French film producer Elise Jalladeau has been appointed new director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), the Greek Ministry of Culture announced Monday, ekathimerini.com reports.
Jalladeau, 47, replaces Dimitris Eipidis who recently stepped down from the post.
Consequently, the Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival (March 11-20) will be largely remembered for three important events: the resignation of its director ahead of the festival, the refugee crisis dominating the programme and the appointment of a new general director, according to screendaily.com.
This was the last year director Dimitri Eipides was at the helm of the event he founded 18 years ago. The executive had simultaneously held the post of general and artistic director of the March documentary event and the November Thessaloniki international film festival (TIFF) now in its 57th year.
The decision of the festival board to attribute the post of general director to French producer Elise Jalladeau, pending her confirmation by the Culture Ministry, was welcome by the local cinema community.
Past experience
Previous to her nomination, Jalladeau was holding the post of the Audiovisual attache at the French embassy in Athens where she organized the Athens Francophone Film Festival. She was also a member of the board of the Greek Film Centre and she has served on the jury of TIFF where she contributed to the French presence in the festival programme.
Her past experience in France includes that of producer (Charivari Films), co-ordinator of the Produire au Sud initiative and her collaboration with Memento Films and EAVE.
Operating out of Thessaloniki, among her immediate tasks will be that of the administrative reorganisation of the festival and securing its financial future.
The new artistic director is expected to be named before the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Refugee crisis
Eipides’ timely decision to dedicate a central part of the 190 film-strong programme to the refugee crisis proved to be one of the major assets of this year’s festival.
The ‘Refugees: Escape to Fredom’ tribute was accompanied by the moving and well-attended panel discussion titled ‘Documenting, the Refugee Issue: Methods, Objectives, Challenges, Ethics’.
Both unfolded barely 24 hours after the Brussels EU summit meeting on the subject that resulted in more than 50,000 refugees trapped in Greece, 11,000 of them at the northern border post of Idomeni just an hour ride from Thessaloniki.
The 490 title-strong Doc Market, the Docs in Progress strand and the pitching section were attended by a score of international sales agents, programme commissioners and producers.
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