Jacqueline Lentzou Takes Top Thessaloniki Prize for ‘A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra’

Jacqueline Lentzou’s “A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra” claimed the festival’s highest honor on Sunday, earning the Golden Alexander for best feature film in the Arrivals international competition at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

The sophomore feature from the Greek writer-director bowed at the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, where it captured the best director award. Since then, it has screened at the New York Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, and the Busan International Film Festival.

Drawn from real events, “A Day in the Life of Jo” traces a single, ordinary day in the life of Jo, a restless and melancholic 15-year-old played by newcomer Evia Andriopoulou. As she drifts through a string of small, seemingly inconsequential moments, her routine is upended by the arrival of Phaedra (Anastasia Gouliamou), a bookish classmate whose soft rendition of an old love ballad leaves Jo in tears. In an instant, her gray and unremarkable day tilts toward both heartbreak and transformation.

The film went home with three awards in all, including a Special Mention for Andriopoulou.

The Silver Alexander for best director was awarded to the writing-directing pair Pauline Julier and Nicolas Chapoulier for “Les Indes,” which premiered in the Venice Days section. Their debut feature unfolds in 1652 and follows three men carrying a painting across a Europe torn by war and revolt.

In the Arrivals competition, the best acting honors went to Caique Copque and Italo Martins for “The Riverbank,” a queer erotic thriller from Brazilian directors Matheus Farias and Enock Carvalho that competed at Locarno. The best actress prize went to Arisa Sasaki for “Titanic Ocean,” Konstantina Kotzamani’s offbeat coming-of-age debut, set at a Japanese boarding school for aspiring mermaids and first shown in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

In the Meet the Neighbors+ section, devoted to first and second features from the 36 countries of Southeastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East, the Golden Alexander for best feature went to “Dua” by Kosovan filmmaker Blerta Basholli. Premiering in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, her second film tells of a 13-year-old girl coming of age in the shadow of the Kosovo War.

The section’s Silver Alexander for best director went to Abdallah Alkhatib for “Chronicles From the Siege,” winner of the Berlinale’s Perspectives award for debut works, which offers vignettes of Palestinian life in Gaza and in refugee camps.

Best actor honors went to Alexis Manenti and Julian Świeżewski for “Flesh and Fuel,” French director Pierre Le Gall’s account of a passionate affair between two long-haul truck drivers. Premiering in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, the film took the top prize at the Zurich Film Festival and also earned Le Gall the best screenplay award in Thessaloniki on Sunday. Maria Petrova, the young lead of Cypriot filmmaker Myrsini Aristidou’s Sundance Audience Prize winner “Hold Onto Me,” was named best actress.

In the Film Forward competition, dedicated to inventive filmmaking, the Golden Alexander went to Hoda Taheri and Boris Hadžija’s “I Plant My Hand in the Garden,” while the Silver Alexander went to Rob Rice for “Ponderosa,” whose star Alexis Blendel won the best actress prize. The award for best artistic achievement went to Argyris Germanidis’ “Particles of Dust,” and best actor honors went to Alexis Kalofolias for “Under the Judas Tree.”

Here is a full list of the winners across the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s three competition sections:

Arrivals

Golden Alexander: “A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra,” Jacqueline Lentzou

Silver Alexander: Pauline Julier and Nicolas Chapoulier, “Les Indes”

Best actor: Caique Copque and Italo Martins, “The Riverbank”

Best actress: Arisa Sasaki, “Titanic Ocean”

Special Mention: Evita Andriopoulou, “A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra”

Meet the Neighbors+

Golden Alexander: “Dua,” Blerta Basholli

Silver Alexander: Abdallah Alkhatib, “Chronicles From the Siege”

Best actor: Alexis Manenti and Julian Świeżewski, “Flesh and Fuel”

Best actress: Maria Petrova, “Hold Onto Me”

Best screenplay: “Flesh and Fuel,” Pierre Le Gall

Film Forward

Golden Alexander: “I Plant My Hand in the Garden,” Hoda Taheri and Boris Hadžija

Silver Alexander: Rob Rice, “Ponderosa”

Best artistic achievement: “Particles of Dust,” Argyris Germanidis

Best actress: Alexis Blendel, “Ponderosa”

Best actor: Alexis Kalofolias, “Under the Judas Tree”

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