‘If These Stones Could Talk,’ ‘Mailin’ Take Top Prizes at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival’s Industry Awards

The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival is coming off a successful — and at times turbulent — 26th edition, wrapping “amidst an explosive ambiance with episodes of violence and intolerance.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente Macu Machín’s “La Hojarasca” (“The Undergrowth”) took home the top MiradaCanaria prize at the 17thMiradasDoc, which ran March 15-22 in Tenerife, Spain. Produced by El Viaje Films, Machin’s debut feature has been picking up accolades since its world premiere at Berlinale’s Forum, snagging Best Spanish Picture and director at the Malaga Film Festival’s Zonazine, a sidebar for edgier and sometimes smaller pics.

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said Manchester City centre-back John Stones had forgotten all about the upcoming clash between the two clubs after they linked-up on international duty last week.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe might face disappointment in the transfer market with rivals Manchester City tipped to beat them to their top summer target. Sir Jim has already discussed his key targets with senior figures at Old Trafford, ahead of an expected summer transfer splurge.

Naman Ramachandran Andrew Scott, David Tennant and Sophie Okonedo took home the acting prizes at the 33rd U.K. Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards. Scott won best actor for “Vanya,” a one-man Chekov adaptation which saw him play eight different characters in conversation with each other.

Lise Pedersen Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel has unveiled the program for its 55th edition, which includes 10 first films out of 15 in the main international competition, cementing its reputation as a springboard for emerging talent. The official selection includes 165 films from 50 countries, with gender parity for the second-year running, and no fewer than 88 world premieres, making VdR the place to be in April on the international non-fiction film calendar.

Iranian filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi’s My Stolen Planet won the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival today, automatically qualifying the film for Oscar consideration.

Christopher Vourlias Iranian filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi‘s “My Stolen Planet,” an intimate family portrait of life during Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, won the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival on Sunday, bringing a close to an emotional and politically charged week in Greece’s second city. Using both the director’s personal archives and 8mm recordings of strangers’ lives, the film — which world premiered in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand — uses an essayistic style to present the joy and vitality of life in Tehran in the 1970s, in contrast with the oppression imposed on the Iranian people by the country’s hardline regime.

Jack Dunn “Bottoms,” “Ru Paul’s Drag Race,” “Ted Lasso,” and Reneé Rapp took home top prizes at the GLAAD Media Awards, which this year celebrates the 35th anniversary of the annual award show. Awards were handed out Thursday night at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.

EXCLUSIVE: Thomas Cailley’s French box office hit The Animal Kingdom has continued its crowd-pleasing run to take the Audience Award prize at the 29th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York.

In one of the most compelling films to hold its world premiere at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, archive footage shows an apparently amiable man dressed in black sitting for an interview with a Yugoslav journalist. The year is approximately 1977.

Greece’s Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival is reacting with shock to an incident Saturday night in which two LGBTQ people were attacked by a huge crowd in a square outside one of the festival’s main screening venues.

Christopher Vourlias A shocking attack on a transgender couple in plain view of hundreds Saturday night has rattled filmmakers and guests at this year’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which has a spotlight on queer cinema as one of the focal points of its 26th edition. During the terrifying episode, which took place around 10:30 p.m.

The Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning film A New Kind of Wilderness has bowed at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece, marking its European premiere.

Saturn Return” (“Second Prize”), always a frontrunner, topped this week’s Malaga Festival winning its best picture, director (with co-director Pol Rodríguez) and editing (Javi Frutos) awards. The triple plaudit delivers further recognition for a feature which pulls off the double achievement of being formally radical and great fun at one and the same time.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 44th edition of genre film festival Fantasporto, which runs in Portugal’s second city Porto from March 1-10, has bestowed its best film award on Japanese sci-fi fantasy pic “From the End of the World,” directed by Kaz I Kiriya. The movie follows 10-year-old Hana, whose dreams transport her across various eras in Japanese history, and have the ability to save humanity. The jury’s special award went to “The Complex Forms,” Italian director Fabio D’Orta’s debut feature.

Alexei Navalny’s sacrifice for democracy is being recognized in the place where the concept of government by the people first flourished.

When dealing with an utterly preposterous premise, it’s best to dive straight into the outrageousness of it all and never let the audience have a second to question it. Writer/director Alice Lowe clearly understands the assignment with her clever new absurdist comedy, “Timestalker,” which doesn’t waste a second triggering its ridiculous but enjoyable idea.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “Los caminantes de la calle,” directed by Argentina’s Juan Martín Hsu, Chilean Ignacio Pávez’s docu-fiction drama “An Amputee” and Uruguayan Lorenzo Tocco’s “For God’s Sake” proved the biggest winners at the Malaga Festival’s MAFIZ industry area awards, announced at a ceremony on Friday night. Covering Malaga’s Work in Progress showcase, its Málaga Festival Fund Co-Production forum (MAFF) and the Spanish Screenings Content – Málaga Short Corner, prizes were divvied up among a slew of titles, with ‘Sometimes,’ by Sara Fantova and Enrique Buleo’s ‘Still Life With Ghosts,’ both scoring multiple awards. From his first feature, 2015’s “La Salada,” a patchwork narrative tale of immigrants’ lives, dreams and suffering in Argentina, to 2021’s “La Luna Reprenta Mi Corazon,” a docu feature record of the rencounter with his mother in Taiwan, Hsu has carved out a niche depicting the immigrant experience in Argentina.

Christopher Vourlias Paris-based sales outfit Cat&Docs has acquired “Unclickable,” Greek director Babis Makridis’ investigation into the murky world of digital ad fraud, ahead of its world premiere March 10 at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer (see below).