INTERNATIONAL JURY PRESS CONFERENCE
The jury of the International Competition section of the 55th Thessaloniki International Film Festival held a press conference on Wednesday, 5 November 2014, at Warehouse C of the Thessaloniki port complex. TIFF director Dimitri Eipides attended the press conference.
This year’s jury president is Austrian director Gotz Spielmann, who is joined by Rasha Salti, (festival programmer), Joanna Lapinska, (artistic director at the New Horizons Film Festival in Poland), Miroljub Vuckovic (head of international relations at Serbia’s Film Center) and producer Thanassis Karathanos.
In his opening remarks, Mr Eipides said: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome our jurors. I am very happy we succeeded in forming a group of people who can work perfectly together as a team. All of them have dedicated a great part of their lives in the independent cinema scene. I believe this is the best jury we could have hoped for and I am delighted to see them perform their duties with such diligence and passion.”
Taking the floor, jury president Gotz Spielmann thanked the Festival on behalf of the jury and added: “It gives me great honour and pleasure to be here with you. All competing films are of the highest quality and come from all around the world. We did our best to work diligently and respectfully, even if it is only natural that sometimes one can make the wrong decisions. But nothing is ever lost in the universe, and I believe this also holds true about festivals.”
Addressing a question about how and by which criteria jurors make their decisions, Mr Spielmann said: “As a director, I have to be the first one to serve my fellow jurors — this has always been the case with positions of leadership. What counts is collective intelligence. A group is always more intelligent than its individual members. What is important is to discuss things and be open to the insights of other members.”
Ms Salti also emphasised the importance of a team spirit: “Since we are different personalities coming from different parts of the world, we will have no choice but leave our parochial attachments out of the equation in our judgements.”
Miroljub Vuckovic congratulated Mr Eipides on the quality of the festival’s programme and went on to add: “We are living in difficult times, but sometimes films do not reflect the circumstances. We face two different realities at festivals: we are both recipients of information and of destinies and fates. I believe it took Dimitri Eipides a lot of effort to come up with such a coherent programme. The common thread uniting all 14 films of the international competition selection is their deep-felt humanism. None of them ignores reality and they all inspire beautiful feelings in the audience.”
Both Joanna Lapinska and Thanassis Karathanos expressed their satisfaction about the team spirit in the jury. “Every day we talk about the films and we are having a very enjoyable time,” said Ms Lapinska.
Addressing a question about whether the first or second film of a director — the international competition section of TIFF consists of directorial debuts and second films — are usually different compared to a filmmaker’s later work, Miroljub Vuckovic said: “A directorial debut is usually full of energy and enthusiasm, characterised by the filmmaker’s urgent desire to say that which is impossible to say. We should handle those first films with care and sympathise even with those that may ultimately fail. Fortunately, there are no failures in this Festival.”
Commenting on the same topic, Gotz Spielmann added: “In our day and age, even the first or second film of a director is still of high quality, technically solid and characterised by the director’s grasp of the medium. So what matters more is the spirit, the energy, the filmmaker’s outlook. I don’t believe there are immense differences between a directorial debut and swan song. As a film lover myself, I revel in watching the first offerings of filmmakers”. Mr Spielmann then added: “There is no such thing as a perfect film. Even a film’s purported flaws may in fact contribute to its status as a work of art. Perfection is perhaps feasible when it comes to machine guns, but is impossible in art.”
Discussing the mission of film festivals, Joanna Lapinska said: “I believe their primary role is educational. A festival is an opportunity for people to learn about the cinema. I also believe that festivals serve as an alternative distribution platform.” Mr Vuckovic agreed, adding: “I think it is very important that festivals encourage people to see films they would have missed otherwise. In the United States, for example, today vampire films are all the rage. This is why I believe governments have a duty to support festivals financially. Even beyond their artistic value, festivals cater to the democratic demand for pluralism. This is why it is so thrilling to see films from Russia or Africa at a festival — it makes us realise how many things we have in common with our fellow human beings.”
Asked about how a filmmaker feels when switching sides and acting as a critic, Thanassis Karathanos said: “Because of my job, I don’t watch as many movies as I would like, so now as a juror I am having the time of my life. I don’t even read the reviews before I go to a festival screening. I let the films surprise me. Sometimes we talk about films as if we were children. But isn’t that exactly what makes cinema such a magical thing?”.
On the same subject, Mr Spielmann commented: “I have never felt judged and I usually do not care what other people think of my work. Nor do I feel that now I am some kind of judge or pundit. I don’t feel I have changed sides serving as the jury’s president — I am still on the same side, since I remain an artist.
