The success of this year’s 43rd Thessaloniki Film Festival has been demonstrated by a marked increase in attendance. Cinephiles flocked to the screenings in greater numbers than any other year. In spite of the fact that there were fewer screenings – 379 as opposed to 414 last year – a total of 73,253 film goers packed into the theaters, an increase of 4.2% per screening.
They attended tributes and parallel programmes and flocked to events both in Thessaloniki and in the five towns where peripheral festival events were held. This response of not only the public but also of film industry people both from Greece and other countries, is a direct result of the broadening of the Festival’s activities, which this year was enriched by the number of films and the range of events.
In eight cinemas (the Olympion Renault, the Plateia Alpha Odeon and the four Port Warehouse cinemas) 218 films were screened, and 1,358 accreditations were given to people coming from Greece as well as 45 other countries.
TOTAL FILMS: 218, from 40 countries
Of these: 156 Features (40 Greek and 116 foreign) 62 Shorts (16 Greek, 46 foreign)
TOTAL SCREENINGS: 326 first/repeat screenings, 53 press screenings
TOTAL OF ACCREDITATIONS: 1069 Greek and 289 from 45 foreign countries Directors: 91 (57 Greek, 34 foreign) Producers: 166 (32 Greek, 134 foreign) Distributors: 21 (17 Greek, 4 foreign) Journalists: 358 (256 Greek, 102 foreign)
TOTAL AUDIENCE ATTENDANCE: 73,253
PUBLICATIONS: The Festival presented four new publications to accompany the main retrospectives: monographs on Marco Bellochio and Pantelis Voulgaris and publications dedicated to Bela Tarr and Jaime Humberto Hermosillo. These are available for purchase at the Olympion Cinema and selected bookstores in Athens and Thessaloniki.
