Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival Announces Contenders In Two Major Competition Sections

EXCLUSIVE: The 28^th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece has announced films that will contend in two major competitive categories: The Newcomers and >>Film Forward Competition sections. Both competitions come with significant prize money.

The Newcomers Competition offers two prizes: the Golden Alexander “Dimitri Eipides” and the Silver Alexander Award. Fourteen films of over 50 minutes in length – created by young filmmakers – have been announced in that section (scroll for the titles and descriptions of films). The Golden Alexander “Dimitri Eipides” award is accompanied by a €10,000 cash prize. The Silver Alexander Award is accompanied by a €4,000 cash prize.

The >>Film Forward competition, meanwhile, hosts “movies that challenge conventions and utter a bold and daring cinematic language.” Ten films will compete in that section. Awards in this strand include the >>Film Forward Golden Alexander, featuring a 6,000-euro cash prize, and the >>Film Forward Silver Alexander, featuring a 3,000-euro cash prize.

The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival runs March 5–15 in the Greek port city.

These are the 14 films in the Newcomers Competition:

Danae works at a bar, but dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. She is one of the many young women in Athens struggling to make ends meet. She decides to become an egg donor. Why not? Sounds like it comes at no cost. But the procedure is not that simple.

A hundred years after the Treaty of Lausanne, the people of Imbros search for a new present, with the aftershocks of population movements still visible around them. Ruined villages, lives lost to time, customs and rituals braided into a singular cultural palimpsest, where memories and borders keep shifting. Yet coexistence is never easy.

Life is a constant movement between the depths of our personal universe and the surface of the world. We dive within ourselves, emerge into everyday life. We oscillate from introspection to extroversion, from our microcosm to the real world. This pendulum is the story of the artist Kleio Gizeli, a pendulum that reaches from the secret space of an apartment to the visible world of a school classroom, from a penthouse in Kypseli, Athens to the life of its streets, from miniature works to the social work of education. This pendulum is the story of the film, the pendulum of a woman but also of all of us.

Set in Norway’s legendary black metal scene, Hex follows three young women — Nikoline, Victoria, and Johanna — who form the band Witch Club Satan without knowing how to play a single instrument. Bound by a three-year pact, they commit to becoming witches and musicians, using black metal to unleash raw, female power. But as the band gains momentum, it also gains a will of its own, testing their unity, values, and vision of freedom. Haunted by the echoes of historical witch trials, the film asks: what does it mean to be a free woman today—and are we still condemning witches to silence?

In Norway’s northernmost reaches, where winter lingers for months beneath a veil of polar darkness and the sea governs every decision, lies Båtsfjord, a fishing village where cod assumes greater significance than God. This wryly playful observational portrait unfolds as an artful tapestry of meticulously composed vignettes, capturing the essence of a remote Arctic community. Its diverse, resourceful inhabitants, as unpredictable as the blizzards that sweep across the region, are bound by fish, nature, and a shared sense of belonging. The film invites viewers to experience the rhythm, drama, and intimacy of life at the edge of the world, revealing that in the coldest corners of the earth one finds the warmest people, brimming with wit, resilience, and generosity.

A group of psychologists in Moscow maintain an anonymous hotline providing psychological support following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. For the purposes of her second feature film, Russian filmmaker Lena Karbe returns to her homeland after 15 years in Germany and turns her focus to the often minimized, burdensome work of mental health professionals. How does Russian society perceive the invasion, and why does it not react? What is the impact of government propaganda on the masses? What happens when the patient holds completely different views from the therapist – for example, when they are in favor of war, or seek guidance on issues that are illegal in Russia, such as LGBTQI matters? What does “neutrality” mean, where should the boundaries be drawn, and how does each professional set them whilst striving to protect their professional integrity, personal safety, and psyche?

Michael Greenberg, an openly gay activist, leads the disruptive movement “Climate Defiance” and lets nothing get in the way! Armed with decisiveness, caustic humor, and fearless audacity, he revives the radical way of protesting: he sets aside negotiating or asking for a platform to be heard; instead, he barges in at conferences with oil company representatives, denouncing CEOs and Washington’s political elite for the catastrophic impact they have on the environment. As Michael states, “shame is powerful,” and only public outrage can make these individuals realize their accountability. Unyielding and unapologetic, with a deep, nearly spiritual commitment to his cause and the conviction that the world will be destroyed if we don’t act now, Michael, along with his team, manages to attract media attention and create a highly publicized movement. However, the situation becomes even more precarious following the re-election of US President Donald Trump, a turn of events that has Michael and his allies deeply concerned. Now, their mission is more dangerous and challenging than ever…

