# Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF; Greek: Φεστιβάλ Ντοκιμαντέρ Θεσσαλονίκης, romanized: Festivál Ntokimantér Thessaloníkis) is an international documentary festival held every March in Thessaloniki, Greece. TDF, founded in 1999, features competition sections and ranks among the world's leading documentary festivals. Since 2018, TDF is one of the 28 festivals included in the American Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List. TDF is organized by the Thessaloniki Film Festival cultural institution, which further organizes the annual Thessaloniki International Film Festival, held every November. French producer Elise Jalladeu is TDF's general director; film critic Orestes Andreadakis serves as its director.

## Overview

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival focuses on independent documentary film and emerging documentarists from around the world. TDF is one of the leading documentary festivals globally, with an audience measuring up to 85.000 yearly.
TDF is held at the historical “Olympion” theater at the central Thessaloniki Aristotelous Square, at four theaters housed at two restored warehouses at the Thessaloniki Port, and at cinemas across Thessaloniki. The festival hub is Warehouse C, located at the city port.

## History

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival was founded in 1999, an initiative of Dimitri Eipides, who served as TDF's director until 2016.
TDF's initial edition was organized with the contribution of an honorary international committee, consisting of prominent film auteurs as Chantal Ackerman, Judith Elek, Marceline Loridan-Ivens, Johan van der Keuken, Robert Kramer, Alexandr Sokurov, Frederick Wiseman, D.A. Pennebaker and others.
Since its 19th edition in 2017, TDF features competition sections, while from 2018 on, TDF hosts a Virtual Reality films competition section.
In 2018 TDF became one of the 28 festivals included in the American Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List; the film that wins TDF's “Golden Alexander” award for the Best Documentary in the International Competition section is automatically eligible to submit for Oscar consideration (Documentary Feature category).
In 2020, TDF's 22nd edition was held online from May 19 to May 28, for the first time in the festival's history, due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
The 25th edition was held in March 2023. In mourning of the Tempi train crash, all ceremonies and festive events were cancelled.
The 26th edition took place from 7 to 17 March 2024. It presented 36 films across three competition sections, with 35 of them having their world, international or European premieres.
The 27th edition will take place from 6 to 16 March 2025. It will present 30 films across three competition sections, with all of them having their world, international or European premieres.

## Notable guests and tributes

Leading documentarists that have attended TDF include Barbara Kopple, Kim Longinotto, Pirjo Honkasalo, Louie Psichoyos, Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky, Jennifer Fox, Claire Simon, Helena Třeštíková, Albert & David Maysles, Heddy Honigmann, Talal Derki and others.
Each year, TDF presents tributes and retrospectives to acclaimed auteurs and documentary movements. TDF has so far held the following tributes:
22nd TDF – 2020
Animated documentaries
Anthropocene
Memes
21st TDF – 2019
Wang Bing
Gustav Deutsch
Spotlight: Eduardo Williams
Carte Blanche: Louie Psichoyos
Why Look at Animals?
20th TDF – 2018
Agnès Varda
Verena Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor
’68 beyond ‘68
Carte Blanche: Sara Driver
19th TDF – 2017
Vitaly Mansky
John Berger
Angela Ricci Lucchi & Yervant Gianikian
Short Doc Experiments Oberhausen
Carte Blanche: Dimitri Eipides
18th TDF – 2016
Jong Bang Carlsen
Mark Cousins
17th TDF – 2015
Hubert Sauper
Alexandru Solomon
16th TDF – 2014
Peter Wintonick
Nicolas Philibert
15th TDF – 2013
Patricio Guzman
15 Years TDF: A Fascinating Journey
14th TDF – 2012
Eyal Sivan
Angelos Abazoglou
Spotlight: with Remarkable People
Docville
Danish Docs
Balkan focus
13th TDF – 2011
Sergei Loznitsa
Helena Třeštíková
Kyriaki Malama
Spotlight: Middle East
African Stories
12th TDF – 2010
Joris Ivens
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Andrzej Fidyk
Spotlight: Polish docs, Docs on North Korea, Aegean stories
Hybrid Docs
African Stories
11th TDF – 2009
Peter Wintonick
Stefan Schwietert
Fotos Lambrinos
Spotlight: Mexican docs, Austrian docs
Hybrid Docs
Theme: Africa from Within
10th TDF – 2008
Focus on Asia
Theme: Faces of Fascism
Canadian docs
Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky
Arto Halonen
War Zone
9th TDF – 2007
Focus on Asia
Theme: troubled innocence
Games we play
Barbara Kopple
Jon Alpert
Julia Reichert & Steven Bognar
World Musicians
Dutch Docs
8th TDF – 2006
Current Issues: globalization
Theme: Africa, unresolved issues
The politics of violence – part 2
Kim Longinotto
Exandas – Documentaries of the world
Nordic Docs
7th TDF – 2005
Theme: Immigration – Refugees
Spotlight: Pirjo Honkasalo
Auschwitz – The nightmare, 60 Years On
Focus: The Human RIghts Watch
Ethnographic Cinema: Dedicated to Jean Rouch
Pierre Perrault
Olympic Games: Greek docs
6th TDF – 2004
Current Issues: Terrorism – The Politics of Violence
Cinema Lessons: Decoding our World – Theo Angelopoulos, Abbas Kiarostami
Stefan Jarl
Spotlight: Heddy Honigmann
5th TDF – 2003
Contemporary Issues: Palestine
Spotlight: Margaret Smilow, Nicolas Philibert, Michael Moore, Apostolos Kryonas, Mary Hadjimichali-Papaliou, Yannis Smaragdis
4th TDF – 2002
Focus on: Children of a Harsh Reality
Bruce Weber
Monika Treut
Werner Herzog
3rd TDF – 2001
Albert & David Maysles
Docs from Iran
Lefteris Xanthopoulos
Yugoslavia in Focus: Anatomy of Horror
2nd TDF – 2000
Gypsies: Lives without Borders
D.A. Pennebaker: Rock’ n’ Roll Concerts
Backstage and literature
Tassos Psarras
1st TDF – 1999
Dimitris Mavrikios

