Thessaloniki Doc Fest Competition Title ‘Demetra K’ Brings Sex Work Into the Light

Christopher Vourlias Three years after his musical drama “Leto” bowed on the Croisette, Kirill Serebrennikov returns to Cannes’ main competition with “Petrov’s Flu,” a deadpan, hallucinatory romp through a post-Soviet Russia in the grips of a mysterious flu epidemic. The acclaimed director spoke to Variety about living with fear and making the most out of solitude.How did you get involved with “Petrov’s Flu”? I was hired to write the script.

Christopher Vourlias Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun returns to the sun-scrubbed Sahel region of West Africa for his latest feature, “Lingui, the Sacred Bonds,” which competes for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.Set on the outskirts of the capital city of N’Djamena, “Lingui” is the story of a single mother, Amina (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane), whose already fragile world threatens to collapse when she learns that her daughter, Maria (Rihane Khalil Alio Brahim), is pregnant — a

Fans of Amy Winehouse will be afforded a new look at the singer.

Israeli writer/director Nadav Lapid has been on the international radar for quite some time, 2011’s “Policeman” made international waves, and 2014’s ‘The Kindergarten Teacher” was so well regarded, Hollywood, Netflix, and Maggie Gyllenhaal made a remake in 2018. But things started to really take off for Lapid after “Synonyms” won the Golden Bear award at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2019 and introduced most of the world to breakout star Tom Mercier.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKorean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s “In Front of Your Face” is assured of a release in the U.S. following a rights deal between sales agent Finecut and distributor the Cinema Guild.“In Front of Your Face” will have its world premiere in competition in Cannes and plays late on the second week of the festival.

While filming in Greece may conjure up images of beautiful sandy beaches and Cycladic landscapes with sparkling white buildings with blue domes, international producers are finding that there is so much more the territory has to offer. It combines sea, mountains, vast stretches of lands and archaeological sites.

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Christopher Vourlias During the first lockdown in the spring of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic began spreading throughout Greece, the director of an elderly care home in the suburbs of Athens and his staff decided to seal the home from the outside world, in order to prevent the possibility of infections amongst his vulnerable residents.When he heard the news, director Christos Barbas asked if he could join them.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLeading arthouse sales agency and producer The Match Factory has acquired “Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash,” which will receive its world premiere in competition at the 74th Locarno Film Festival in August. The film is directed by Edwin, one of Indonesia’s best known and most well-respected directors.The film centers on Ajo Kawir, a fighter who fears nothing, not even death.

Carole Horst In 2016 a fire nearly destroyed the only arthouse cinema on the East End of Long Island. Five years and $18 million dollars later, the iconic, century-old Sag Harbor Cinema is once again open for business.A former whaling village, Sag Harbor, NY, located between Southampton and East Hampton, was at one point a thriving working-class community full of artists like John Steinbeck.

Greece by Pablo Picasso will go back on display at the newly renovated National Gallery in Athens following its recovery more than nine years after it was stolen and the arrest of a 49-year-old construction worker as a suspect.Authorities said Tuesday that Picasso's “Woman's Head” and a work by the Dutch master Piet Mondrian, “Stammer Mill with Summer House,” were stolen in January 2012 from the National Gallery in Athens.They were recovered, wrapped in plastic sheets and hidden in a dry river

Rangers' title triumph last month. Thousands of Gers supporters descended on the city centre as the club won a first Premiership title in a decade.

Christopher Vourlias Personal demons, strict diets, incredible sacrifices, and almost unachievable ideals shape the daily life of bodybuilders. Months of intense preparation lead to a few moments on stage where a handful of judges will decide their fate.

Christopher Vourlias Amid the celebrations and retrospectives when the Thessaloniki Film Festival hosted its 60th edition in 2019, the organizers unveiled a new program, Meet the Future, designed to look ahead to the next generation of emerging film talents set to make waves in the host nation, the region, and beyond.For its first edition, Meet the Future showcased 15 promising young Greek directors who are developing their first feature films; a year later, the program trained its lens on

Christopher Vourlias In the summer of 2016, members of the Turkish armed forces attempted to stage a coup d’état against the government of strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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Christopher Vourlias In the remote hamlet of Giromeri, a small village in the mountainous Epirus region of northern Greece close to the Albanian border, the declining population numbers close to 50 permanent residents.

Christopher Vourlias One year after the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival was among the world’s first industry events to pivot to an online edition because of the coronavirus pandemic, planning for the 2021 follow-up “has been feverish, to say the least,” says festival director Orestis Andreadakis.But with open-air cinemas across Greece reopening this spring, and life in this sun-splashed Mediterranean nation—as it is elsewhere in Europe and some parts of the world—beginning to return to

Christopher Vourlias After a year of grounded flights, video conference calls, and countless other workarounds to help the global film industry through the coronavirus pandemic, the organizers of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival are ready to roll out the red carpet for the 23rd edition.With travel restrictions in Europe and across much of the globe easing in recent weeks, this year’s hybrid edition will include roughly 100 industry guests taking part in the activities of the Agora, the

Naman Ramachandran Altitude and Film4 have acquired writer/director Julia Ducournau’s Cannes Film Festival competition title “Titane” for U.K.