06/02/2014 - The audience award will be named after the late Canadian, while the French documentarian will attend an eclectic retrospective

By releasing its first piece of scheduling news, the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival has begun the countdown to its 16^th edition, which will be held on March 14-23.

The festival will be commemorating the sudden loss of documentary savant, prolific producer and new-media guru Peter Wintonick, by setting up a tribute to his work and inaugurating the Peter Wintonick Audience Award, which is to be presented to the best foreign feature documentary.

“Peter Wintonick was a close friend, collaborator and supporter of the TDF from its very start,” notes a statement released by the festival. It goes on to add, “He has always been passionate in his participation in the various facets of the festival, whether they were panels, workshops, the Just Talking conversations or the Presidency of the FIPRESCI jury.”

An original bilingual monograph on his work will also be published by the festival, while the tribute screenings will include Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment and pilgrIMAGE, which Wintonick co-directed with his daughter.

Award-winning documentarian Nicolas Philibert will also be honoured by the festival, which will be presenting a selection of the French director’s finest moments. His multi-faceted work will be represented by nine films, including his highly awarded documentary To Be and to Have, his recent look at Radio France’s employees and guests in La Maison de la Radio [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and what is perhaps his most personal work, Back to Normandy [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The director will be on hand to present his work and attend Q&A sessions.