For the second year running, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival's Agora Docs had to alter its usual format and took place as a hybrid version that unspooled both in physical spaces in Thessaloniki and online, while it will still continue its initiatives and activities until the end of the festival (4 July).

In the Thessaloniki Pitching Forum, the co-production and co-financing platform of the TDF for creative and TV documentaries, as well as for new-media documentaries (using both virtual and enhanced reality), the international jury consisted of Selin Murat, documentary consultant at DAE (Documentary Association of Europe); producer Titus Kreyenberg (Una Film); and Madeleine Robert, head of industry at Visions du Réel. They picked Second Generation, directed and produced by Rodrigo Hernandez and Elpida Nikou (Muzungu Producciones), as the winner of the €2,000 Thessaloniki Pitching Forum Award, as they “fell in love with the two protagonists and believe the film has the potential to address racist tendencies and discrimination in contemporary Greek society”.

Greek director Eirini Vourloumis’s Secrets of the Owl, which is being produced by the director and Leonidas Liambeys (Long Run Productions), received the €2,000 ERT – Thessaloniki Pitching Forum Award, intended for a Greek project in the selection, as it “convinces with its strong visual language and its choice of protagonists. A cornucopia of stories in Athens and about Athens.”

The Mediterranean Film Institute (MFI) Award, which offers an MFI Script2Film Workshop DocLab scholarship of €2,000, as well as accommodation on the islands of Nisyros and Rhodes, where the MFI workshop takes place, was given to Depot-Vente by Cherine Karam, a Swedish-UK co-production by Ashley Smith, Clara Harris and Mario Adamson. The Beldocs Award went to Forbidden by Romanian director-producer Anelise Salan (The L Studio), for its “very intimate dialogue about a relationship that points to the unbearable discrimination targeting same-sex marriage”.

Kosovar filmmaker More Raça's Home Is Where the Films Are, produced by Sunaj Raça (N.SH. Arena) in co-production with Alfredo Federico, received the Aylon Productions Digital Services Award, which will offer the digitisation of the film, deemed to be “a very strong and personal story about a family torn by their experiences of war”.

Finally, the DAE Award, offering consultations and a free DAE membership, was granted to the Canadian-Jordanian project Concrete Land by Asmahan Bkerat, which is about a conflict between three generations in a Bedouin family, and to the French project Post Love by Alexis Taillant, where passionate seniors reclaim their sensual and sexual lives in the twilight of their existence.

In the Docs in Progress section, the jury comprised Devin Karambelas, buyer for WGBH/PBS; Christina Liapi, sales agent at Heretic Outreach; and Silvia De Felice, head of Art Night at Rai Cultura. They bestowed the Two Thirty Five Post-production Award upon Bottlemen [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Nemanja Vojinović
scheda film] by Nemanja Vojinović, produced by the director and Marija Stojnić (RT DOBRE NADE) in co-production with Viva Videnović (URGH!) and Set Sail Films. According to the jury, this was thanks to “its striking visual approach and ability to make a local story about a Balkan landfill feel globally relevant. It is both a sophisticated meditation on environmental change and technological disruption, and a compelling human story.”

Avaton, directed by Irini Karayannopoulou and co-directed by Sandrine Cheyrol, received the Music and Sound Services Award by MuSou Music Group, thanks to its “imaginative storytelling approach and the significant role that music and sound will play in immersing the viewer in the film’s world”. The movie is being produced by Mathilde Delaunay for French outfit Barberousse Films.

The Greek Film Centre Award, endowed with €3,000, went to Narrow Path to Happiness by Hungarian director Kata Oláh, for “the original way it manages to find moments of joy, humour and creativity between two people who face social exclusion in a time and place that are unwilling to acknowledge their right to love”.

The Neaniko Plano Subtitling Award was granted to Dream Factory by Iranian filmmaker Hesam Eslami, a co-production between his company, Aras Films, and France’s Caractères Productions, “for the quirky, yet recognisable, cast of characters stuck in an absurd situation”.

Finally, the tutors of the Agora Lab, consultant-producer Cecilie Bolvinkel (Rough Cut Service), producer Eleni Chandrinou and editor-director Gregoris Rentis (BYRD), along with tutor and programme coordinator Antigoni Papantoni (CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator), bestowed the Guidance Award, offered by Paradiddle Pictures (Denmark), to Station Athens by Yolanda Markopoulou for “its fresh visual approach to dealing with trauma and its inspirational stories of empowerment through art”.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Thessaloniki Pitching Forum awards

Thessaloniki Pitching Forum Award
Second Generation - Rodrigo Hernandez, Elpida Nikou (Spain/Greece)
Producers: Rodrigo Hernandez, Elpida Nikou (Muzungu Producciones)
Co-producers: Kellen Quinn (USA), Poh Si Teng (consulting producer, USA)

ERT – Thessaloniki Pitching Forum Award
Secrets of the Owl - Eirini Vourloumis (Greece)
Producers: Leonidas Liambeys (Long Run Productions), Eirini Vourloumis

MFI Doc Lab Script 2 Film Workshop Award
Depot-Vente - Cherine Karam (Sweden/UK)
Producers: Ashley Smith, Clara Harris, Mario Adamson (Sisyfos Film Production)

Beldocs Award
Forbidden - Anelise Salan (Romania)
Producer: Anelise Salan (The L Studio)

Aylon Productions Digital Award
Home Is Where the Films Are - More Raça (Kosovo/Italy)
Producer: Sunaj Raça (N.SH. Arena)
Co-producer: Alfredo Federico

DAE (Documentary Association of Europe) Award
Concrete Land - Asmahan Bkerat (Canada/Jordan)
Producer: Sahar Yousefi (Nava Projects)
Co-producer: Bassam Alasad (Tabi360)

Post Love - Alexis Taillant (France)
Producer: Nadège Labé (Wendigo Films)

Docs in Progress awards

Two Thirty Five Post-production Award
Bottlemen [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Nemanja Vojinović
scheda film] - Nemanja Vojinović (Serbia/Slovenia)
Producers: Marija Stojnić, Nemanja Vojinović (RT DOBRE NADE)
Co-producers: Viva Videnović (URGH!), Set Sail Films

Music and Sound Services Award by MuSou Music Group
Avaton - Irini Karayannopoulou, Sandrine Cheyrol (France)
Producer: Mathilde Delaunay (Barberousse Films)

Greek Film Centre Award
Narrow Path to Happiness - Kata Oláh (Hungary/USA)
Producer: Borbála Csukás (MAKABOR STUDIÓ Kft)
Co-producer: Marc Smolowitz (13th Gen)

Neaniko Plano Subtitling Award
Dream Factory - Hesam Eslami (Iran/France)
Producers: Etienne de Ricaud (Caractères Productions), Hesam Eslami (Aras Films)

Agora Lab Guidance Award
Station Athens - Yolanda Markopoulou (Greece)
Producers: Yolanda Markopoulou, Polyplanity Productions, Daphne Kalafati (SAVEFRAG)