18th Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival

The 18th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival was held between the 11th and 20th March 2016, in this Northern port city of Greece. The FIPRESCI Jury consisting of Melis Behlil (Turkey, President), Sasja Koetsier (Netherlands), Anna Bielak (Poland), Silvestar Mileta (Croatia), and Georgios Papadimitriou (Greece) evaluated 17 international films and 22 Greek productions, awarding What He Did (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Denmark) and Whispers of the Sky (Maro Anastopoulou) in each section, respectively. The festival does not have a main jury, but gives a number of special prizes.

The Audience Award for a film of over 45 minutes in the International selection went to Landfill Harmonic – A Symphony of the Human Spirit (Brad Allgood & Graham Townsley, USA, Paraguay, Norway, Brazil) and in the Greek selection to Argo Navis (Susanne Bausinger and Stelios Efstathopoulos). The Audience Award winners for a film of under 45 minutes were the Oscar-nominated Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah (Adam Benzine, UK, Canada) in the International selection, and Viktor Ullmann: Biography of a Recording (Ioannis Grigoropoulos and Michalis Aristidou) in the Greek selection.

The Amnesty International Award, for the best film dealing with human rights issues, was given to This Is Exile: Diaries of Child Refugees (Mani Y. Benchelah, Lebanon, Switzerland, UK). The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Jury awarded Racing Extinction (Louie Psihoyos, USA) as the best film in the Habitat section. The Human Values Award (bestowed by the Hellenic Parliament) went to Ludlow, Greek Americans in the Colorado Coal War (Leonidas Vardaros, Greece) in the Recordings of Memory section. (edited by Carmen Gray)

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival: www.filmfestival.gr