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Victoria Hislop Agora ambassador of the 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival

Featured Victoria Hislop Agora ambassador of the 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival

With great joy, the 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival welcomes the award-winning British writer Victoria Hislop as an ambassador of Agora, the development department of the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

As an ambassador of the Agora at the 65th edition, Victoria Hislop will promote the important processes through which the cinema of tomorrow emerges, while making sure to communicate to creators, journalists, as well as the general public, the important role of the Agora. “I'm excited to be this year's Agora ambassador, and I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to meet and encourage up-and-coming creators. Storytelling is at the heart of a good film. This may sound simple, but the process of creation can prove to be complex and daunting. I am very happy to support the Market's goal of facilitating the dreams and aspirations of future filmmakers,” notes the beloved author.

Victoria Hislop studied English Literature at the University of Oxford before working in publishing, public relations and journalism. Influenced by a visit to Spinalonga, she wrote the novel The Island (2005), which became an international bestseller selling more than six million copies worldwide, was translated into 40 languages ​​and was adapted for television, in turn setting viewing records for Greek TV data. Her third novel, The Thread (2011), will also be made into a television series, in collaboration with the production company Heretic. In it Hislop tells the turbulent history of Thessaloniki in the 20th century.

Her next book, Sunrise is set in Cyprus and was published in 2014. She then wrote The Postcard (2016), which was also adapted for television in 2021. The novel Loved Ones (2019) tells the traumatic story of the Occupation and of the Greek Civil War. In 2020, the sequel to the book The Island came with the title A Night in August, with Victoria Hislop taking on the role of executive producer in the adaptation for Greek television.

In addition to her rich writing activity, the multi-award winning Victoria Hislop has great social work to her credit. She is an ambassador for Lepra, a British charity that raises money for the treatment of leprosy sufferers around the world, while actively supporting the National Literacy Trust, which fights childhood illiteracy in the UK. Victoria Hislop is also an ambassador for the action "Knossos 2025", which aims to find funding for the upgrade of the research center of the British School of Athens in Crete, while she was recently appointed vice-president of this organization. In 2019, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Sheffield. In 2020, the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou awarded her Greek citizenship through the honorary naturalization process, for her contribution to the promotion of Greece. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom.

This year, Victoria Hislop will share her valuable experience as an ambassador of the Market and will be the link between professionals, artists and the public.

The 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival Market, which takes place from 1st to 9th November with the valuable support of the Creative Europe-MEDIA programme, offers a range of opportunities for networking and co-productions, across the spectrum of the global film industry.

The events of the Agora, which functions as an international meeting and networking point for cinema professionals, will take place again this year in a hybrid format, presenting a wide range of industry activities, which have the focus of interest on countries from the wider region of south-eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.