Curtain down on the 6th International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra & Awards

Full of smiles, humor and many surprises the curtain fell on the 6th International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra & Awards.

The overcrowded coastal square of Ierapetra was lighted up by creators, filmmakers from all over the world, protagonists and spectators, all of them composing a colorful mosaic of people who this year again did travel from all the edges of the planet to the welcoming cove of the Festival.

The Artistic Director, Eleni Vlassi, quoted characteristically in the glamorous Closing Ceremony on the evening of August 10th 2019: "Here at the gate of the Mediterranean Sea, on the crossroads of continents and civilizations, here in the South, we encountered images and sounds from all over the world."

In spite of our difficult global times, the increased participation of filmmakers, in combination with pure pluralism in the topics of their documentary-films, highlighted Ierapetra of Crete - the southernmost city of Europe, as one of the brightest cinematic centers.

For 8 days, 167 films from 42 different countries - among them 53 international co-productions, and which were selected from 1508 applications, are not just numbers. It is a guarantee for the survival of the Greek, European and global identity, through an institution that has already shown its power during the previous years. A cultural institution that was continued also this year with the precision of a Swiss clock. A universal cinematic reality, which was enriched even more by the warmth of the Greek soul and the always smiling faces of the tireless creative team of the Festival.

Τhe effort of the Festival to spread out the art of documentary, this year was supported by 3 juries composed by multi-awarded and renowned personalities of the cinematic stardom, the Jury of the Greek Competition Section, the Jury of the International Competition Section and the Special Jury for Young Filmmakers.

Greek Competition Section Jury

Giannis Soldatos - President Publisher, Author, Producer, Director, Screenwriter
Vassiliki Yakoumaki Social Anthropologist, Assistant Professor at the University of Thessaly
Menos Deliotzakis Director, Civil Engineer

International Competition Section Jury

Philippe Muyl - President Director, Writer
Nir Avieli Professor of Food Anthropology at Ben Gurion University of Israel, President of the Israeli Anthropological Society
Benoît Lelièvre Director, Art Director
Nissim Gal Professor of Art History at University of Haifa, Israel
Christoforos Charalambakis - Honorary President Professor of Linguistics at the University of Athens

Special Jury for Young Filmmakers

Huaqing Jin - President Director
Jiang Xiaoyu Director, Screenwriter, Film Critic, Music Critic, Poet, Songwriter, Talk Show Host
Enxy Wu Producer, Entrepreneur

The International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra & Awards, as an international cultural institution, does not focus only on film screenings, but covers all structural fields - always open to the public.

Parallel events, musical evenings, lectures, exhibitions, seminars, workshops, as well as entertainment. Thus, the open-air spaces of the Festival were graced by the deep knowledge of the distinguished Juries' members, who offered their academic and cinematic experience. This year, the audience, as well as the film directors themselves, had the opportunity to attend the screenings in 7 different spaces of Lasithi Prefecture of Crete, among them the main screening - a local cultural cell, the Mosque of Ierapetra with its indoor and outdoor screening space.

Subject themes open to question or debate and dominated by social reality, portraits and biographies, travelogues, memory recording and representation, arts, mythology, music, economic austerity, racism, environment and climate change, political discrimination, human rights, philosophical issues, media culture and human impact, the recent trauma of mankind - the refugees and immigration, and many more, filled the multiple screens of the Festival.

This year, for the third time in its history, the 6th International Documentary Festival Ierapetra & Awards 3 - 10 August 2019 hosted the special tribute: "Research and Innovation". The tribute was implemented under the Operational Program "Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning" and was co-funded by the European Union (European Social Fund) and National Resources. It was essentially the Operational Program of the NSRF, which deals with education and employment.

Some of the objectives of the effort concern:

Developing and exploiting the capabilities of the country's human resources
Improving the quality of education, lifelong learning, awareness raising for environmental education
Connecting education to labor market
Strengthening social cohesion and social inclusion of vulnerable social groups (EKO). The screening of the tribute films was free to the public and access to people with disabilities was guaranteed.

The cinematographic tribute "Research and Innovation" participated in the actions of the Pan-European Communication Campaign. Europe in My Region 2019 (Europe in my Region) aims to encourage citizens to see and learn more about projects co-funded by the European Union in their regions. The 6th International Documentary Festival Ierapetra & Awards, participating actively in this action, hosted artists and screened the tribute-films under the title "Research and Innovation" - most of which were world premieres.

Entrance to the screening of the "Research and Innovation" tribute was free to the public and accessible for people with disabilities.

After all, film culture is our passport to the world's memory.

"Come to the South and travel the whole world"

Awards of the 6^th International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra & Awards

International Competition Section:

1st International Feature Documentary Award
UNION IS STRENGHT, MAYBE (Italy) Fabio Leli
2nd International Feature Documentary Award
HUMANITY LAST: REFUGEES STILL HOPE (USA) Molly Calliste
3rd International Feature Documentary Award
NIGHT OF THE MASSACRE (South Africa) Chales Khuele
1st International Short Documentary Award
ARTSAKH: ON THE EDGE OF ETERNITY (Armenia) Vahe Yan
2nd International Short Documentary Award
OUD (Algeria) Mourad Haimer
3rd International Short Documentary Award
THE MILLENNIAL DISRUPTION (USA) Somi Arian