Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s industry programme, Agora, is launching two initiatives with the European Film Academy (EFA) and the Basque Audiovisual Office at its forthcoming edition from March 8-12.
EFA and Agora will be organising a think tank of leading European documentary professionals to shape the future of documentary representation within the Academy.
The closed-door session will aim to define the vision and priorities for the EFA’s Documentary Chapter, which is set to come into being in 2027.
The discussions among the think tank’s participants are expected to focus on identifying key opportunities for the Chapter’s first phase between 2027 and 2030, as well as establishing a manifesto outlining a reciprocal relationship between documentary practitioners and the Academy.
According to Agora’s organisers, the creation of EFA’s Documentary Chapter is seen as marking “a significant milestone in recognising documentary cinema’s vital contribution to European film culture and fostering stronger connections between documentary and fiction filmmaking communities across the continent.”
This will not be the only time this year that EFA has a presence in Thessaloniki, as the nominations in nine categories of the 2027 European Film Awards will be unveiled during Thessaloniki International Film Festival at the beginning of November.
The 39th European Film Awards ceremony will then be held in Athens on January 16, 2027.
Basque
A partnership between Agora and the Basque Audiovisual Office will also see documentary producers from the Basque Country become the first to benefit from a new collaborative initiative called Agora Cross-Border, which aims to promote closer working connections and the exchange of knowledge and experience within the international documentary sector.
Moreover, Agora’s programme will provide a platform for the presentation of key findings from a think tank hosted by DOK Leipzig last October as part of the Doc Together initiative. The two documentary festivals launched the initiative in Thessaloniki in March 2025 to highlight potential strategies and solutions for supporting filmmakers at risk.
Irish documentary photographer and filmmaker Seamus Murphy’s The Beautiful and the Damned is among 14 projects in development from 17 countries that have been selected for the Thessaloniki Pitching Forum. The Beautiful and the Damned will be produced by David Rane’s Soilsiu Film with France’s Faites un voeu and Germany’s Ma.ja.de,
Other projects in the Forum will include Yuriy Shylov’s Entr’Actes, a portrait of an amateur theatre group for the elderly, as a co-production by Kyiv-based Kshtalt Productions with Belgium’s Salto Productions; and Turkish filmmaker Mert Kaya’s You Little Box between Loudcat Films and Belgium’s Glasgow, about an independent radio station in Istanbul faced with airing its final broadcast after resisting government closure for 30 years.
Agora Docs in Progress, a showcase of 10 documentaries in post-production, will feature Jeanne Nouchi’s Anatolia, following a Turkish farmer’s quest for hidden Armenian treasure; Brian Logvinsky’s hybrid film Immortal Flowers, combining elements of fiction and documentary to tell the story of young people’s lives in Ukraine during the Russian war; and co-directors Daniel Kotter and Marko Grba Singh’’s Stratum, on charting the relations between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo.
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