## Festival sections

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival comprises the following sections:
* Feature Length International Competition, screening films over 70 minutes in length that compete for the “Golden Alexander” Award and the Special Jury Award.
* “Newcomers” International Competition, screening the first or second film by emerging documentarists from around the world.
* “Film Forward” International Competition, screening innovative and experimental documentaries.
* Virtual Reality (VR) International Competition.
* Top Docs, screening films by major auteurs or films that have successfully toured the festival circuit.
* Open Horizons, TDF's section hosting the best of independent documentary film from around the world.
* Platform, showcasing the year's Greek documentary production.
* From Screen to Screen, screening Greek documentaries previously broadcast on TV.
* Docs for Kids, TDF's section dedicated to children and younger audiences.
TDF's program further includes sidebar events such as lectures, masterclasses, concerts, exhibitions and workshops.

## Agora Doc Market

The Agora Doc Market was launched in 1999, along with the first Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The actions of the Agora Doc Market match the needs of film directors from Central and Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
The Agora Doc Market is the developmental arm of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which aims to bring together an international network of professionals, serving as an ideal place for meetings, discussions and professional deals, in a welcoming and professional ambience.
The Agora Doc Market includes the following clusters:
Agora Doc Market
The Agora Doc Market online Video Library (via Cinando) promotes the majority of films participating in TDF's program, but also a large number of European documentaries without a sales agent. The films remain online one and a half month after the end of the festival.
Docs in Progress
Agora DiP gives the chance to selected sales agents, distributors and festival programmers from all over the world to be the first to discover feature films from the Mediterranean and the Balkan countries that are currently one step away from their completion.
Thessaloniki Pitching Forum
The newly established Pitching Forum is a co-financing and co-production platform dedicated to projects from Southeastern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean countries and the Middle East. It consists of a two-day workshop, an all-day Pitching Forum and two-day round table meetings.
The Agora Doc Market further hosts masterclasses, the Agora Lab, Doc Counseling, as well as the Meet the Future initiative, supporting emerging documentary filmmakers from the Balkans and Southeastern Europe.

## Awards

TDF hands the following awards:
* Feature Length International Competition:“Golden Alexander” Award, accompanied by a 15.000 euros cash prize, and the Special Jury Award, accompanied by a 5.000 euros cash prize.
* “Newcomers” International Competition: “Golden Alexander” Award, accompanied by an 8.000 euros cash prize, and the Special Jury Award, accompanied by a 3.000 euros cash prize.
* “Film Forward” International Competition: “Golden Alexander” Award, accompanied by a 3.000 euros cash prize.
* Virtual Reality (VR) International Competition: Best VR Film Award, accompanied by a 3.000 euros cash prize.
* “Mermaid Award” for the best LGBTQI-themed documentary.
Independent juries hand parallel awards, including two FIPRESCI awards (one for the Best Documentary competing at the Feature Length International Competition, and one for the Best Greek Documentary screened in TDF's official program), the “Human Values Award” granted by the Hellenic Parliament, the Amnesty International award, the Youth Jury Awards by the students of the Thessaloniki Universities, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation awards, the WIFT GR Award to a woman filmmaker of a film selected for TDF's official program and the Greek Association of Film Critics award.
Four Audience Awards, sponsored by Fischer beer, are presented to two Greek documentaries (under and over 50 minutes in length) and two international documentaries (under and over 50 minutes in length).

## Award-winning films

The “Golden Alexander” award for the Best Documentary in the Feature Length International Competition section has been awarded to the following films:
2024 My Stolen Planet by Farahnaz Sharifi
2023 Under the Sky of Damascus, Talal Derki, Heba Khaled, Ali Wajeeh (Denmark, Germany, USA)
2022 A House Made of Splinters, Simon Lereng Wilmont (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ukraine)
2020 Welcome to Chechnya, David France (USA)
2019 Advocate, Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche (Israel, Canada, Switzerland)
2018 The Distant Barking of Dogs, Simon Lereng Wilmont (Denmark, Finland, Sweden)
2017 Dream Empire, David Borenstein (Denmark)