07/11/2014 - The gathering’s selection of projects nearing completion were screened for a select group of film professionals attending the Agora

Local titles vied for the lion’s share of the attention garnered by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s Works in Progress screenings on Thursday. Among the ten films seeking completion funds, distribution deals, sales agents or festival participation, four were local productions and one a large-scale Franco-Greek co-production.

Producer Fenia Cossovitsa, of Blonde SA, and director Joyce Nashawati were on hand to present Heatwave [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a feature debut looking for sales agents and distributors, set in Greece in the midst of the greatest heat wave the country has ever known. The €1.2 million production, which is already in editing, follows a foreign drifter through the nightmare of retrieving his residence permit from a sadistic policeman. 

Seasoned ad director Argyris Papadimitropoulos, of local blockbuster Bank Bang and festival favourite Wasted Youth, is looking for sales and distribution partners for Suntan [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Argyris Papadimitropoulos
film profile], his third feature. The €500,000 film is a coming-of-age dramedy set on the Greek island of Antiparos, produced by the director and Phaedra Vokali for Marni Films.

Angelos Frantzis, of Rotterdam-screened In the Woods [+see also:
film review
film profile], is looking for funds and festival interest for his €184,000-budget sci-fi melodrama, Symptom. Currently in post-production, this fourth feature for Frantzis seems to see him make a tentative return to more straightforward narratives, after In the Woods’ formalistic extremism.

Prolific underground artist The Boy (aka Alexandros Voulgaris, son of veteran director Pantelis Voulgaris) is looking for festival slots, post-production services and sales agents, along with completion financing, for his €245,000 fantasy thriller Nima, in which the worlds of the future and the past collide with the present. Produced by Eleni Bertes, this will be the fourth feature for The Boy, who saw his sophomore feature, Pink, debut at Toronto.

Konstantina Voulgari, the sister of The Boy, is executive-producing Ursa Minor, a feature seeking sales and distribution deals, along with festival participation. Produced and directed by Elissavet Chronopoulou, a prolific feature editor, the film is a POV-shot drama exposing the machinations that turned a relationship sour enough to end up with a dead woman and a man being led behind bars.