In a coastal town on the Gulf of Mexico lives the insubordinate Daniel, the owner of a small motel. We get to know him through his grandson’s eyes, who decides to use the very same VHS camera that Daniel once used to record him as a child. Through this role reversal, the camera documents Daniel’s daily life as a motel owner in a candid, effortless, yet humorous manner, gradually unveiling his larger-than-life personality and his somewhat tumultuous relationship with his wife, Lourdes. At the same time, when you least expect it, Daniel is transformed into the star of short cinematic vignettes, inspired by different genres of cinema, re-enacting peculiar incidents that may – or may not – have occurred over the years at the motel. A creative blend of reality and fiction, crafted to depict the notion of remembrance, in which the adult perspective – raw, unembellished – engages in constant dialogue with a more childlike, idealized one, as though it were a staged western. An original documentary with a strong B-movie influence that makes the viewer laugh, reminisce, and recall this one fact: it is through cinema and memory that we may, as the director claims, “cheat death, even if only a little.”

In September 2015, Isra’a, an 11-year old girl from Aleppo, Syria, was selling cigarettes in Turkey, trying to raise enough money to cross the Aegean in the hope of finding a better life in Europe. Over the years, however, the safe haven the family lighted upon in Germany became the scene of trauma and confusion.

In China, an increasing number of young women are choosing partners generated on demand by AI programs, either in response to the societal pressure of getting married or to avoid the disillusionment brought on by real-world relationships. Because in the digital world, expectations are rarely, if ever, met with disappointment, and partners -always emotionally available, mature, and composed – offer unconditional support and companionship through a screen. If Spike Jonze’s Her once seemed like science fiction, it’s now turning into something very real, as we struggle to navigate psychosocial trauma, as well as the world around us; both of which are veiled behind an incessant flow of data and the digital promises of fabricated perfection.

A unique and moving investigation into laboratory research on animals, exposing a hidden world in which it’s not just the animals getting hurt. Following the story of Dr Lisa Jones Engel, a primatologist turned animal welfare advocate, it asks ‘can we still justify harming animals and ourselves in science’s name?’

Lisbeth, a recently retired elderly woman, sets out to find the gun her father used in an unsuccessful suicide attempt in 1940 – a weapon that turned into a family legend. She boards a “therapy bus,” full of war-veterans’ children, travels through Finland where she meets an arms dealer, learns to shoot, seeks a witch’s guidance, all while moving toward the pistol – and her past. A beautifully bittersweet documentary, it is a personal journey in search of existential identity, roots, answers, genealogical symbols, as well as a commentary on the weight of History on the daily lives of ordinary people. Exquisitely shot, The Smuggler talks about a woman’s need to understand her father, retroactively heal his trauma and, through this paradoxical “therapy”, find her own role and place in the world.

In Italy in the 1960s, announcements about a state-of-the-art highway that would soon connect the economically struggling south with the advanced north were as pompous as the scale of the project. Except that it took over 60 years to realize, and its name (Tirrenica) became synonymous with the areas it would connect – from the outskirts of Naples to Salerno – for all the wrong reasons, while also exposing the structural pathologies of the Italian state like no other, effectively confirming the narrative of a “country of two speeds.” Through the striking comparison of yesterday’s expectations and the mundane reality of those who were born and raised in the shadow of a phantom project, Rosario Minervini performs a dissection of clinical precision of the delays that have weighed down Italy’s collective psyche over time.

For decades, NASA and equivalent services have been entirely focused on interstellar space in order to collect micrometeorites – these rare remnants of our solar system’s formation, believed to conceal invaluable secrets pertaining to the origin of life in the universe. Until Jon Larsen, a Norwegian musician and amateur researcher, thought to do the exact opposite, something astronomers considered futile: to look for them down here on Earth. Sámi filmmaker Elisabeth Rasmussen follows the impressive results of his research, which costs peanuts compared to the enormous budget poured into comparable space missions, with equal zeal and enthusiasm. Thus, an incredible quest for stardust unfolds before our very eyes, a transcendental adventure that has much to teach us about the importance of method, perseverance, and humility.

This is the lineup of 10 contenders in the >>Film Forward competition section:

An underground archive in the Arctic, museum artefacts awaiting their fate in a storage room in the Netherlands, hidden rock markings in a forest in Switzerland, and a neuroscience study on emotion, reveal a world paused, turning inward, waiting to be shaped by memory and nature; a liminal space between what’s lost and what’s yet to come.

