Thessaloniki Film Festival: Agora Series Returns With ‘Tehran’ EP Julien Leroux As Program Consultant

Zac Ntim
·4 min read

EXCLUSIVE: The Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora Series, a hybrid film-series industry strand, returns this year for its sophomore outing with Paper Entertainment CEO and Tehran executive producer Julien Leroux serving as program consultant.

This year’s Agora series program will run for two extended days, starting November 4, with a focus on the creative process of series screenwriting. The schedule will feature a range of masterclass sessions from local and international series professionals. Canadian filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa will host a masterclass on the future of storytelling titled From Six Feet Under to the Top: The Evolution of Contemporary Television at the Pavlos Zannas Theatre on November 4. Podeswa — who was recently announced as the lead director of the Blade Runner 2099 mini-series at Amazon — will discuss the evolution of series content throughout the years and his personal journey in the business. Podeswa’s credits include Six Feet Under, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, The Pacific, True Detective, and Station Eleven. The masterclass will be moderated by Lefteris Charitos, film and series director and Chairman of the Hellenic Film Academy.

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The 2023 schedule also features panel discussions on the state of series production, with confirmed speakers including Nima Javidi, winner of this year’s Series Mania award for The Actor, Ferdinand Dohna, producer at Beta Film, program consultant Julien Leroux, Alexandra Lebret, managing director of the European Producers Club, and Peter Carlton, Producer/CEO Warp Films. Scroll down for the full panel schedule.

Alongside the main program, the 2023 schedule will feature a set of premiere screenings of Greek and international series. Shows set for the Agora screenings include the two first episodes of the Series Mania award-winning show, The Actor (HA International) by Nima Javidi, and two episodes of the I Know Your Soul (BETA FILM). The series was created by Oscar nominee Jasmila Žbanič and debuted at the Venice Film Festival. Agora will also screen the first episode of the forthcoming mini-series Erimi Hora by George Gkikapeppas and produced by ERTFLIX, three episodes of the new six-part series Seventeen Threads by Sotiris Tsafoulias, produced by COSMOTE TV, the Festival’s main sponsor, and the third episode of Vasilis Kekatos’ series Milky Way from Foss Productions.

Meet the Future — the festival’s talent incubator — also returns for its fifth edition. This year’s participants are emerging screenwriters (or writer-directors) whose films have participated in the official programs of major international festivals or have been awarded for their screenplay at the Drama International Short Film Festival and the Hellenic Film Academy who now have a series project in development. The MtF participants are Orfeas Peretzis, Asimina Proedrou, George Teltzidis, Fokion Xenos, and Neritan Zinxhiria. The five participants will participate in two tailor-made workshops, Turn Your Idea Into a Project by producer Julien Leroux and Prepare to (Re)Present Yourself by public speaker coach Bonnie Williams. The Meet the Future presentations to industry professionals will be held on November 5.

The Thessaloniki Film Festival runs Nov 2 — 12.

Panel Discussions

Saturday 4 November

Storytelling: A narrative bridge between film and series.

Participating in the panel are creators of series with a film background, including the director of the successful ANT1 series The Witch Lefteris Charitos (GR), Nima Javidi (IR), winner of this year’s Series Mania award for The Actor, Berkun Oya, creator of the successful Netflix series Ethos (TR), and Sari Turgeman (IL), founder and manager of SCRIPTlight. The panel will be moderated by series producer Müge Ozen (TR). The panel is presented under the auspices of the MIDPOINT Institute.

From script to screen: Does IP matter?

Co-curated with the European Producers Club inviting the audiovisual sector to discuss the European regulations to protect the copyright of the works. The speakers of the panel are Amanda Livanou, Producer at Neda Film and Treasurer of the Audiovisual Producers Association (GR), Alex Traila, Programme manager at the Council of Europe (FR), Elli Filippopoulou, Lawyer and IP Expert (GR), Julien Leroux, Producer and CEO of Paper Entertainment (UK) and Ferdinand Dohna, Producer Beta Film (DEU). Alexandra Lebret, Managing Director of the European Producers Club (FR), is moderating the panel.

Sunday 5 November

How the Greek audiovisual ecosystem can embrace creativity.

Greek industry experts and institution representatives are contributing to the discussion. Markos Holevas (President of the BoD of the Greek Film Center), Leonidas Christopoulos (President and CEO of EKOME), Fenia Cossovitsa (Producer and Audiovisual Producers Association Greece Vice President) and Dimitris Michalakis (CEO, COSMOTE TV) discuss the strategies to strengthen and transform the local audiovisual sector.  Eleni Chandrinou, Audiovisual sector consultant and Greek Representative in Eurimages moderates the panel discussion.

Series content: leading the way to diversity and inclusion.

The panel sessions end on Sunday afternoon with a round table in inclusion and diversity. Confirmed speakers Peter Carlton, Producer/CEO Warp Films (UK), Caroline von Kühn, Executive Director, Oxbelly (USA) and Konstantinos Sousoulas, Chief Content Officer, Mega TV (GR) are participating in a discussion encouraging diverse and inclusive practices throughout the production process. The conversation is moderated by Deadline journalist Zac Ntim (UK).

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