Copyright Variety
Spanish director Fernando Souza’s dark hybrid feature “Tonight Is Forever” and Serbian filmmaker Stefan Djordjević’s docu-drama “The Leaves Hang Trembling” took home the top honors at the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry awards Wednesday night. Set in the world of Tokyo’s red-light district, Souza’s feature debut won the 119 Marvila Studios Award, the top prize in the Agora’s Works in Progress section, offering sound mixing services in post-production. The Crossroads Co-Production Forum, meanwhile, gave its top honors — the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, offering full post-production image and sound to a film that’s currently in development — to Djordjević for the follow-up to his 2025 Rotterdam-premiering debut “Wind, Talk to Me.” “Tonight Is Forever,” which follows an employee at a Japanese “host club” who must confront his inner demons when his fantasy life begins to crumble, was praised by the jury for its “subtle atmosphere” and “strong cinematic language,” with the jury noting: “We felt connected with the emotional layers of this character in his pursuit of love. We were caught by the silence echoing loneliness.” The top prize in the Crossroads Co-Production Forum went to “The Leaves Hang Trembling,” which follows a teacher who is unjustly fired before her class’s graduation day, only to have her students rally on her behalf. The jury praised the film “for its unique approach to a deeply personal story that resonates with urgent global relevance,” adding: “Courageous, fierce, yet deeply empathetic, the film is profoundly moving as it puts children and students at its heart.” The winner of the Onassis Film Award, which offers a cash prize of €10,000 ($11,500) to a Greek project participating in the Agora’s Crossroads Co-production Forum, went to the crime fantasy “The Tide Hears Them but They No Longer Have a Voice,” from director Yiannis Veslemes. Citing the winning project’s “boldness and authenticity,” the jury praised a film that “addresses one of the darkest political periods in Greece in order to speak about timeless themes and universal questions surrounding death and immortality.” Other winners included “Promised Spaces,” an experimental feature by Serbian director Ivan Marković set against Cambodia’s rapidly expanding cityscapes, which won the Authorwave Post-Production Award offering image services in post-production to a project in the Agora Works in Progress section. In the Crossroads Co-production Forum, Spanish filmmaker Víctor Diago won an €8,000 ($9,200) award for script development from France’s CNC for his elevated horror film “The Unmoving Hands.” The ArteKino International Award, with a cash prize of €6,000 ($6,900), went to Romanian filmmaker Andreea Cristina Borțun for her social dramedy “The Life and Times of Ion G.,” whose producer, Gabi Suciu, also won the EAVE Thessaloniki Award, offering a EAVE Marketing Workshop scholarship to a producer in the Agora. Thessaloniki industry head Angeliki Vergou applauded the participants in this year’s industry event, praising their “smart, courageous, political, funny, emotional” films, while festival director Orestis Andreadakis honored cinema as “an act of courage against silence,” adding: “In times when voices are censored and truths are contested, storytelling becomes a form of resistance.” Festival general director Elise Jalladeau, meanwhile, took a moment to acknowledge the perils of a world “which is at best in crisis — political, economic, environmental — and at worst engulfed in bloodbaths and massacres we call war,” noting that “culture is not spared from the crisis.” “We are witnessing reductions and severe cuts in cultural budgets all over Europe, and it is feared this trend will continue,” she said. “Fragility is one of the themes of this year’s festival, and we are more than aware of it here. But this fragility is not fate, and we believe in the power of collaborations and co-productions to invent together new ways of making cinema.” Here’s the complete list of winners of the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora awards: Agora Works in Progress Awards 119 Marvila Studios Award: “Tonight Is Forever,” Fernando Souza Authorwave Post-Production Award: “Promised Spaces,” Ivan Marković ERT Agora Works in Progress Award: “Ways to Get Rid of Some Freedom,” Chrisanthos Margonis Crossroads Co-Production Forum Awards Two Thirty-Five Award: “The Leaves Hang Trembling,” Stefan Djordjević CNC Award: “The Unmoving Hands,” Victor Diago ArteKino International Award: “The Life and Times of Ion G.,” Andreea Cristina Borțun Finos Film Award: “Pirateland,” Stavros Petropoulos Producers’ Network – Marché du Film Award: Fahriye Ismayilova, “Goodbye For Now” Midpoint Consulting Award: “The Dictator’s Dream,” Erenik Beqiri Independent Awards Onassis Film Award: “The Tide Hears Them but They No Longer Have a Voice,” Yiannis Veslemes Greener Screen Award: “A Girl Named Zeus,” Nikos Dayandas Sofia Meetings Award: “Robbing Beirut,” Katia Jarjoura Mediterranean Film Institute Award: “La Forma Animal,” Isa Luengo and Sofia Esteve Thessaloniki EAVE Marketing Workshop Scholarship: Gabi Suciu, “The Life and Times of Ion G.” Agora Series Talents Award
