Skip to main content

Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival · 2026

Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival 2026

Top Docs

Programme

11 films · 4 reviews

Jump to a film

Below The Clouds (Sotto Le Nuvole)

Review preview for Below The Clouds

Rosi expertly paints a picture of a community with all its widely varied facets.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Documenting Vesuvius, featuring traces of history, the excavation of time, the remains of everyday life.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Gianfranco Rosi; Writer: Gianfranco Rosi)

Full review

Boorman And The Devil

Review preview for Boorman And The Devil

Boorman has an extraordinary openness about him which would make him a compelling subject even if he’d never made a film in his life.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
After directing Point Blank and Deliverance, John Boorman was offered to direct The Exorcist II. The film became a massive failure, nearly ending his career. Years later, cast and filmmakers discuss its ambition and artistic value.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: David Kittredge; Writer: David Kittredge; Stars: John Boorman, Louise Fletcher, Karyn Kusama, Mike Flanagan, Joe Dante, Linda Blair, Simon Abrams)

Full review See: Interview with David Kittredge about Boorman And The Devil , Interview with David Kittredge about Boorman And The Devil

Broken English

Portrait of Marianne Faithfull.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard; Writer: Jane Pollard, Iain Forsyth, Ian Martin; Stars: Marianne Faithfull, George MacKay, Tilda Swinton)

Cuba & Alaska

Review preview for Cuba & Alaska

Troyanovsky also communicates the mental toll that comes with being away from the frontline, not just for those who have been in active service, like Alaska, but also parents and family.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Documentary following the friendship of two paramedics on the frontline in Ukraine.

(Country: Ukraine; Year: 2025; Director: Yegor Troyanovsky)

Full review See: Yegor Troyanovsky

Imago

After the director receives some land in Georgia by the Chechnyan border, he contemplates building a house but asks - 'How could I live in such a place?'

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2025; Director: Déni Oumar Pitsaev)

I Want Her Dead (Il quieto vivere)

A darkly comic and emotionally charged tale of a Southern Italian family on the verge of implosion.

(Country: Italy, Switzerland; Year: 2026; Director: Gianluca Matarrese)

Natchez

Review preview for Natchez

Cinemtographer Noah Collier deserves a lot of credit for keeping himself largely invisible so that people reveal themselves, while working with editor Pablo Proenza, Herbert smoothly brings together these facets so that a bigger picture begins to be formed.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
A consideration of the American South’s unreconciled history through a Mississippi town that mixes antebellum tourism with a community deeply divided over its past.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Suzannah Herbert; Writer: Suzannah Herbert, Pablo Proenza)

Full review See: Interview with Suzannah Herbert about Natchez

Nova '78

A journey into the heart of 1970s counter-culture, built around never-before-seen footage from the legendary Nova Convention.

(Country: Portugal, UK; Year: 2025; Director: Rodrigo Areias, Aaron Brookner; Writer: Aaron Brookner; Stars: Philip Glass, Frank Zappa, William S. Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Laurie Anderson, John Cage, Anne Waldman, James Grauerholtz, Peter Orlovsky, Merce Cunningham, Julia Heyward, Robert Anton Wilson, John Giorno)

Remake

The filmmaker revisits footage of his life as he works through the grief of losing his adult son.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Ross McElwee)

Wax & Gold

Starting from a hotel in Addis Ababa built by Emperor Haile Selassie, Ruth Beckermann reflects on Ethiopia's history and current state.

(Country: Austria, Italy; Year: 2026; Director: Ruth Beckermann)

Who Is Still Alive

Nine refugees who escaped Gaza tell their stories.

(Country: Switzerland, France, Lebanon, Palestinian Territory; Year: 2026; Director: Nicolas Wadimoff; Writer: Nicolas Wadimoff; Stars: Jawdat Khoudary, Mahmoud Jouda, Adel Altaweel, Haneen Harara, Malak Khadra, Hana Eleiwa, Feras Elshrafi, Eman Shannan, Ghada Alabadla)