans have pride of place. To meet the needs of professionals and to offer Greek hospitality to the international film community, the TIFF has developed three initiatives that enrich the festival and contribute to its liveliness and atmosphere. All of them are located in the festival’s Industry Center.

Agora

The TIFF Agora, a trade platform for the film industry in Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, brings together industry leaders: buyers and sellers, decision makers, contenders and hopefuls from all over the world aiming to expand business and networking opportunities with neighboring territories and the international film community.

Crossroads

Crossroads is a co-production forum organized by the TIFF. Mediterranean and Balkan producers with a feature film script are offered the chance to meet a new network of financiers, co-producers and leading industry specialists. Crossroads takes place over three days during the closing weekend of the festival and had its first, highly successful outing at last year’s festival.

The Balkan Fund

The TIFF’s script development fund, the Balkan Fund, focuses on the Balkans and Southeastern Europe, specifically Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Greece, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. The festival, hosted in historically multicultural Thessaloniki, aims to support filmmakers from this region in their efforts to develop their projects as professionally as possible. Jasmila Zbanic’s Grbavica, winner of this year’s Berlinale Golden Bear, is a Balkan Fund project that won the Balkan Fund award when it was initiated three years ago.

The central purpose

In all these activities, it is clear that the central purpose is the creation of an independent market that centers on the Balkans and unites them within the wider context of Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. And when we say ‘market,’ we mean a practical and eclectic one. In the market, activities that spring from the meanings that the word agora has acquired through time in the Greek language and present-day Greece are initiated and assembled: the market as a place for the exchange of ideas and beliefs, a place for the presentation of new knowledge and teaching, and a place for the exchange and trade of products and services.

In this context, and strengthening its identity, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival imports film market tools and practices for the benefit of Balkan and Greek film professionals. Consequently, we bring the techniques and promotional tools of Europe to Greece and the Balkans, and the productions of Greece and the Balkans closer to European and international markets. At the same time, through this process we also open the door to the markets of North America (Canada and the US independent film production and festival circuit) as well as the markets of Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America which up to now have not been exploited.

In this celebration of cinema, in this center of production and creativity, we invite all Balkan creators to cross the bridge that the Thessaloniki International Film Festival has built, and come with us toward our meeting with the large, international film family.

By Despina Mouzaki
Despina Mouzaki is director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

Thessaloniki International Film Festival website: www.filmfestival.gr