Adapting to the conditions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) has launched Festival 2.0. This initiative comes from a desire to make the days of self-isolation easier for cinephiles by providing them with screenings, discussions, masterclasses as well as new material directly relating to the situation we are experiencing today.

Species of Spaces

As part of the initiative TIFF has invited 11 Greek directors to shoot short films up to three minutes in length, from the safety of their homes. .

The guidelines given to the directors are that each short movie must be a comment on this new reality we are experiencing. The directors must use their homes as settings, along with the people or animals in them. The only areas that can be used outside of their homes are balconies, terraces, gardens or stairwells.

The project has been dubbed “Species of Spaces”, a title taken from the book of the same name by George Perec: a collection of different writings by the author dealing with the subject of spaces. The directors may use the book as a source of inspiration in their short films.

The participating directors are all Hellenic Film Academy award-nominees, in 4 different categories:

For best newcomer, Rinio Dragasaki with “Cosmic Candy”, Minos Nikolakakis with “Entwined”, and Stavros Pamballis with “Siege on Liperti Street”.

For best documentary feature, Stavros Psillakis with “For No Reasons Meetings with Yorgos Maniatis”, Marianna Economou with “When Tomatoes Met Wagner”, and Panagiotis Evangelidis with “Irving Park”.

For best director, Angelos Frantzis with “Eftychia”, Syllas Tzoumerkas with “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea”, and Alexandros Voulgaris with “Winona”.

For best movie, Zacharias Mavroeidis with “Defunct” and George Georgopoulos with “Not to be Unpleasant, But We Need to Have a Serious Talk”.

The short movies will be available soon on the TIFF’s YouTube channel.

Dim the Lights

The Thessaloniki International Film Festival has created a digital platform through its various online channels: its website and on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube to entertain and support their audience during these times of confinement. They are also preparing more online activities that will include online masterclasses and recreational solutions for children.

Starting Friday March 27, TIFF’s Festival 2.0 will also be screening on its Youtube channel short films by Greek directors that participated in the program Meet the Future of the 60th TIFF, that took place on November 2019. 

TIFF writes:

“The directors’ short films have been selected in the past five years to participate in the programs of the 13 most notable Film Festivals worldwide (Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastián, London, Rotterdam, New York, Tribeca, Toronto, Sundance, Busan) or they have been nominated for the Academy Awards. The directors have not yet completed their first feature film.

In the next few days, the Festival will present in its YouTube channel, short films by the directors. We want to thank all of them for answering the call to bring their work to the public, during the difficult days of the quarantine.

A selection from each director’s filmography will be available on youtube.com/user/filmfestivalgr for three days.

The online screenings start tomorrow, Friday, March 27, with the films “Calling” and “I am Mackenzie” by Artemis Anastasiadou -who has participated in SXSW and BFI London Film Festival among others.”