Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Director Orestis Andreadakis on Cinema in a Time of Global Crisis

Billie Eilish, Radiohead and The Weeknd will all participate in a social media rally next weekend in a bid to urge governments and institutions to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and beyond.The ‘Stand Up For Ukraine’ rally has been organised by Global Citizen and is due to take place on April 8.It comes ahead of a pledging summit organised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen which will be held the following day (April 9).As Global Citizen outlined in a recent article, the upcoming event “aims to mobilise significant funding to help vulnerable civilians impacted by the conflict and to support refugees everywhere”.Funds will also be directed to aiding those in other conflict zones, including Yemen, South Sudan and Afghanistan.“On April 8, the biggest online event Social Media Rally will support people who were forced to flee Ukraine,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement.“I’m inviting everybody: musicians, actors, athletes, businessmen, politicians, everybody.

BBC Greenlights Drama On Football Sexual Abuse Scandal; Nick Rowland & Matt Greenhalgh Attached

After not airing the 2021 Oscar ceremony, China is believed to be sitting out this weekend’s event as well. The motivations behind last year’s move were understood to be related to specific films and filmmakers, and while China released fewer Hollywood movies than usual in 2021, the reasoning behind a decision to not to show the Oscars this year is somewhat unclear.

Lise Pedersen Organizers at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), which is going ahead in-person for the first time in three years, are taking a stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine with a dedicated program of seven specially curated films.Spirits may be high in the Danish capital at the prospect of finally having a live event after two editions that were pushed online due to the COVID-19 pandemic but, as the fest’s artistic director Niklas Engstrøm stressed, “All our thoughts go to Ukraine and the many refugees who are currently being forced to leave their homeland.”As the event’s programmer, Mads Mikkelsen, explained to Variety, organizers had already put together a selection of films from or about Ukraine when they closed the program in late January.

A plane carrying more than 100 passengers has crashed into a mountain in China, with smoke being seen terminating from the site of the incident.

Christopher Vourlias For an event that functions as the premier showcase for the Greek documentary industry, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival again offered a prime platform for local docmakers at its 24th edition, with 77 feature-length and short Greek documentaries screening across the festival’s various competition and non-competitive sections.Marco Gastine, a co-founder of the Hellas Doc Association, a trade group representing the interests of Greek documentary filmmakers, has witnessed the industry’s steady evolution since the association was founded in 2013.“There was nothing specific about documentaries [in Greece’s film policy at the time],” Gastine told Variety in Thessaloniki. “It was underrepresented in the public programs at the Greek Film Center and [public broadcaster] ERT.” The pubcaster was in fact shuttered from 2013 to 2015, as part of cost-cutting measures by an austerity-minded government, plunging the documentary industry into crisis.

Christopher Vourlias Simon Lereng Wilmont’s “A House Made of Splinters,” a tender and humane story of a children’s shelter in eastern Ukraine, earned the top prize at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, taking home the Golden Alexander Award at a ceremony on Sunday.The international competition jury praised Wilmont’s acclaimed documentary, which also won the best director prize at Sundance, as “an unforgettable film that shines a light on the burden carried by children for the horrors and mistakes perpetrated by the world of the adults who should be caring for them.”The jury also announced a Special Jury Award for “Young Plato,” by Declan McGrath and Neasa Ní Chianáin, calling it “a film that can only give us hope in future generations and their capacity to make the world a better place.” In handing out the awards, the jury described the prize-winning duo as “two profoundly moving and intricate films that, in many ways, struck us as companion pieces, and that deserve to be seen together.”In the Newcomers Competition for young and up-and-comings directors presenting their first or second features, the Golden Alexander “Dimitri Eipides” Award went to “Golden Land,” by Inka Achté, which the jury described as “a beautiful and moving family story of belonging in a way which changes the narrative of migration…[and] shows – in a non-didactic manner – a family’s struggles and dreams.” The Special Jury Prize went to “The Devil’s Drivers,” by Daniel Carsenty and Mohammed Abugeth.In the Film Forward Competition, which showcases the work of young and daring directors who challenge genre conventions, the Golden Alexander Film Forward Award went to “The Bride,” by Samira Guadagnuolo and Tiziano Doria, which the jury praised as a

Christopher Vourlias Thessaloniki Film Festival director Orestis Andreadakis was on summer vacation last August when he got a call from Stavros Benos, the head of the newly appointed National Reconstruction Committee, which was tasked with responding to a series of devastating wildfires that had recently swept across the island of Evia.Just weeks before, Greece’s second-largest island had been a densely wooded paradise famous for its production of honey and resin. But nearly a third of Evia was reduced to ash and cinders during a scorching summer that saw an estimated 300,000 acres of forest and bushland incinerated by wildfires across Greece, as soaring temperatures hit a record high of 115.3 degrees.Benos was calling the festival topper with a plea.

