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FESTIVALS Thessaloniki

Greeks prevail at thriving Thessaloniki market

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- In line with the festival’s celebration of 100 years of Greek cinema, the Agora’s Crossroads section shines a bright spotlight on local production

Greeks prevail at thriving Thessaloniki market
Veteran filmmaker Dimitris Koutsiabasakos

Strengthening the local presence in its Crossroads section, where film professionals from around the world have a chance to meet and discuss with participating talent looking for funds and partnerships, the Agora is falling in line with the Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s umbrella of events and programmes celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Greek cinema.

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Six out of the 13 projects compiled by the Agora team (headed by Marie-Pierre Macia, of MPM film) will fly the local colours, a charge headed by veterans Dimitris Koutsiabasakos and George Panoussopoulos. Panoussopoulos, whose sophomore feature, A Foolish Love, has become a much-loved local classic, is looking to set up his eighth feature with the politically charged black comedy There, Where No One Knew How to Cry (with an €800,000 budget), produced by regular Panos H Koutras collaborator Eleni Kossyfidou (Xenia [+see also:
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interview: Panos H. Koutras
film profile
]
, The Enemy Within [+see also:
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trailer
film profile
]
, A Woman’s Way [+see also:
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film profile
]
), via her Blackbird Production

Multi-awarded documentarian Koutsiabasakos is looking to partner with a co-producer from a German-speaking market for his second fiction feature, Kila (€555,000 budget), a social-psychological drama with a nod to the Dardenne brothers, which will be his ninth film credit. Effie Skrobola will be producing for View Master Films. Also a doc veteran, Nikos Kritikos will be looking into racism’s allure to teenagers in Greenhouse (€740,000 budget), a film produced by Photini Economopoulou and Casso Patrouba for doc-centred production company Oh My Dog.

On the newcomers front, Sonia Liza Kenterman will be benefitting from producer Fenia Cossovitsa’s (JACE [+see also:
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]
, Standing Aside, Watching [+see also:
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]
) guidance on her debut, the Athens-crisis drama Tailor (€700,000 budget); well-travelled shorts director Aristotelis Maragkos will be crossing over to features with his story of fearful dreamers in Arc (€850,000), produced by Vasilis Chrysanthopoulos (Miss Violence [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Alexandros Avranas
film profile
]
) for his Plays2Place; while sound engineer and cinematographer Dimitris Kanellopoulos will be looking to fund the western-themed Pack of Sheep (€575,000), his debut feature after five shorts, produced by Berlinale and Toronto contender Elina Psykou along with Graal Films’ co-director, Konstantina Stavrianou

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