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Greek Queer Romance ‘Bearcave,’ Turkish Drama ‘The Hunchback’ Take Top Honors at Thessaloniki’s Industry Awards
Greek queer romance 'Bearcave' and Turkish drama 'The Hunchback' won the top prizes at the Thessaloniki Film Festival's industry awards.
Greek filmmaker Stergios Dinopoulos’ queer romantic adventure “Bearcave” and Turkish director Ahu Ozturk’s drama “The Hunchback” took the top prizes at the Thessaloniki Film Festival ’s industry award ceremony Wednesday night. In their acceptance speeches, Ozturk and producer Pinar Aydin cited the challenging circumstances for filmmakers in Turkey, which has grappled with both an economic tailspin and the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Lebanese filmmaker Ahmad Ghossein, who directed the Venice Critics’ Week winner “All This Victory” and won a prize for his upcoming feature “The Side Effects of Trusting Life,” gave a heartfelt plea for an end to Israel’s military campaign in his country, while Palestinian producer May Odeh — accepting a prize for “The Passport” alongside director Mayasi — implored the audience to share in her prayers “to stop this madness back home.” The loudest cheers of the night, meanwhile, went to Dinopoulos, who ended his brief acceptance speech for “Bearcave” with the words “Free Palestine!”
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