Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival Screens ‘Navalny’ In Honor Of Russia’s Fallen Pro-Democratic Reformer

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.”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Bavaria Fiction’s documentary unit, founded in March 2022, has been spun off as a separate brand called Icon Docs. The unit produces both films and series for cinema, TV and streamers.

a group of four gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow, and used incendiary devices to set the venue ablaze. The incident occurred ahead of a performance by the Russian rock band Picnic. It has become the deadliest terrorist attack in Russia since 2004, and the worst ever in the country’s capital.

Refresh for updates…At least 40 people are dead and 100 others wounded after multiple gunmen attacked a concert hall in Moscow today, Russia‘s Federal Security Service reports. The Associated Press said authorities are investigating the incident as terrorism — the country’s worst in several years.

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.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck’s documentary “Eternal You” is set to be theatrical released by Dogwoof in the U.K. and Farbfilm in Germany. The buzzed-about documentary explores ways that AI is being used by help people cope with grief, allowing them to interact with avatars of their deceased loved ones.

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.

Russian hackers reportedly jammed the signal on an RAF plane carrying Defence Secretary Grant Shapps on a visit to Poland.

EXCLUSIVE: Vladimir Putin‘s 10-year-old battle with a group of Greenpeace protestors that attracted the attention of none other than Paul McCartney is to be spotlighted in a BBC documentary series.

Leonid Volkov, the former chief of staff of late Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, was attacked on Tuesday outside his house in Vilnius, Lithuania.

ZDF Latest To ‘Race Across The World‘

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.

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF, March 28-April 8) will open with the Asian premiere of All Shall Be Well, directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Ray Yeung, which recently won the Teddy Award at Berlin film festival.

Christopher Vourlias Taking place just weeks after the historic passage of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Greece, the 26th edition of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival — which runs March 7 – 17 — pays tribute to that watershed moment in the long-running fight for equal rights for the country’s LGBTQ community, while also issuing a rallying cry for diversity, inclusion and empowerment across the globe. “Our festival aspires to map out a detailed and thorough overview of our world’s complexity, welcoming films from the four corners of the world, which outline the radical changes, the challenges and the problems of our times,” says festival general director Elise Jalladeau.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Toronto-based sales agent Syndicado Film Sales has acquired international rights to German director Caroline von der Tann’s Naples-set doc “The Gospel According to Ciretta” ahead of its world premiere at the Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Film Festival.

In parts of the Balkans, a remarkable tradition exists: women known as Burrneshas take on societal roles typically confined to men. They assume the physical appearance of men, adopt men’s names or nicknames, and operate with a freedom and power denied women in patriarchal cultures.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Netflix is getting into the business of Broadway. The streaming behemoth is producing the upcoming play “Patriots,” from “The Crown” creator Peter Morgan. The show, set in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, is about Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a billionaire who helped orchestrate the ruthless rise of Vladimir Putin.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Is this now an age of TV caution? A brace of big swings at this week’s London TV Screenings belie that trend, and few come bigger than the English-language action thriller “Paris Has Fallen,” which Studiocanal launches at this week’s London TV Screenings. Like other major LTVS plays, it takes a mainstream genre – such as, elsewhere, the historical drama (“Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light”), true crime (“A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story”) and the bio (“So Long, Marianne”) – and aims to elevate them to another level.

declared an “extremist organization” by the Russian Supreme Court.As reported by The Telegraph, security officers entered the party, held at Typography, a club in Tula, 100 miles south of Moscow. They then dragged “feminine-looking” men out into the snow before beating them, based on information from the Russian human rights organization OVD-Info.

3 min read Three weeks ahead of the 2024 Russian presidential election, a bizarre video campaign has cropped up on the internet, urging Russians to vote in order to avoid a dystopian, LGBT-dominated […]