Christopher Vourlias Since its inaugural edition at the 60th Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2019, the Meet the Future program has offered a look ahead to the next generation of emerging film talents set to make waves in Greece, the wider Mediterranean region and beyond.After training the spotlight on up-and-coming documentary filmmakers from Serbia, who presented five projects in post-production to industry guests at last year’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, the focus shifts this year to Georgia, a country that’s seen its cinema profile rise in recent years on the strength of directors including acclaimed docmaker Salomé Jashi, whose arresting feature “Taming the Garden” (pictured) played in the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition.Yianna Sarri, the head of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival’s industry arm, Agora, considers herself “one of the biggest fans of Georgian cinema for many years now.” “They make beautiful cinema,” she said, adding that she had “this [Georgian focus] in mind for a very long time.”In collaboration with the Georgian Film Center, Thessaloniki presents five up-and-coming Georgian documentary filmmakers who will present their next projects during a special Meet the Future showcase on March 15.Here are this year’s participants:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe shares of China’s largest entertainment and tech companies plunged for a second day on Tuesday as Russia’s war in Ukraine, regulatory warnings and China’s slowing economy all combined to signal tougher times ahead.Alibaba shares crashed 11.7% to reach an all-time low of HK$71.2 in Hong Kong, where they have a secondary listing. Tencent shares plunged by 10.2% to HK$298, their lowest in several years. Both companies have in the past held the title of China’s largest enterprise and are major components of the Hang Seng Index of leading equities.The Hang Seng Index fell by more than 1,000 points and by nearly 6% on Tuesday to close at 18,415.

Christopher Vourlias For the second time in its past three editions, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival has faced a sudden disruption in the face of an unprecedented global crisis. Two years ago, the festival was among the first to be forced online as the coronavirus pandemic swept across Europe.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBrent Renaud, a U.S. filmmaker and journalist, was killed in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sunday, while reporting on the Russian invasion of the country.

Colm Bairéad’s Irish-language drama An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) was the big film winner at last night’s Irish Film and Television Academy awards with eight wins. Scroll down for the full list of winners.

Naman Ramachandran Feature debutant Colm Bairéad’s Berlin-winning “An Cailín Ciúin” (“The Quiet Girl”) was the big film winner at the 2022 Irish Film and Television Academy awards on Saturday with eight wins.“An Cailín Ciúin” won best film, director and lead actress for Catherine Clinch in addition to a raft of craft awards. Bairéad also won the rising star award.Creators Ciaran Donnelly and Peter McKenna’s “Kin” led the television awards with six wins including best drama, script for McKenna, lead actress drama for Clare Dunne, lead actor drama for Sam Keeley and supporting actress drama for Maria Doyle Kennedy.Ciaran Hinds won both the film and drama supporting actor awards on the night for “Belfast” and “Kin” respectively.

J. Kim Murphy The Kyiv-based Molodist International Film Festival has penned an open letter to the film community calling on other festivals to join in a boycott of Russian films as a response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces.The festival’s statement cites an ongoing effort by modern Russia to “separate culture from politics” and to “[use] that same culture to distract the West from Russia’s wars, human rights violations, censorship and persecution of political dissidents.”“There are Russian filmmakers and intellectuals who have been truly vocal in their dissent and criticism of Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine throughout these years, and we know some of them personally,” the statement reads.

Sacha Baron Cohen has called out social media platforms for not blocking Russia’s state TV network amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine.In a post on Twitter, the actor criticised the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube – Mark Zuckerbeg, Parag Agrawal, Sundar Pichai and Susan Wojcick respectively – and urged them to remove the network RT from their platforms.“Putin just bombed a children’s hospital, but @Facebook, @Instagram, @Twitter & @YouTube are still showing Russia’s state-run RT,” Cohen wrote.“Why are you profiting off Putin’s propaganda?! Remove Russia RT from your platforms NOW!”Hey Mark, @paraga,@sundarpichai, @SusanWojcicki Putin just bombed a children’s hospital, but @Facebook, @instagram @Twitter & @YouTube are still showing Russia's state-run RTWhy are you profiting off Putin's propaganda?!Remove Russia RT from your platforms NOW! pic.twitter.com/W0wkWKAZpX— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) March 9, 2022NME has reached out to representatives for all the respective companies.As posted on the updates blog for Meta – the rebrand of Facebook who also own Instagram – the company states they have restricted access to RT and Sputnik in Ukraine, the UK and across the EU.In an update on March 1, the blog reads: “In addition to restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU, we are now globally demoting content from Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts from Russian state-controlled media outlets and making them harder to find across our platforms. “We have also begun to demote posts that contain links to Russian state-controlled media websites on Facebook.