Agora is the industry-facing side of the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (TIDF) taking place in Greece from March 8-16.
It is where some 300 industry delegates come to find new projects from south-eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region at the pitching forum for films in development and at the works in progress screenings.
“We are striving to bring diverse voices from the region,” explains head of industry Angeliki Vergou.
The aim is to combine auteur-driven films with documentaries aimed more at a mainstream TV audience.
“We are a festival,” says Vergou. “We support creative documentaries. But we acknowledge TV documentaries done in a creative way are also needed. We are trying to bring stories from the region that can have a career in festivals but also be supported by broadcasters.”
The emphasis at Agora is primarily on projects from emerging directors at the start of their careers. One strand, Meet The Future, spotlights filmmakers from a specific region which this year is Czechia.
Films pitched at Agora often screen a year or two later in the main programme of the festival. This year, Greek director Elina Psykou’s competition title Stray Bodies was in the pitching forum in 2020. It follows four women, seeking bodily autonomy in a Europe which permits traveling, working, and consuming freely, but not necessarily living, or dying how you wish. It is going on to screen in CPH: DOX.
There are several titles that have passed through Agora screening in the festival’s Newcomers competition. One is Tzeli Hadjidimitriou’s Lesvia, about Lesbos, birthplace of Sappho, showcased in Docs in Progress in 2022, which is going on to screen at BFI Flare in London.
Further films in the festival this year previously nurtured in Docs In Progress include Panellinion by Spyros Mantzavinos and Kostas Antarachas, about a chess cafe in Athens, and German-Jordanian director Rand Beiruty’s Tell Them About Us, about Arab, Kurdish and Roma teenage girls dealing with the challenges of puberty, produced by Shaghab Films.
Friendly and compact
Vergou explains Agora is deliberately kept compact in line with TIDF’s distinct place in a crowded calendar between the Berlinale and CPH;DOX. Organisers try to create a friendly and relatively relaxed atmosphere for the industry delegates.
“We have a medium -sized industry event that we as a festival are very eager to maintain at this size. It is easier to discuss and have dialogue and to network. It is not overwhelming,” Vergou explains “People who apply and visit Thessaloniki for business know exactly what they are going to get.
“The city of Thessaloniki’s traditional role is as a cultural melting pot, a crossroads between the east and west,” she continues. “We try in Thessaloniki to be open, to offer a safe space.”
Although the atmosphere at Agora is relaxed, serious business is being done. Pitching Forum has three new cash awards, including the IEFTA Award for best documentary in development prize worth €10,000.
“€10,000 can go a very long way for films in development especially from this region,” Vergou notes.
The other new prizes are the €1,000 Eurodoc award, and the Sunny Side of the Doc Prize which offers two industry passes as well as travel expenses to the French festival. These are in addition to the existing Agora awards, including the ERT Award of €2,000 for a Greek project and the Onassis Film Award of €5,000, also for a Greek project.
One change to this year’s edition is the replacement of the old ‘masterclass’ with a ‘talking heads’ event. This year, connecting with The Citizen Queer programme in the main festival, will be a discussion: Moving Beyond Trends and Box Ticking - On & Off the Screen.
Prominent buyers, sellers and broadcasters expected in town this week include Al Jazeera Balkans, Cat & Docs, CPH:DOX, Cannes Docs, International Documentary Association among others.
Alongside the pitches and projects, they also have access to 350 completed titles available through the digitised library, Agora Doc Market, which runs online via Cinando and is available to delegates from March 8 until April 30.
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