Three days of an encounter between two persons in a Thessaloniki hotel, during a July heatwave. Sylvia and Yannis talk, joke, look at each other, are taken by surprise, fall in love, and learn to listen to the sounds of the surrounding world, weaving their own cocoon. Time counts backwards.

During a stay in Greece, my native country, I learned of a friend’s illness. Her doctors and family are hiding it from her and I have to keep it a secret as well. I start to remember, bewildered. Having grown up in a medical environment, I remember that I was part of this practice in the past and that it has affected loved ones. I decided to talk to my father, a doctor, and start an intimate investigation in my attempt to understand the reasoning behind medical lies…

What does freedom mean without inner peace? A Song Without Home follows Adelina, a young trans woman who, after 11 years of confinement in a Georgian village, flees to Vienna in search of freedom. As she builds a new life, a past that refuses to release her continues to shape her sense of belonging. Created over a decade under political pressure and personal risk, the film is effectively illegal in Georgia under anti-LGBTQ+ laws, forcing its makers to complete it abroad. Expanding on the award-nominated short Prisoner of Society (2018), the documentary blends immersive imagery with an intimate mother-daughter story to explore identity, resilience, and the complex meaning of liberation -standing as a powerful act of resistance against the erasure of queer lives.

Level is about landscapes. Landscapes that are irrevocably changing due to climate change. We have memories of landscapes that don’t exist anymore. We miss them. The different layers of the film are grounded by a universal narrative: the loss of a loved one leads to a period of introspection, but after a while there is more space for new things.

More than twenty years after her death, the ghost of a highly manipulative mother lingers on the minds of her five sons who are now well into their middle-age, haunting them. In Mommy’s Boys, it all begins in 2002 with the resentful farewell letter she left behind; a letter which concluded with the bloodcurdling threat “I’ll be back!” The need to understand her toxic nature and make peace with their jumble of emotions sparks an inventive docudrama, where the skeletons in the closet take center stage, the real-life protagonists intertwine with actors, and the atmosphere evokes Hitchcock’s Psycho, Vinterberg’s family reenactments, and von Trier’s expressive versatility. So, what if cinema cannot ultimately heal wounds? What matters is that it’s able to stir something essential within us.

Phosphene is an animal myth. It is an invitation to reflection, a juxtaposition of the comfort of the real with the discomfort of the imaginary. A liberation from realistic predicates, so that they may become poetic fictions. Its reality is that of the world of the mountains, of the humans and the other beings that inhabit them. It is composed of images revealing impactful events which, in themselves, are rigid blocks of courage for those who film and those who are filmed. It is a fable about the confrontation between man and the force of nature; the clash between the savage, the wild, and the civilized.

After carrying the silence of a teenage abortion for years, filmmaker Marta Duran Lozano gathers the anonymous testimonies of women who have lived through similar experiences. Alongside teenage girls who have recently had abortions, she embarks on a collective creative process, revisiting, embodying, and reimagining these intimate stories. The film traces an emotional landscape of fear, vulnerability, and quiet resilience, capturing the hidden struggles of young women navigating stigma, internalized guilt and inadequate institutional support. At a time when abortion rights are increasingly under threat, it emerges as a poignant act of solidarity, transforming loneliness into communion, shame into shared understanding, and secrecy into a space of fortitude and empathy.

On May 22, 1914, Herman Poole Blount arrived on Earth in Birmingham, Alabama. He would become known many years later as Sun Ra and would become one of the most extraordinary and prolific jazz musicians of his century, as well as the founder of a strange cosmic philosophy. “The Magic City” known as Birmingham was a segregated city in the industrial South. Hostile at first glance, it was there that Sun Ra laid the foundations of his mystical thinking and his music, seeing in his city an incredible world full of signs. He left it for Chicago at the age of 32 and did not return until 1992, shortly before his death. Portraying this artist as a young man as much as portraying a city, The Magic City tells the story of Sun Ra’s early years in this urban universe that was both political and magical, common and fantastic, disturbing and fascinating.

The flames lick up the wall as Trine, then 34 years old, watches in a mix of horror and a strange sense of calm. Eleven years later, she stands on the brink of a new beginning, but the journey has been marked by strange detours. The fire that sent her into the closed wards of forensic psychiatry still casts long shadows onto her life. Her parents, once her safe harbor, are now shaped by mistrust, and Trine wrestles with guilt and a nagging doubt about her own sanity. For three years, she has worked on a raw and unflinching performance—a piece meant to reveal her deepest truth—to her parents, the world, and, most importantly, herself. A remarkable journey toward freedom lies ahead.